|
December 18, 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 we learned that the Moderna COVID vaccine has been formally approved for emergency use against the coronavirus. That’s great news, and you’ll find more information in this newsletter about the vaccine rollout in Oregon.
At the same time, today our case count in Oregon crossed the 100K threshold that most of us had hoped we’d never see. It’s again a reminder that we can see that the end of this pandemic will come, but we have many challenges and much pain still before us.
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 1,390 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 100,308.
-
Positive Test Results: OHA reports 1,569 positive test results. The cumulative total of positive test results since the beginning of the pandemic is 140,155.
-
Total Tests: OHA reports an additional 22,991 test results. Our cumulative total of tests is 2,415,804
-
Positivity Rate: The average positivity rate for Oregon today is 6.8%. The national ratio today is 16.2%.
-
Deaths: I’m sorry to have to report 21 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 1,304.
-
Hospitalized: OHA reports 92 new COVID hospitalizations. The cumulative number of those who have been hospitalized with COVID is now 5,837.
-
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): 602 (15 more than yesterday). Of those, 539 (12 fewer than yesterday) have already received a positive test back.
- Available ICU Beds: 146 (4 more than yesterday)
- Other Available Beds: 596 (11 more than yesterday).
- ICU Patients w COVID-19 Symptoms: 116 (4 fewer than yesterday).
- COVID-19 Patients Currently on Ventilators: 66 (4 more than yesterday).
- Available Ventilators: 726 (3 fewer than yesterday).
-
Dashboards:
-
Today’s National Numbers:
- Total Tests: 227,866,740 (up 1,463,539 from yesterday).
- Total Cases: 17,240,643 (up 236,496 from yesterday.)
- Deaths: 305,012 (up 2,751 from yesterday).
- These national numbers come from the COVID Tracking Project. You can visit that site here.
-
Additional Brief Updates:
OHA Releases Vaccine Prioritization Plan
This morning OHA released its plans for the first phase of COVID innoculations. You can read it here. It is a detailed presentation of the principles and values underlying the rollout process. It also goes into details on just who is included in each priority category.
What it really cannot do, though, is tell us exactly WHEN each category of Oregonians will be able to have the vaccine. That will be a function of vaccine production and the logistics of vaccine deployment and distribution. The allocations are in principle equal among the states, a function of the population size of each state, but it’s not that simple in practice We’ve already learned that some of our earlier expectations may have been overly optimistic; on the other hand, each vaccine vial may contain more doses than had been thought useable. Much uncertainty remains.
Having said that, OHA did tell us today that the expected first batch of 35,100 COVID-19 doses have in fact arrived.
A total of 685 health care workers received their first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine by the end of Thursday, December 17, 2020. Of that total, 433 health care workers were vaccinated yesterday.
According to the Oregon Health Authority’s vaccine database, 16 hospitals across Oregon received a total of 19,500 vaccine doses this week. Here’s the rundown of hospitals and the number of doses they received:
 OHA reports that another 10,725 vaccine doses have been sent by the federal government to Walgreens and CVS pharmacies for vaccinations at Skilled Nursing Facilities, beginning next week. These doses are part of Oregon’s 35,100 federal allocation for this week.
More Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine deliveries are scheduled the weeks of Dec. 20 and Dec. 27, when allocations of 25,350 and 48,750, respectively, are expected to arrive in Oregon.
Now that the Moderna vaccine has won FDA authorization, our state is scheduled to receive an additional 72,100 doses next week and 31,700 the following week. These doses will also be distributed to hospitals and skilled nursing facilities.
We’re hoping that this first wave of innoculations will be completed by mid- to late-January. Providing protection for front-line hospital providers and highly-vulnerable residents of skilled nursing facilities should result in a rapid reduction in the stresses our hospitals are experiencing right now. That’s an obvious priority.
Special Session Public Hearings Saturday Morning
Legislative hearings on the bills under consideration for the Legislature’s Third Special Session will continue tomorrow morning at 10. The Joint Special Session Committee will be hearing from those who had signed up to provide input on LC10, LC 18, and LC 21, but were unable to testify, either because of technical problems or because the committee ran out of time. It will also hear testimony on LC 28, which allocates $600 million to the Emergency Board for additional needed coronavirus and wildfire response.
You can see the agenda, find written testimony and other materials and watch the hearing via this webpage.
Again, these are the legislative concepts under consideration:
-
LC 10 – Restaurant Relief Package
-
LC 18 – Eviction Moratorium Extension and Landlord Compensation Fund
-
LC 21 – School Liability Protections
-
LC 28 – Emergency Fund Allocation
In addition, another LC will be under consideration tomorrow. Legislative leadership has decided to put forward a bill dealing with liability protection for Oregon’s hospitals. At the moment it is contained in LC 29.
Since LC 29 is a new topic—and potentially controversial—the opportunity to sign up to testify in person has been reopened for just this concept. If you’d like to speak on this issue, you have until Saturday morning at 9 to sign up. You can do so, either online here OR call 833-588-4500 for assistance.
For those who still want to submit written testimony, the record will remain open until 10 a.m. on Sunday morning. If you want to submit written testimony, you can do so by email to J3SS.exhibits@oregonlegislature.gov.
The Special Session will begin on Monday morning at 8 a.m. on the Senate and House floors. I’ll share more details about session logistics in tomorrow’s and Sunday’s newsletter.
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 1,390. Here is the breakdown of reported cases by county for today:
Baker (7)
Benton (34)
Clackamas (117)
Clatsop (6)
Columbia (6)
Coos (18)
Crook (10)
Curry (10)
Deschutes (59)
Douglas (14)
Gilliam (3)
Harney (2)
Hood River (29)
Jackson (76)
Jefferson (27)
Josephine (30)
Klamath (62)
Lake (1)
Lane (93)
Lincoln (7)
Linn (43)
Malheur (17)
Marion (153)
Morrow (4)
Multnomah (200)
Polk (18)
Tillamook (15)
Umatilla (59)
Union (1)
Wasco (30)
Washington (221)
Wheeler (18)
Yamhill (27)
And the Deaths
Oregon's 1,284th COVID-19 death is a 94-year-old man in Clackamas County who tested positive on Dec. 2 and died on Dec. 15 at Legacy Mt. Hood Medical Center.
Oregon's 1,285th COVID-19 death is an 80-year-old woman in Clackamas County who tested positive on Dec. 12 and died on Dec. 16 at Providence Willamette Falls Medical Center.
Oregon's 1,286th COVID-19 death is a 62-year-old man in Deschutes County who died on Nov. 2 at his residence.
Oregon's 1,287th COVID-19 death is a 76-year-old man in Jackson County who tested positive on Nov. 19 and died on Dec. 16 at Asante Ashland Community Hospital.
Oregon's 1,288th COVID-19 death is a 90-year-old woman in Josephine County who tested positive on Dec. 3 and died on Dec. 15 at her residence.
Oregon's 1,289th COVID-19 death is a 92-year-old woman in Josephine County who tested positive on Dec. 3 and died on Dec. 16 at Asante Three Rivers Medical Center.
Oregon's 1,290th COVID-19 death is an 84-year-old man in Josephine County who tested positive on Dec. 3 and died on Dec. 16.
Oregon's 1,291st COVID-19 death is a 78-year-old man in Lake County who tested positive on Dec. 1 and died on Dec. 16 at Lake District Hospital.
Oregon's 1,292nd COVID-19 death is a 95-year-old man in Lake County who tested positive on Dec. 8 and died on Dec. 17 at his residence..
Oregon's 1,293rd COVID-19 death is a 78-year-old woman in Malheur County who tested positive on Nov. 16 and died on Dec. 16 at her residence.
Oregon's 1,294th COVID-19 death is a 58-year-old man in Marion County who tested positive on Nov. 28 and died on Dec. 16 at Legacy Meridian Park Medical Center.
Oregon's 1,295th COVID-19 death is a 90-year-old woman in Marion County who tested positive on Nov. 30 and died on Dec. 16 at Lake District Hospital.
Oregon's 1,296th COVID-19 death is a 76-year-old man in Lane County who tested positive on Nov. 30 and died on Dec. 16 at Lake District Hospital.
Oregon's 1,297th COVID-19 death is an 87-year-old man in Multnomah County who tested positive on Nov. 27 and died on Dec. 12 at his residence.
Oregon's 1,298th COVID-19 death is a 65-year-old woman in Multnomah County who tested positive on Dec. 7 and died on Dec. 16 at Oregon Health Science University.
Oregon's 1,299th COVID-19 death is an 89-year-old woman in Multnomah County who tested positive on Dec. 15 and died on Dec. 17 at Legacy Emanuel Medical Center.
Oregon's 1,300th COVID-19 death is a 91-year-old man in Umatilla County who tested positive on Dec. 13 and died on Dec. 15 at Good Shepherd Medical Center.
Oregon's 1,301st COVID-19 death is a 90-year-old woman in Wasco County who tested positive on Dec. 14 and died on Dec. 14 at her residence.
Oregon's 1,302nd COVID-19 death is an 80-year-old woman in Washington County who tested positive on Dec. 3 and died on Dec. 16 at Kaiser Permanente Westside Medical Center.
Oregon's 1,303rd COVID-19 death is a 74-year-old man in Washington County who tested positive on Nov. 12 and died on Dec. 16 at his residence.
Oregon's 1,304th COVID-19 death is a 93-year-old woman in Yamhill County who tested positive on Dec. 7 and died on Dec. 15 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
| 
