|
December 14, 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 feels like the rare day that I can report good news overall: new COVID case numbers remain stable, and COVID deaths and hospitalizations are lower. Some of this may be due to lower reporting from the weekend, but overall we do seem to be seeing our COVID numbers going down. You’ll see below a link to an article in the Statesman-Journal suggesting that this is a trend. If so, it will be good to see that the “freeze” and “risk” measures that went into effect before Thanksgiving—and which are causing hardships for many—appear to be paying off.
And of course the best news of all on the COVID front is that the first vaccines arrived in Oregon today. Although it will be a while before most Oregonians are able to be inoculated, we should start seeing the positive effects of the first wave of inoculations within the next 4-6 weeks.
In this newsletter you’ll again find the House committee schedule for this week. They’re covering a number of very timely and important issues, so I’d encourage you to check out the videos, reports, power points, and other materials on topics that interest you.
Speaking of committees, I’m hoping that by the end of the week I’ll be able to share with you the new committee assignments for the upcoming session. Oregon is a state that does most of its work via committees, and the makeup of these committees can really make a difference in the trajectory of individual bills. So stay tuned for that.
Please stay safe, and let me know if you have any questions about today’s newsletter.
TODAY’S CORONAVIRUS AND CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE UPDATE
-
New COVID Cases: OHA reports 1,180 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 95,010.
-
Positive Test Results: OHA reports 1,321 positive test results. The cumulative total of positive test results since the beginning of the pandemic is 133,562.
-
Total Tests: OHA reports an additional 17,357 test results. Our cumulative total of tests is 2,304,931.
-
Positivity Rate: The average positivity rate for Oregon today is 7.6%. The national ratio today is 9.1%.
-
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 1,161.
-
Hospitalized: OHA reports 108 new COVID hospitalizations since Friday, an average of 36 per day. The cumulative number of those who have been hospitalized with COVID is now 5,503.
-
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.
-
Other Hospital Information:
- Patients Currently with COVID-19 Symptoms (who may or may not have received a positive test result yet): 601 (20 fewer than Friday). Of those, 539 (37 fewer than Friday) have already received a positive test back.
- Available ICU Beds: 149 (18 more than Friday)
- Other Available Beds: 739 (165 more than Friday).
- ICU Patients w COVID-19 Symptoms: 134 (2 fewer than Friday).
- COVID-19 Patients Currently on Ventilators: 68 (7 more than Friday).
- Available Ventilators: 739 (23 fewer than Friday).
-
Dashboards:
-
Today’s National Numbers:
- Total Tests: 221,100,799 (up 2,159,478 from yesterday).
- Total Cases: 16,339,404 (up 196,085 from yesterday.)
- Deaths: 292,404 (up 1,387 from yesterday).
- These national numbers come from the COVID Tracking Project. You can visit that site here.
-
Additional Brief Updates:
- The Governor issued a news release today presenting several measures today to help Oregon small businesses meet their tax requirements given the COVID recession—temporarily eliminating penalties and interest payments and creating extended payment plans.
- An article in today’s Statesman-Journal from USA Today suggests that the number of new COVID cases has gone down 10% in the last week.
-
The new county data for school metrics were just released. You’ll see in it examples of the trend noted in the above bullet—we are starting to see a reduction in our positivity rate for the state as a whole and for many individual counties, including the three in the Portland Metro area.
- OSU has just announced that it has received a $2 million grant from the Packard Foundation to help other institutions adopt its successful TRACE COVID-tracking program. They will be creating a national TRACE Center that will expand the OSU’s COVID-19 public health project to other states.
House Committee Meetings This Week
Tomorrow marks the final week 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 House hearings. Unlike the Senate hearings last week, which lasted 3 hours, most of the House committees will have two meetings each, each one lasting 2 hours. In addition to the House committees, one Joint Committee and one Task Force will be meeting this week as well.
Here's the calendar for this week, with committees listed in alphabetical order (joint committee and task force at the end). The links will take you to the agenda, meeting materials, and meeting video for each hearing.
Agriculture and Land Use
Behavioral Health
Business and Labor
Economic Development
Education
Energy and Environment
Health Care
Housing
Human Services
Natural Resources
Revenue
Rules
Veterans and Emergency Preparedness
Joint Committee on the I-5 Bridge
Task Force on Access to Quality Affordable Child Childcare
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 1,180. Here is the breakdown of reported cases by county for today:
Baker (1)
Benton (11)
Clackamas (97)
Clatsop (3)
Columbia (10)
Coos (8)
Crook (4)
Curry (4)
Deschutes (5)
Douglas (5)
Gilliam (1)
Grant (1)
Hood River (11)
Jackson (40)
Jefferson (4)
Josephine (17)
Klamath (27)
Lane (72)
Lincoln (7)6
Linn (34)
Malheur (6)
Marion (190)
Morrow (1)
Multnomah (248)
Polk (26)
Sherman (1)
Tillamook (5)
Umatilla (23)
Union (4)
Wasco (4)
Washington (234)
Yamhill (38)
And the Deaths
Note from OHA: Updated information is available for Oregon’s 1,108th death. She is an 82-year-old woman from Multnomah county. She was originally reported as a Washington County resident.
Oregon’s 1,156th COVID-19 death is an 88-year-old woman in Clackamas County who tested positive on Nov. 15 and died Dec. 2 at her residence.
Oregon’s 1,157th COVID-19 death is a 97-year-old woman in Clackamas County who tested positive on Nov. 12 and died Nov. 19 at her residence.
Oregon’s 1,158th COVID-19 death is an 80-year-old man in Deschutes County who tested positive on Dec. 2 and died Dec. 13 at his residence.
Oregon’s 1,159th COVID-19 death is an 88-year-old man in Douglas County who tested positive on Nov. 30 and died Dec. 12 at Mercy Medical Center.
Oregon’s 1,160th COVID-19 death is a 77-year-old woman in Hood River County who tested positive on Dec. 3 and died Dec. 14 at her residence.
Oregon’s 1,161st COVID-19 death is a 91-year-old man in Washington County who tested positive on Dec. 8 and died Dec. 9 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
|
