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November 23, 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.
Our case numbers are down a little today, but now that we’re back to daily reporting, we can see that COVID hospitalizations are again setting new records and the risk of having an inadequate number of beds professionally staffed is looming. Along with today’s numbers, today’s newsletter includes information about that challenge that legislators heard from hospital leaders from different parts of the state.
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 today that 4,006 additional Oregonians have tested positive for COVID-19 since Friday, an average of 1,335 per day. The cumulative total for those testing positive since the beginning of the pandemic is 63,172.
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Total Tests: The number of reported COVID test results has increased by 22,377 since Friday, an average of 7,459 per day. The cumulative total of tests since the beginning of the pandemic is now 1,013,121.
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Ratio: The percentage of total tests that have been reported positive over the last three days is 17.9%. The national ratio today is 8.6%.
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Deaths: I’m sorry to have to report 6 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 826.
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Hospitalized: OHA reports a new record 150 new COVID hospitalizations since Friday, an average number of 50 per day. The cumulative number of those who have been hospitalized with COVID is now 4,120.
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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:
- Patients Currently with COVID-19 Symptoms (who may or may not have received a positive test result yet): 492 (34 more than Friday). Of those, 456 have already received a positive test back.
- Available ICU Beds: 175 (64 more than Friday)
- Other Available Beds: 739 (124 more than Friday).
- ICU Patients w COVID-19 Symptoms: 119 (20 more than Friday).
- COVID-19 Patients Currently on Ventilators: 41 (3 more than Friday).
- Available Ventilators: 729 (17 fewer than Friday).
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Dashboards:
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Today’s National Numbers:
Hospital Briefing
Legislators had a briefing today with representatives of hospitals around the state to learn more about the shortages in treatment beds as a result of the current COVID surge. Unlike the challenges hospitals faced in the spring—which mainly had to do with a shortage of equipment and PPE—the challenge now is a growing lack of available staff. Unlike in the spring, when it was possible to count on the ability of medical professionals to come in from other states where the disease had not yet hit, we are now facing the challenge of COVID hitting everywhere at once. It’s now very difficult to get nurses and doctors from other states to come here when they’re needed in states with much worse case rates.
That’s a real problem because hospitals are losing staff as a result of COVID. We heard from the Head of Nursing at OHSU that they were missing 80 nurses today as a result of COVID-related issues, either the result of positive COVID tests or the need to quarantine as a result of close contact. In addition, their overall nursing levels have been down because of a high number of nurses resigning for family reasons.
In addition, here in the Metro region, hospitals are particularly stretched because they are receiving the most serious illnesses from other parts of the state and are devoting their most technical equipment to those patients. We have an adequate number of ventilators, for example, but not enough workers who are trained to use them.
As a result of these challenges, and the record surge that we’re experiencing, we are facing what the hospital leaders referred to as a “dark winter.”
The hospital leaders expressed their appreciation for the Governor’s recent orders, which were designed to bring case numbers down and save hospitals from that feared “dark winter.”
Their repeated request—echoed by rural as well as urban hospital leaders—was that we encourage our constituents to help solve this problem by wearing face coverings and staying at home as much as possible. They believe that the actions Oregonians take over the next couple of weeks can really make a difference in preventing the worst from happening.
In the meantime, some hospitals are beginning to postpone elective procedures and do what they can to clear beds out and make them available for COVID patients.
The risk of bed shortages is increased because there are a number of patients who no longer need intense medical care but still need a level of safe care that they couldn’t receive at home. We need more skilled nursing and other forms of intermediate care, particularly in the more rural parts of the state. If these residents could be moved to a setting with a higher nurse/patient ratio, it would help deal with the staff shortages. Another obstacle is that they can’t be moved without the approval of a guardian, and many are lacking one. (This, by the way, is an issue that I’m continuing to work on.)
But they stressed at the end of the briefing that the most important thing legislators could do for now is serve as communicators and role models to help get case numbers down and prevent hospitalizations from going up over the next two months. This is especially important as we approach the holidays.
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 1,174. Half of today’s new cases are from the Portland Tri-County area. Here is the breakdown by county for today:
Baker (2)
Benton (10)
Clackamas (116)
Clatsop (2)
Columbia (18)
Coos (7)
Crook (8)
Curry (1)
Deschutes (44)
Douglas (18)
Grant (1)
Harney (1)
Hood River (6)
Jackson (80)
Jefferson (8)
Josephine (11)
Lake (3)
Lane (71)
Lincoln (3)
Linn (15)
Malheur (10)
Marion (120)
Morrow (7)
Multnomah (254)
Polk (25)
Tillamook (1)
Umatilla (56)
Union (26)
Wasco (7)
Washington (225)
Yamhill (17)
And the Deaths
Oregon’s 821st COVID-19 death is a 57-year-old man in Marion County who tested positive on Nov. 13 and died Nov. 21 at Portland VA Medical Center.
Oregon’s 822nd COVID-19 death is a 40-year-old woman in Marion County who tested positive on Oct. 11 and died Nov. 20 at Salem Hospital.
Oregon’s 823rd COVID-19 death is an 89-year-old woman in Multnomah County who tested positive on Nov. 16 and died Nov. 19 at Adventist Medical Center.
Oregon’s 824th COVID-19 death is a 92-year-old man in Multnomah County who tested positive on Nov. 17 and died Nov. 19.
Oregon’s 825th COVID-19 death is a 96-year-old woman in Marion County who tested positive on Nov. 17 and died Nov. 22 at Salem Hospital.
Oregon’s 826th COVID-19 death is a 60-year-old man in Multnomah County who tested positive on Nov. 16 and died Nov. 16 in his residence.
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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