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November 13, 2020
I hope that you and your loved ones are doing well, staying healthy, and looking out for your neighbors and friends in these difficult times.
Today we see another very high COVID case count, our second highest to date, along with a record number of COVID patients in hospitals around the state and a declining number of available hospital beds. All of this has led the Governor to take further action to curtain non-essential social gatherings, which you can read about below.
The Governor is obviously in a very difficult position here. She is trying to take strong steps to curb the spread of the virus in advance of the next set of holidays, while at the same time trying not to create the serious impacts on businesses that will lead to further unemployment. A difficult balancing act.
She is also joining our neighboring states of California and Washington in issuing travel advisories that require travelers to quarantine when they leave and enter these states, requesting that residents of these states stay local whenever possible in the coming weeks. There are no plans for criminal penalties for those who don’t follow these requests; rather, residents are being asked to step up and take these actions voluntarily. This will obviously be very difficult during the holiday season, but they are becoming increasingly necessary by the day.
Those other states are seeing similar increases in COVID cases and consequent strains on their hospitals, and the Governor expects that they will soon be joining us in further steps to curb dangerous non-essential social interactions.
Please let me know if you have any questions about today’s newsletter.
TODAY’S CORONAVIRUS AND CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE UPDATE
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Positive Cases: OHA reports today that 1,017 additional Oregonians have tested positive for COVID-19. The cumulative total for those testing positive since the beginning of the pandemic is 52,193.
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Total Tests: The number of reported COVID test results has increased by 7,229. The cumulative total of tests since the beginning of the pandemic is now 940,403.
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Ratio: The percentage of total tests that have been reported positive today is 14.0%. The national ratio today is 10.1%.
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Deaths: I’m sorry to have to report 7 additional COVID deaths today. You can read about the Oregonians we lost further down in the newsletter. The total number of COVID deaths in Oregon is now 753.
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Hospitalized: OHA reports 44 new COVID hospitalizations today. The cumulative number of those who have been hospitalized with COVID is now 3,628.
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Presumptive Cases: OHA is including “presumptive COVID-19 cases” in its daily reports, consistent with recently amended guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A presumptive case is someone who does not yet have a positive PCR test but is showing symptoms and has had close contact with a confirmed case. If they later test positive by PCR, those will be recategorized as confirmed cases. OHA reports 59 new presumed positive cases today. The total number of those counted as presumed positives is 2,744.
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Other Hospital Information:
- Patients Currently with COVID-19 Symptoms (who may or may not have received a positive test result yet): 356 (14 more than yesterday). Of those, 308 have already received a positive test back.
- Available ICU Beds: 131 (24 fewer than yesterday)
- Other Available Beds: 611 (69 fewer than yesterday).
- ICU Patients w COVID-19 Symptoms: 70 (3 more than yesterday).
- COVID-19 Patients Currently on Ventilators: 30 (3 more than yesterday).
- Available Ventilators: 740 (12 fewer than yesterday).
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Dashboard:
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Today’s National Numbers:
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Additional Brief Updates:
Governor Announces New Measures to Curb COVID
In an effort to turn back the current surge in COVID cases here in Oregon and keep hospitals from being overwhelmed by COVID patients, Governor Brown announced today a new set of state requirements. It builds off of the “two-week pause” that she announced for certain counties last week and extends statewide as a “two-week freeze.”
Dr. Dean Sidelinger, our State Epidemiologist, explained the need for this action this way: “As the state’s health officer, I’m here today to deliver a simple message: COVID-19 is raging across Oregon. The virus is spreading fast, and it threatens to overwhelm hospitals across the state with severely ill patients, if we don’t act now. The two-week freeze Governor Brown just announced will put an urgently needed brake on COVID-19’s accelerating momentum and help us bring the virus back under control. These actions can work, if we follow them.”
You can watch the live stream of the press conference here.
Here are the highlights of the new orders:
Social Gatherings
- Limited to no more than 6 people total, from no more than 2 households – indoor and outdoor
- Limited faith-based organizations to a maximum of 25 people indoors or 50 people outdoors
- No Indoor visitation in long-term care facilities
Businesses
- Work from home to the greatest extent possible and close offices to the public
- Restaurants are delivery and take-out only
- Grocery stores and pharmacies are limited to 75% capacity and should encourage curbside pick up
- Retail stores and malls (indoor and outdoor) are limited to 75% capacity and should encourage curbside pick up
Must Close
- Gyms and fitness organizations
- Indoor recreational facilities, museums, indoor entertainment activities, and indoor pools and sports courts
- Zoos, gardens, aquariums, outdoor entertainment activities, and outdoor pools
- Venues that host or facilitate indoor or outdoor events
The Two-Week Freeze does not apply to or change current health and safety protocols for the following, all of which can continue operating under previous guidance issued by the Oregon Health Authority:
- Personal services (such as barber shops, hair salons, and non-medical massage therapy)
- congregate homeless sheltering
- outdoor recreation and sports
- youth programs
- childcare
- K-12 schools
- K-12 sports currently allowed
- Higher Education
- Current Division 1 and professional athletics exemptions
Senate Democrats Elect Leaders
This is the time for the legislative caucuses to elect their new leadership teams. House Republicans elected theirs last week, House Democrats will do theirs on Monday, and today my caucus elected ours. Here is the Senate Democratic Leadership Team for 2021-22:
- President: Peter Courtney
- President Pro Tem: James Manning, Jr.
- Majority Leader: Rob Wagner
- Deputy Majority Leader: Elizabeth Steiner Hayward
- Whips: Lew Frederick and Sara Gelser
- Assistant Majority Leaders: Kate Lieber and Michael Dembrow
I’m looking forward to being part of this new leadership team.
Friday Wildfire Recovery/Response Update
With the rain falling all over Oregon now, the number of active fires is down to four, with the Lionshead and Holiday Farm Fires coming off the list. Again, you can follow the remaining firefighting effort at the State of Oregon Fires and Hotspots Dashboard.
The Office of Emergency Management is no longer giving us regular reports on wildfire recovery. However, for the very latest numbers, OEM is now maintaining a real-time Wildfire and Recovery Tracker that will give you up-to-the-moment statistics on a variety of metrics related to recovery efforts.
Where Are Today’s New Cases?
If we put together the positive test results and new “presumptive” cases reported today, the overall number of new cases for today is 1,076. More than half of the new cases are from outside the Portland Metro Area today. Here is the breakdown by county for today:
Baker (6)
Benton (18)
Clackamas (95)
Clatsop (1)
Columbia (4)
Coos (6)
Crook (3)
Curry (1)
Deschutes (28)
Douglas (26)
Gilliam (1)
Harney (6)
Hood River (2)
Jackson (91)
Jefferson (15)
Josephine (7)
Klamath (4)
Lake (4)
Lane (77)
Lincoln (2)
Linn (15)
Malheur (39)
Marion (123)
Morrow (3)
Multnomah (247)
Polk (14)
Tillamook (4)
Umatilla (40)
Union (10)
Wallowa (2)
Wasco (3)
Washington (148)
Yamhill (31)
And the Deaths
Oregon’s 747th COVID-19 death is an 82-year-old woman in Marion County who tested positive on Oct. 26 and died on Nov. 11, in her residence.
Oregon’s 748th COVID-19 death is a 77-year-old woman in Multnomah County who tested positive on Oct. 17 and died on Nov. 7, at Providence Portland Medical Center.
Oregon’s 749th COVID-19 death is a 38-year-old man in Marion County who tested positive on Oct. 30 and died on Nov. 6, in his residence.
Oregon’s 750th COVID-19 death is an 80-year-old man in Multnomah County who tested positive on Oct. 17 and died on Nov. 7, at Providence Portland Medical Center.
Oregon’s 751st COVID-19 death is an 84-year-old woman in Benton County who tested positive on Oct. 30 and died on Nov. 11, in her residence.
Oregon’s 752nd COVID-19 death is an 87-year-old man in Jackson County who tested positive on Nov. 6 and died on Nov. 10, at Asante Rogue Valley Medical Center in Medford.
Oregon’s 753rd COVID-19 death is an 80-year-old man in Jackson County who tested positive on Nov. 3 and died on Nov. 10 at, Asante Rogue Valley Medical Center in Medford.
Additional Graphs:
     Want to See Past Newsletters?
If there was COVID-related information in a past newsletter that you want to go back to, but find you’ve deleted it, you can always go to my legislative website (senatordembrow.com), click on “News and Information,” and you’ll find them all there. Also, if someone forwarded you this newsletter and you’d like to get it directly, you can sign up for it there.
AND FINALLY,
Here again are some resources that you will find useful:
If the above links are not providing you with answers to your questions or directing you to the help that you need, please consider me and my office to be a resource. We’ll do our best to assist you or steer you in the right direction.
Best,
 Senator Michael Dembrow
District 23
email: Sen.MichaelDembrow@oregonlegislature.gov
web: www.senatordembrow.com
phone: 503-986-1723
mail: 900 Court St NE, S-407, Salem, OR, 97301
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