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November 28, 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 Saturday, 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.
In addition, the reporting right now is still complicated by Thanksgiving holiday disruptions and also by the fact that OHA is transitioning to a new methodology for reporting test results. The daily report still uses the old methodology, whereas you’ll see that my weekly county report is able to use the new one.
COVID case numbers set another record today, but this is largely a reporting anomaly: many counties (including the largest, Multnomah) didn’t report on Thursday, so their numbers weren’t included in yesterday’s report. (OHA’s daily reports include all cases reported to them by midnight the night before.) Even if you put yesterday’s and today’s numbers together and average them, though, they still remain at the high level that we’ve come to expect during the current surge.
We don’t get hospitalization numbers over the weekend, so we won’t know what the rate of increase is till Monday. But with these ongoing high case counts, it’s likely that the number of severe infections is also rising and the number of available beds reducing, as we’ve been seeing over the past weeks.
The medical experts are very nervous about all the travel and socializing that is happening during this long weekend. We won’t see the impact of these activities on our infection rate for another week or so, and then on new COVID hospitalizations a week or so after that. I know that many of you have made a real effort to break with tradition and restrict your socializing, have made real sacrifices. Obviously, not everyone is doing so, but rest assured that your efforts will make a difference and are deeply appreciated.
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 1,669 additional Oregonians have tested positive or are presumed positive (see below for definition) for COVID. OHA does not report positive test results alone 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 72,506.
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NOTE: Because of late reporting due to Thanksgiving, OHA warned us that yesterday’s case count of 826 was likely lower than it should have been and that today’s would be higher. That’s what has occurred. The average of the two days’ case counts is 1,248 per day.
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Total Tests: The number of reported tests has increased by 5,031. OHA doesn’t seem to have caught up with the technical problems reported yesterday, so this count is likely low. I’ll readjust the numbers on Monday. Provisionally, the cumulative total is 1,033,150.
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Positivity Rate: The national ratio today is 9.0%. Oregon’s number remains impossible to calculate reliably.
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Deaths: I’m sorry to have to report 11 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 896.
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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 4,343.
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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): 569 (37 more than Wednesday). Of those, 521 have already received a positive test back.
- Available ICU Beds: 170 (24 more than Wednesday).
- Other Available Beds: 708 (78 more than Wednesday).
- ICU Patients w COVID-19 Symptoms: 123 (5 more than Wednesday).
- COVID-19 Patients Currently on Ventilators: 50 (2 more than Wednesday).
- Available Ventilators: 749 (2 fewer than Wednesday).
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Dashboards:
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Today’s National Numbers:
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Additional Brief Updates:
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The Oregonian reports today that one of every 375 Oregonians over the age of 80 has died of COVID. You can find the details here.
What’s Going On In the Counties?
Each Saturday I’m tracking how individual counties are doing. The key metrics that OHA is watching are the number of cases per 100K residents and the percentage of positive test results among all tests administered. (They also are looking at hospital capacity and changes in hospitalization rates, but I don’t have that information by county.)
This week’s report is different than those I’ve been giving you in the past. Because of the different way that OHA is starting to report test results, I’ve decided to change the elements of the report, at least for this week.
The first chart gives us the number of cases per 100K residents, with the counties ranked from most to least infections. This is a useful view because it allows us to see the infection rate within each county, irrespective of their total populations. If you look at the counties at the top of the chart, you’ll see the impact that even a small outbreak can have on a county with a very small population.
In the past, this chart showed the cumulative infection rates since the beginning of the pandemic, which is less useful if you want to know what’s happening in the county right now. This chart shows the rate for the two weeks prior to November 21.
Below is a table I’ve created that shows county rankings by the most recent week’s positivity rate. It uses OHA’s new test reporting methodology (reporting the total number of tests given, not the individual test-takers). The new methodology is more in line with the norm around the country. It increases the number of total tests reported without changing the number of positives reported. As a result, the positivity rate is much lower this way for most counties. You can also see the effect of multiple testing of students in Benton and Lane Counties, home to OSU and UO respectively—they are now among the counties with the lowest positivity rates.
The charts below are based on the county-by-county charts provided by OHA in the weekly report. They show the number of positive tests, total tests, and positivity rate for each county over the last month. Below is a preview - click here to view the full chart.
And finally, here is a chart showing the number of deaths for each county, as of today. Sadly, we can see the inevitable result of the surge in cases that began a month ago.
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 reported for is 1,669. Nearly two-thirds are from the Portland Tri-County area, largely driven by the huge number of cases reported in Multnomah County (which is actually a 2-day count, as they didn’t really report yesterday). Here is the breakdown of reported cases by county for today:
Baker (6)
Benton (17)
Clackamas (164)
Clatsop (8)
Columbia (11)
Coos (3)
Crook (2)
Curry (4)
Deschutes (64)
Douglas (10)
Gilliam (1)
Grant (1)
Harney (3)
Hood River (2)
Jackson (124)
Jefferson (6)
Josephine (13)
Klamath (84)
Lake (7)
Lane (49)
Lincoln (3)
Linn (9)
Malheur (8)
Marion (70)
Morrow (3)
Multnomah (701)
Polk (45)
Tillamook (3)
Umatilla (24)
Union (8)
Wasco (5)
Washington (164)
Yamhill (48)
And the Deaths
Oregon’s 886th COVID-19 death is a 62-year-old woman in Douglas County who tested positive on Nov. 16 and died Nov. 27 at Mercy Medical Center
Oregon’s 887th COVID-19 death is a 96-year-old woman in Jackson County who tested positive on Nov. 9 and died Nov. 25 at Asante Rogue Regional Medical Center.
Oregon’s 888th COVID-19 death is a 62-year-old man in Lane County who tested positive on Oct. 31 and died Nov. 23 at PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center Riverbend.
Oregon’s 889th COVID-19 death is a 78-year-old man in Marion County who tested positive on Nov. 24 and died Nov. 25 at Salem Hospital.
Oregon’s 890th COVID-19 death is a 90-year-old woman in Marion County who tested positive on Nov. 16 and died Nov. 26 at Salem Hospital.
Oregon’s 891st COVID-19 death is an 89-year-old woman in Multnomah County who tested positive on Nov. 21 and died Nov. 27 at Legacy Emanuel Medical Center.
Oregon’s 892nd COVID-19 death is a 76-year-old man in Multnomah County who tested positive on Nov. 16 and died Nov. 24 at his residence.
Oregon’s 893rd COVID-19 death is a 102-year-old woman in Union County who tested positive on Nov. 11 and died Nov. 26 at Grande Ronde Hospital.
Oregon’s 894th COVID-19 death is a 56-year-old man in Coos County who tested positive on Oct. 26 and died Nov. 26 at Oregon Health & Science University.
Oregon’s 895th COVID-19 death is an 87-year-old man in Deschutes County who tested positive on Nov. 19 and died Nov. 24 at St. Charles Medical Center - Bend.
Oregon’s 896th COVID-19 death is a 79-year-old man in Jackson County who tested positive on Oct. 10 and died Nov. 26 at 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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