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December 6, 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.
Today’s reported COVID cases and reported deaths are lower than they have been. As often happens, this may be because of the weekend. We’re seeing the same thing at the national level.
As I’ve been doing on Sundays, I’m also providing updated information about how COVID is affecting people of different ages. We see the same trends as in past weeks: COVID cases are most prevalent in younger people, but they tend to be less likely to be hospitalized or die from the disease. When it’s passed on to older people, however, COVID becomes much more dangerous.
You’ll also find information about last week’s Outbreak Report and the schedule for this week’s Senate committee hearings, which begin tomorrow morning.
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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New COVID Cases: OHA reports 1,290 new COVID cases today. This count is a combination of positive test results and those who are presumed positive (see definition below). The cumulative number of cases in Oregon since the beginning of the pandemic is 84,496.
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Positive Test Results: OHA does not report on positive test results over the weekend. The cumulative total of positive test results since the beginning of the pandemic thus remains at 117,021. I’ll be able to update these numbers on Monday.
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Total Tests: For some reason, OHA is again not reporting test results today, so our cumulative total of tests remains at 2,087,054.
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Positivity Rate: Without test results again for today, I can’t calculate the positivity rate. The national ratio today is 10.8%.
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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 1,033.
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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 4,859.
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Presumptive Cases: OHA is including “presumptive COVID-19 cases” in its 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): 596 (33 fewer than yesterday). Of those, 557 (2 fewer than yesterday) have already received a positive test back.
- Available ICU Beds: 146 (13 more than yesterday)
- Other Available Beds: 661 (102 more than yesterday).
- ICU Patients w COVID-19 Symptoms: 127 (5 more than yesterday).
- COVID-19 Patients Currently on Ventilators: 59 (7 more than yesterday).
- Available Ventilators: 745 (16 more than yesterday).
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Dashboards:
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Today’s National Numbers:
- Total Tests: 204,063,869 (up 1,634,532 from yesterday).
- Total Cases: 14,534,035 (up 176,771 from yesterday.)
- Deaths: 273,374 (up 1,138 from yesterday).
- These national numbers come from the COVID Tracking Project. You can follow them here.
Senate Committee Meetings This Week
Tomorrow marks the beginning of two weeks of “Leg Days,” where legislative committees meet (remotely for now) to hear updates on issues of concern and introduce the first round of bills for the next session. This week is devoted to Senate hearings, and next week for House hearings. On Wednesday the Senate Rules Committee (of which I’m a member) will be considering Governor appointments to executive positions, boards, and commissions.
Here's the calendar for this week: The links will take you to the agenda, meeting materials, and meeting video.
Monday, December 7
Senate Education, 9 a.m.
Senate Health Care, 9 a.m.
Senate Environment and Natural Resources, 1 p.m.
Tuesday, December 8
Senate Human Services, 9 a.m.
Senate Labor and Business, 1 p.m.
Wednesday, December 9
Senate Finance and Revenue, 9 a.m.
Senate Mental Health, 9 a.m.
Senate Rules and Executive Appointments, 1 p.m.
Senate Veterans and Emergency Preparedness, 1 p.m.
Thursday, December 10
Senate Government Accountability and Information Technology, 9 a.m.
Senate Judiciary (meeting jointly with House Judiciary), 9 a.m.
Senate Housing won’t be meeting this week.
Looking at Age Metrics
Here again are this week’s statewide case, hospitalization, and death metrics by age. Here is updated information as of December 4. 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. 72% 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.
  WEEKLY OUTBREAK REPORT
OHA’s weekly COVID report no longer includes information on outbreaks. That information is now included in a separate Outbreak Report.
The Outbreak Report reports on outbreaks at long-term care facilities, workplaces, childcare centers, and schools. As you’ll see, and as we would expect, the number of new cases increased at long-term care facilities, workplaces, and child care centers. However, they rate of increase at schools seems to have leveled off for now.
Outbreaks at Long-Term Care Facilities
The report lists outbreaks at long-term care facilities with more than five residents that have three or more confirmed cases or at least one COVID death.
We are now seeing substantially increased numbers of infections in our facilities, reflecting the increases in the general population. It’s really unfortunate that we haven’t been able to keep the disease out of these facilities. Given the age of most of the residents, we must expect a consequent increase in hospitalizations and deaths from
This week’s report lists outbreaks in 161 (up from 132) long-term care facilities that are still considered active. They are responsible for 2,643 cases (up from 2,101) and 129 deaths (up from 107).
Once a facility has gone 28 days without a new case, it is moved to the “Resolved” list. If a new outbreak occurs, it is then moved back to the Active list. The 182 facilities currently on the Resolved list have been responsible for 2,789 cases (up from 2,654) and 368 deaths (down from 341).
In addition to the listed facilities, there are now 99 (up from 97) congregate settings with five or fewer beds that have also had three or more confirmed cases or one or more deaths. These are not listed by facility name in order to protect patient privacy.
OHA reports that since the beginning of the pandemic, there have been a total of 6,418 cases (up from 5,672) and 524 deaths (up from 473) associated with congregate care settings. That’s again 57% of the cumulative deaths reported as of last week.
To date, there has still been only one death of a staff member reported.
Workplace Outbreaks
Similarly, there are separate listings for workplace outbreaks that are “active” and “resolved,” but without deaths identified by workplace. Case counts include all persons linked to the outbreak, which may include household members and other close contacts. To protect privacy, OHA is only reporting workplace outbreaks with five or more cases (workers and family members) and only for workplaces with at least 30 workers. They are listed in descending order of number of cases.
You’ll find 108 workplaces ( from 89 last week) listed as “Active” this week, totaling 3,208 cases (up from 2,958).
A facility goes onto the resolved list once it has not had a new case in 28 days.
88 workplaces (up from 76 last week) are now listed as “Resolved,” totaling 1,430 cases (up from 1,073 last week).
As opposed to the way that congregate living lists are now being managed, once a workplace outbreak has been in resolved status for 56 days, it is still being dropped from the list.
As is the case with the congregate living lists, OHA is now reporting cumulative cases since the beginning of the pandemic. There have been 61 deaths (up from 53) and 11,139 cases (up from 9,973) associated with all workplace outbreaks that have been reported to date. The 1,166 new cases attributed to workplace outbreaks account for 12.8% of all new cases in Oregon.
OHA has clarified that there may be cases that are being double-counted as workplace outbreaks, i.e., if a worker or family member is associated with an outbreak at more than one facility: Cases that are associated with more than one workplace outbreak will be reported in the case count for all relevant workplace outbreaks.
Prisons make up 39.6% of all the active workplace outbreak cases (down from 42% last week). Prisons again make up the three largest workplace outbreaks in Oregon.
Childcare Outbreaks
OHA has changed the way that it reports outbreaks in childcare facilities. Previously, the Weekly Report only included names and case counts for childcare facilities that enroll 30 or more children and have five or more cases. They are now reporting all outbreaks that include two or more cases in facilities with more than 16 children.
There are now 17 (up from 10) facilities listed as active. They comprise a total of 90 cases (up from 66).
These case counts may include children, staff, and household members.
Twenty centers are now on the Resolved list (up from 15), comprising 89 (up from 68) cases.
In addition to the listed centers, there are 14 childcare facilities (down from 18) that serve 16 or fewer children that has had an outbreak of 2 or more cases. (For privacy reasons, the smaller centers are not listed by name.)
Cases in K-12 Schools
OHA is now reporting all COVID-19 cases in schools that offer in-person instruction, distinguishing between students and staff. The report lists schools with at least 30 students that have at least one reported COVID case. The new reporting protocol applies to all public and private schools and programs.
This week’s report shows a reduction in active outbreaks and children infected. However, the number of teachers and staff with active COVID continued to increase last week.
This week’s report on schools with in-person instruction shows outbreaks at 78 (down from 83) public and private schools (including elementary, middle, and high schools) around the state These outbreaks comprise 54 (down from 72 last week) cases of students and100 (up from 87 last week) cases of staff members.
Sixty-one schools have now been moved into the “Resolved” category (up from 39), meaning that it’s been more than 28 days since a new case was reported. They comprise 46 students (up from 26) and 63 staff members (up from 44).
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 1,290. I believe that Clackamas and Marion Counties are reporting record case numbers today. Here is the breakdown of reported cases by county for today:
Baker (1)
Benton (2)
Clackamas (187)
Clatsop (8)
Columbia (12)
Coos (10)
Crook (6)
Curry (4)
Deschutes (63)
Douglas (20)
Harney (1)
Hood River (17)
Jackson (99)
Jefferson (10)
Josephine (7)
Klamath (33)
Lake (1)
Lane (83)
Lincoln (6)
Linn (14)
Malheur (12)
Marion (218)
Morrow (6)
Multnomah (187)
Polk (19)
Tillamook (1)
Umatilla (38)
Union (3)
Wasco (8)
Washington (181)
Yamhill (32)
And the Deaths
Oregon’s 1028th COVID-19 death is an 81-year-old woman in Coos County who tested positive on Nov. 6 and died on Nov. 24, at Bay Area Hospital.
Oregon’s 1029th COVID-19 death is a 62-year-old woman in Douglas County who tested positive on Nov. 13 and died on Dec. 4, at Mercy Medical Center.
Oregon’s 1030th COVID-19 death is an 89-year-old man in Marion County who tested positive on Nov. 26 and died on Dec. 5, at Salem Hospital.
Oregon’s 1031st COVID-19 death is an 86-year-old woman in Marion County who tested positive on Nov. 27 and died on Dec. 2, at Salem Hospital.
Oregon’s 1032nd COVID-19 death is a 58-year-old man in Multnomah County who tested positive on Nov. 1 and died on Dec. 5, at Legacy Emanuel Medical Center.
Oregon’s 1033rd COVID-19 death is an 87-year-old woman in Polk County who tested positive on Nov. 16 and died on Dec. 2, at her 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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