December 28th COVID-19 Update

Oregon State Legislature sent this bulletin at 12/28/2020 07:04 PM PST
Michael Dembrow

December 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.

Today’s COVID case numbers are relatively low, but so is the number of tests that were reported today.  As a result, our positivity rate has risen to just under 8%. We’re continuing to see the effects of holiday disruptions in reporting.  We’re now learning about hospitalizations over the weekend, and they’re unfortunately on the increase right now.

The big news today is that the President finally signed to COVID-relief legislation last night.  That will be very important, especially for those receiving unemployment benefits, whose extended and PUA benefits expired yesterday.  Unfortunately, because of this delay, the unemployed will lose a week of benefits.  The Employment Department is waiting for clarifications from the U.S. Department of Labor on changes to programs in the new law.

I will say that one exciting element of the overall spending bill that was just signed was the long-sought restoration of federal financial aid (Pell Grants) to adults in custody. Those of us involved in the Legislature’s Workgroup on Prison Education have been hoping and planning for this possibility.  It will help enormously in helping Oregon’s colleges and universities extend education and training to incarcerated Oregonians, preparing them for successful reentry once they’re released.  I’ll let you know when we hear more about how the new program will work.

Please stay safe, and let me know if you have any questions about information in today’s newsletter.

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TODAY’S CORONAVIRUS AND CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE UPDATE

  • New COVID Cases: OHA reports 865 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 110,545.
  • Positive Test Results: OHA reports 711 positive test results today. (Individuals may have had multiple tests come back positive, and each is now counted separately.) The cumulative total of positive test results since the beginning of the pandemic is 152,511.
  • Total Tests: An additional 8,955 test results were reported today. Our cumulative total of tests is 2,598,391.
  • Positivity Rate: The test positivity rate for Oregon today is 7.9%.  The national ratio today is 10.7%.
  • Deaths: I’m sorry to report 6 additional COVID deaths today. You can read about the Oregonians that we’ve lost further down in the newsletter. The total number of COVID deaths in Oregon is now 1,433.
  • Hospitalized: OHA reports 109 new COVID hospitalizations since Thursday, an average of 27 per day. The cumulative number of reported hospitalizations since the beginning of the pandemic is 6,277.
  • Vaccinations: Similarly OHA does not provide detailed information about vaccinations on holidays and weekends. So far, a total of 20,297 Oregonians have received the COVID vaccine.  For more details, including the demographics of those receiving the vaccine, go to the OHA Vaccinations Dashboard. And here is a link to more information about the vaccine and vaccination protocols.
  • 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): 563 (33 more than Thursday). Of those, 515 (20 more than Thursday) have already received a positive test back.
    • Available ICU Beds: 148 (33 fewer than Thursday)
    • Other Available Beds: 749 (21 fewer than Thursday).
    • ICU Patients w COVID-19 Symptoms: 122 (13 than Thursday).
    • COVID-19 Patients Currently on Ventilators: 62 (3 more than Thursday).
    • Available Ventilators: 755 (20 fewer than Thursday).
  • Dashboards:
  • Today’s National Numbers:
    • Total Tests: 245,936,153 (up 1,540,320 from yesterday).
    • Total Cases: 19,072,721 (up 165,065 from yesterday.)
    • Deaths: 326,322 (up 1,526 from yesterday).
    • These national numbers come from the COVID Tracking Project. You can visit that site here.
  • Additional Brief Updates:
    • The Salem Reporter’s Rachel Alexander takes a look at the Salem-Keiser School District’s response to Governor Brown’s new order that gives local school districts more flexibility in decisions around in-person school reopening.

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 865.  More than a third of today’s reported cases are from Washington County, the reporting presumably continuing to catch up on last week’s tests (following on the 285 reported from the county yesterday).  Here is the breakdown of cases by county today:

NOTE FROM OHA: Due to a lab processing error, 20 cases were attributed to Douglas County last week. Those cases have been removed from today’s Douglas County cumulative total.

Baker (1)

Benton (7)

Clackamas (125)

Clatsop (5)

Columbia (5)

Coos (1)

Curry (1)

Deschutes (11)

Grant (1)

Harney (1)

Hood River (8)

Jackson (69)

Jefferson (1)

Josephine (7)

Lake (1)

Lane (35)

Lincoln (2)

Linn (12)

Malheur (5)

Marion (80)

Multnomah (121)

Polk (32)

Umatilla (11)

Union (1)

Wasco (3)

Washington (305)

Yamhill (14)

And the Deaths:

Oregon’s 1,428th COVID-19 death is a 79-year-old man in Jackson County who tested positive on Nov. 22 and died on Dec. 27 at Providence Medford Medical Center.

Oregon’s 1,429th COVID-19 death is a 79-year-old man in Jackson County who tested positive on Dec.18 and died on Dec. 26 at Asante Three Rivers Medical Center in Medford.

Oregon’s 1,430th COVID-19 death is a 67-year-old woman in Lane County who tested positive on Dec. 12 and died on Dec. 17 at PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center at Riverbend.

Oregon’s 1,431st COVID-19 death is an 85-year-old man in Lane County who tested positive on Nov. 25 and died on Dec. 15 at PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center at Riverbend.

Oregon’s 1432nd COVID-19 death is an 87-year-old woman in Lane County who tested positive on Dec. 15 and died on Dec. 26 at PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center at Riverbend.

Oregon’s 1,433rd COVID-19 death is a 77-year-old woman in Lane County who tested positive on Dec. 27 and died on Dec. 27 at PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center at Riverbend.

Additional Graphs:

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**You can find a breakdown of regional availability here.

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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.

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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,

dembrow signature

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