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December 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.
I learned today that my father-in-law will be receiving his COVID vaccine in a few days. (He’s 94 years old and living in a congregate facility.) What great news that is for us! I know that the workers in his residence have been working hard to keep the residents safe, but even so, it has had COVID cases, and for people of his age this disease is extremely lethal. So this comes as a real relief. I feel so grateful for all the scientists and technicians who did the basic research grunt work for years and those who did the applied science and technology more recently to make this vaccine possible for us. Their work will save lives and allow people to have our loved ones with us a little or a lot longer.
At the same time, today it’s especially painful for me to have to write about the 21 Oregonians whose deaths were reported today. If only they could have been kept safe a little longer, most of them would likely have been able to access the vaccine and been protected. My thoughts and deep sympathies go out to their loved ones.
Nothing angers me more than hearing from people who say that the victims of this disease are old and were going to die anyway. Yes, I receive emails at my legislative account saying just that. Most have been politically motivated, so I ignore them. But they hurt nonetheless. I’m sure that all, or nearly all, of those we’ve lost had loved ones who see their departure as premature and miss them deeply.
Let’s keep on doing what we can to keep our loved ones and our neighbors safe in these final, dangerous months.
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 1,000 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 105,970.
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Positive Test Results: OHA reports 1,785 positive test results. The cumulative total of positive test results since the beginning of the pandemic is 147,128.
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Total Tests: OHA reports an additional 26,459 test results. Our cumulative total of tests is 2,517,896.
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Positivity Rate: The average positivity rate for Oregon today is 6.7%. The national ratio today is 12.7%.
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Deaths: I’m sorry to have to report 21 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 1,403.
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Hospitalized: OHA reports 108 new COVID hospitalizations. The cumulative number of those who have been hospitalized with COVID is now 6,122.
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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:
- Patients Currently with COVID-19 Symptoms (who may or may not have received a positive test result yet): 560 (19 fewer than yesterday). Of those, 527 (3 more than yesterday) have already received a positive test back.
- Available ICU Beds: 170 (4 more than yesterday)
- Other Available Beds: 637 (1 fewer than yesterday).
- ICU Patients w COVID-19 Symptoms: 115 (10 fewer than yesterday).
- COVID-19 Patients Currently on Ventilators: 57 (10 fewer than yesterday).
- Available Ventilators: 772 (33 more than yesterday).
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Dashboards:
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Today’s National Numbers:
- Total Tests: 237,655,825 (up 1,749,021 from yesterday).
- Total Cases: 18,238,850 (up 222,152 from yesterday.)
- Deaths: 317,513 (up 3,414 from yesterday).
- These national numbers come from the COVID Tracking Project. You can visit that site here.
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Additional Brief Updates:
- We’re just a few weeks away from the start of the 2021 legislative session. A key step in the process of preparing for the session is the announcement of assignments to legislative committees. Today the Senate assignments were announced. Here they are. As you’ll see, I’ll continue to chair Senate Education (responsible for policy from pre-K through college, university, apprenticeship, and workforce development). I’ll remain on Judiciary and return as a member of Energy and Environment. I’ll also serve on the Education budget subcommittee, which will again be chaired by my friend and colleague Senator Lew Frederick. The House hasn’t yet announced their assignments, but once they do, I’ll let you know what they are.
- Oregon Housing and Community Services (OHCS) will be the agency deploying the $200 million in landlord/tenant relief that legislators authorized on Monday. Legislators received an email from OHCS today with information about the rollout of that program.
- The recent heavy rains have provoked flooding and soil instability around the state, especially in areas that have lost trees due to the wildfires. The most recent Oregon Emergency Management wildfire report includes information about how to get warning notice and ways in which FEMA is helping to prevent further disaster.
- The latest COVID WEEKLY REPORT has just come out. I’ll talk more about it tomorrow. It gives us a clearer understanding of the trends that we’ve been seeing in the daily reports—overall, cases and positivity rates have been declining in Oregon. However, the number of reported deaths, a lagging indicator of earlier increases, has continued to increase here (as it sadly had throughout most of the nation).
- We also just received this week’s COVID-19 Outbreak Report, which unfortunately shows 4,567 active COVID-19 outbreaks in care facilities, living communities and long-term care facilities--with 296 deaths.
- I mentioned in Monday’s newsletter that one of my Senate colleagues gave a remonstrance invoking religious reasons for refusing to wear a mask. I’ll simply say that I found those remarks reprehensible on a number of levels. I’ve received requests from constituents who wanted to know what exactly was said. For those of you would like to hear what exactly was said, today’s Oregonian includes a link.
- Just before sending off this newsletter, I see from an article in The Oregonian that the Governor has decided to leave decisions about school reopenings up to individual districts, irrespective of the COVID levels in their areas. According to the article, schools would presumably be free to reopen to in-person classes as soon as school resumes in the New Year. However, a press release from the Governor is more nuanced and points to February 15 as a target date. I’ll see what I can find out and let you know more tomorrow. I support the idea of getting schools open to in-person instruction ASAP, especially for younger children, but it needs to be done in a way that is safe and carefully planned.
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 1,000. Here is the breakdown of reported cases by county for today:
Baker (5)
Benton (16)
Clackamas (64)
Clatsop (18)
Columbia (10)
Coos (7)
Crook (3)
Deschutes (41)
Douglas (10)
Grant (1)
Hood River (5)
Jackson (48)
Jefferson (8)
Josephine (17)
Klamath (30)
Lane (73)
Lincoln (5)
Linn (48)
Malheur (20)
Marion (127)
Morrow (1)
Multnomah (209)
Polk (28)
Sherman (1)
Tillamook (4)
Umatilla (33)
Union (2)
Wasco (14)
Washington (117)
Wheeler (3)
Yamhill (32)
And the Deaths:
Oregon’s 1,383rd COVID-19 death is an 84-year-old man in Clackamas County who tested positive on Dec. 9 and died on Dec.17 at his residence.
Oregon’s 1,384th COVID-19 death is an 80-year-old woman in Clackamas County who tested positive on Dec. 4 and died on Nov. 29 at her residence.
Oregon’s 1,385th COVID-19 death is an 84-year-old man in Columbia County who tested positive on Nov. 25 and died on Dec. 19 at Oregon Health Science University.
Oregon’s 1,386th COVID-19 death is an 87-year-old man in Columbia County who tested positive on Dec. 12 and died on Dec. 22 at his residence.
Oregon’s 1,387th COVID-19 death is an 87-year-old man in Jackson County who tested positive on Nov. 13 and died on Dec. 21 at Ashland Community Hospital.
Oregon’s 1,388th COVID-19 death is a 67-year-old man in Jefferson County who tested positive on Nov.26 and died on Dec. 17 at his residence.
Oregon’s 1,389th COVID-19 death is an 82-year-old man in Jefferson County who tested positive on Dec. 8 and died on Dec. 17 at his residence.
Oregon’s 1,390th COVID-19 death is an 85-year-old man in Baker County who tested positive on Dec.19 and died on Dec. 21 at St. Alphonsus Medical Center.
Oregon’s 1,391st COVID-19 death is an 86-year-old woman in Josephine County who tested positive on Dec. 8 and died on Dec. 21 at Asante Three Rivers Medical Center.
Oregon’s 1,392nd COVID-19 death is a 77-year-old woman in Lane County who tested positive on Dec. 3 and died on Dec. 21 at PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center in Riverbend.
Oregon’s 1,393rd COVID-19 death is a 78-year-old man in Lane County who tested positive on Dec. 3 and died on Dec. 21 at his residence.
Oregon’s 1,394th COVID-19 death is a 91-year-old woman in Lane County who tested positive on Dec. 12 and died on Dec. 21 at PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center in Riverbend.
Oregon’s 1,395th COVID-19 death is a 96-year-old woman in Lincoln County who tested positive on Dec. 19 and died on Dec. 21 at Samaritan Pacific Community Hospital.
Oregon’s 1,397th COVID-19 death is an 82-year-old man in Multnomah County who tested positive on Dec. 10 and died on Dec.18 at Portland VA Medical Center.
Oregon’s 1,398th COVID-19 death is a 53-year-old woman in Multnomah County who tested positive on Dec. 12 and died on Dec. 22.
Oregon’s 1,399th COVID-19 death is a 96-year-old woman in Multnomah County who tested positive on Dec. 10 and died on Dec. 15 at Legacy Mt. Hood Medical Center.
Oregon’s 1,400th COVID-19 death is an 86-year-old man in Polk County who tested positive on Dec. 10 and died on Dec. 21 at Salem Hospital.
Oregon’s 1,401st COVID-19 death is a 75-year-old man in Umatilla County who tested positive on Dec. 1 and died on Dec. 21 at Providence St. Mary’s Medical Center.
Oregon’s 1,402nd COVID-19 death is an 84-year-old woman in Wasco County who tested positive on Dec. 5 and died on Dec. 22 at Mid-Columbia Memorial Hospital.
Oregon’s 1,403rd COVID-19 death is an 83-year-old woman in Wasco County who tested positive on Dec. 15 and died on Dec. 21 at Mid-Columbia Memorial Hospital.
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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