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November 22, 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.
Since it’s Sunday, you’ll find only partial reporting on some of the metrics tracking coronavirus in Oregon. Instead of giving us the positive test results alone, over the weekend OHA combines those numbers with the relatively small number of those who are presumed to be positive based on their symptoms and close proximity to someone who has tested positive, but whose test results have not yet come back. But it still gives us a good idea of what’s going on.
The current surge is showing no signs of abating. Today’s case count in Oregon is again the highest it’s ever been—for the third day in a row. Today’s positivity rate—18.1%--is now nearly double what was considered dangerous.
We don’t get hospitalization numbers over the weekend, so we won’t know what the rate of increase is till tomorrow. With the high case numbers we’ve been seeing for the last two weeks, we have to be prepared for an increase in reported hospitalizations tomorrow and the next day.
Deaths are reported, and there’s the sole glimmer of good news for us--the number of newly-reported deaths has declined to 1 today. As I’ve pointed out before, however, it’s not unusual to see lower deaths reported on Sunday here and elsewhere in the country. We’ve seen the same phenomenon for quite some time.
Please stay safe, and 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 that 1,517 additional Oregonians have tested positive or are presumed positive (see below for definition) for COVID. OHA does separate out positive test results over the weekend. I’ll be able to readjust the numbers on Monday to remove the presumed positives. The cumulative total for those testing positive and presumed positive since the beginning of the pandemic is 65,170. This is the third day in a row that a new record has been set.
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Total Tests: The number of reported tests has increased by 8,367. Today’s increase in total results also includes presumed positives in the total results, so may be a little high. I’ll readjust the numbers on Monday. The cumulative total is now 1,009,614
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Ratio: The percentage of total tests that have been reported positive is 18.1%. The national ratio today is 9.1%.
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Deaths: I’m sorry to have to report 1 additional COVID death today. You can read about the Oregonian we lost further down in the newsletter. The total number of COVID deaths in Oregon is now 820.
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Hospitalized: OHA does not report on hospitalizations over the weekend. The cumulative number of those who have been hospitalized with COVID thus remains at 3,970.
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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.
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Other Hospital Information: OHA DOES NOT REPORT hospitalization information over the weekend, so the numbers below are the same as Friday’s.
- Patients Currently with COVID-19 Symptoms (who may or may not have received a positive test result yet): 458 (39 fewer than yesterday). Of those, 412 have already received a positive test back.
- Available ICU Beds: 111 (7 more than yesterday)
- Other Available Beds: 615 (22 more than yesterday).
- ICU Patients w COVID-19 Symptoms: 99 (8 fewer than yesterday).
- COVID-19 Patients Currently on Ventilators: 38 (3 fewer than yesterday).
- Available Ventilators: 746 (13 more than yesterday).
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Dashboards:
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Today’s National Numbers:
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Additional Brief Updates:
- Several of my legislative colleagues who are health professionals wrote an excellent opinion piece that appeared in today’s Oregonian, urging Oregonians to trust health professionals and scientific findings as we enter what we hope will be the final stage of the pandemic.
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Today’s Oregonian editorial pushes back against those who are encouraging others not to follow the restrictions deemed necessary as part of the current freeze.
- Today’s Malheur Enterprise features an editorial by Editor Les Zaitz, making a similar argument as the Oregonian editorial: “With New Covid Mandate In Place, We Must Work Together To Address Emerging Civic Crisis.”
- The website Five Thirty-Eight posted an interesting story about the risks of COVID spread as a result of the Thanksgiving holiday, a piece entitled "Why Even a Small Thanksgiving is Dangerous.”
- NPR published a COVID FAQ piece seeking to answer a question many people are asking, “How Safe Is It to Work Out in a Gym or Play Indoor Sports?” As you’ll see, the answer is that even with careful safety protocols in place, the risks remain high. There are ways to lower the risk to some extent, but the experts they consulted recommend that indoor group exercise should be avoided.
- As I mentioned in yesterday’s newsletter, the current freeze is creating real hardship for many businesses, and we should all try to frequent and support local businesses as we can (e.g., I’m about to go get takeout from a local restaurant). Today’s Oregonian has some great advice for anyone looking for a good gift: a membership in one of the museums, gardens, zoos, etc., that are really hurting from the earlier restrictions and this one. Here are their suggestions, but I’m sure you can think of others as well.
How Does Oregon Compare to Other States?
Despite our soaring COVID numbers these days, the vast majority of other states are worse off. We remain among the lowest-ranked states (including Washington, D.C.) for COVID impacts. (In this context, the higher the number the better.) Here is our rank on a number of indicators as of Friday:
# of New COVID Cases: 43
# of Total COVID Cases: 44
# of New COVID Deaths 41
# of Total COVID Deaths 45
The fact that are positions in # of new cases and deaths are worse than our positions for total # of cases and deaths suggests that we are starting to slip somewhat relative to other states, though obviously we remain the beneficiaries of actions we’ve already taken.
Again, if you want to follow our relative rank over time, here’s a link to Dan Goodspeed’s COVID animations.
Looking at Age Metrics
Here again are this week’s statewide case, hospitalization, and death metrics by age. Here is updated information as of November 20. The percentages for each category have again not really moved much. You’ll see again that younger people have come to dominate the category of new cases: 71% of all cases so far have been in Oregonians below younger than 50.
However, effects of the disease become much more severe when it is transmitted to older people. 71% of COVID hospitalizations are among those OVER the age of 50. Deaths remain dominated by those above the age of 70 (more than three-fourths of all deaths), though we continue to see many losses among people in their 60s and younger.
Those who eventually die of the disease are increasingly to be found in the 80-and-over category. More than half of all deaths are now in this category. This may be due to improvements in COVID treatments that are making more of a difference with younger patients. However, we are continuing to see more hospitalizations among people in the oldest age category, which will likely see our death rate rise further.
  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 1,517. More than half of today’s new cases are from the Portland Tri-County area, with record numbers from Clackamas County and again from Multnomah County. Here is the breakdown by county for today:
Benton (7)
Clackamas (207)
Clatsop (7)
Columbia (8)
Coos (9)
Crook (6)
Deschutes (38)
Douglas (12)
Grant (15)
Hood River (6)
Jackson (55)
Jefferson (8)
Josephine (14)
Klamath (53)
Lake (6)
Lane (64)
Lincoln (1)
Linn (27)
Malheur (16)
Marion (183)
Morrow (7)
Multnomah (516)
Polk (26)
Umatilla (47)
Union (5)
Wasco (11)
Washington (128)
Wheeler (1)
Yamhill (35)
And the Death
Oregon’s 820th COVID-19 death is a 65-year-old man in Multnomah County who tested positive on Nov. 15 and died on Nov. 15.
Additional Graphs:
   **You can find a breakdown of regional availability here.
 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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