December 29th COVID-19 Update

Oregon State Legislature sent this bulletin at 12/29/2020 10:52 PM PST
Michael Dembrow

December 29, 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.

COVID cases are again lower today, despite an increase in reported tests.  So it appears that our current lower plateau is not simply due to holiday anomalies, but are an indication of progress.  The same unfortunately can’t be said for the nation as a whole, where high case counts and death rates have returned.

As you’ll read down in the newsletter, the improving picture in some Oregon counties is allowing them to move to more relaxed COVID protocols.

I know that many of you have been wondering how COVID and the need to keep members, staff, and the public safe will affect the scheduling of the upcoming 2021 legislative session.  Legislative staff, members, and health professionals have been working on answers to that question via a process underway for months.  This morning legislators received the resulting schedule for the upcoming 2021 legislative session. The first few months will look very different from past regular sessions.

All our committee work will be done remotely, at least initially.  We’ll be holding public hearings online, with advocates and members of the public able to testify via phone or video without having to come to Salem. We can also hold committee work sessions (i.e., debate and vote on bills) remotely. 

However, legislators will need to be at the Capitol for bills to have their subsequent final votes on the Senate or House floors: the Oregon Constitution still requires us to hold floor sessions in-person. Floor sessions are also required in order for new bills to be introduced and made public (“first read”).

With COVID still at high levels, especially in the Salem area, in-person floor sessions will be phased in slowly and gradually.  During the month of January, we’ll likely only have two floor sessions: on January 11, when newly-elected or reelected members will be sworn in and officially take office.  And on January 19, when the first round of bills will be first-read, become publicly available, and assigned to committees.  Starting in February, we’ll likely have floor session once a week, then in March move to twice a week. The current plan is to begin having daily floor sessions on April 5th.

I believe that this is a reasonable approach to balancing safety and efficacy.  Regarding floor sessions, this phase-in approach isn’t all that unusual.  Even under “normal” circumstances our floor sessions are briefer and less frequent in the earlier days of the session than they become later on.  Most bills are usually not ready to come out of committee and onto the floor until April anyway, so if all goes well, we should be able to move things along more or less as usual and complete our work on time.

The timetable will be monitored and potentially adjusted on an ongoing basis, based on what is happening with the pandemic.  The plan does anticipate that the COVID vaccine will become more widely available, case numbers will continue to decline, and general restrictions will be able to be relaxed.  If all goes well and conditions improve, the timetable can be accelerated and floor sessions can occur more frequently.  We hope that the same will eventually be true of in-person committee work, and also that the Capitol can be opened to the public as soon as is safely possible. 

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 713 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 111,227.
  • Positive Test Results: OHA reports 816 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 153,327.
  • Total Tests: An additional 15,167 test results were reported today. Our cumulative total of tests is 2,613,558.
  • Positivity Rate: The test positivity rate for Oregon today is 5.4%.  The national ratio today is 15.7%.
  • Deaths: I’m sorry to report 16 additional COVID deaths todayYou can read about the Oregonians that we’ve lost further down in the newsletter. The total number of COVID deaths in Oregon is now 1,449.
  • Hospitalized: OHA reports 77 new COVID hospitalizations today. The cumulative number of reported hospitalizations since the beginning of the pandemic is 6,354.
  • Vaccinations: So far, a total of 25,972 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): 570 (7 more than yesterday). Of those, 527 (12 more than yesterday) have already received a positive test back.
    • Available ICU Beds: 141 (7 fewer than yesterday)
    • Other Available Beds: 609 (140 fewer than yesterday).
    • ICU Patients w COVID-19 Symptoms: 127 (5 more than yesterday).
    • COVID-19 Patients Currently on Ventilators: 60 (2 fewer than yesterday).
    • Available Ventilators: 734 (21 fewer than yesterday).
  • Dashboards:
  • Today’s National Numbers:
    • Total Tests: 247,172,624 (up 1,236,471 from yesterday).
    • Total Cases: 19,267,233 (up 194,512 from yesterday.)
    • Deaths: 329,605 (up 3,283 from yesterday).
    • These national numbers come from the COVID Tracking Project. You can visit that site here.
  • Additional Brief Updates:
    • In further recognition that the recent COVID restrictions appear to be working, the Governor announced today that five counties will be able to move from “Extreme Risk” to the less restrictive “High Risk” category on January 1. These counties include Clatsop, Coos, Douglas, Lincoln, and Morrow.  In addition, Lake County will move from the “Moderate” category to the “Lower Risk” category (the least restrictive).  You can see where all the counties are here. For now, 24 counties remain in the Extreme Risk category.  The next reevaluation of risk levels will occur in two weeks.
    • For now at least, the stimulus payments that were part of the recently-signed Congressional relief package remain at $600 per person. Those who received their first stimulus payments via direct deposit may be receiving their payments as quickly as tonight.  The first paper checks should be going out tomorrow. Americans earning up to $75,000 will qualify for the direct $600 payments, which are phased out at higher income levels, and there’s an additional $600 payment per dependent child.
    • It now appears that those receiving unemployment benefits won’t lose a week’s benefits after all as a result of the delay in signing the bill. The U.S. Department of Labor announced today that the extension can be implemented quickly enough to avoid a break in payments.

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 713.  Here is the breakdown of cases by county today:

Baker (25)

Benton (7)

Clackamas (90)

Clatsop (9)

Columbia (6)

Coos (26)

Crook (1)

Deschutes (39)

Douglas (6)

Gilliam (1)

Grant (1)

Hood River (5)

Jackson (36)

Jefferson (4)

Josephine (15)

Klamath (12)

Lake (4)

Lane (60)

Lincoln (12)

Linn (22)

Malheur (12)

Marion (88)

Morrow (2)

Multnomah (105)

Polk (11)

Tillamook (1)

Umatilla (26)

Union (6)

Wasco (6)

Washington (60)

Wheeler (1)

Yamhill (14)

And the Deaths:

Oregon’s 1,434th COVID-19 death is a 74-year-old man in Columbia County who tested positive on Nov. 28 and died on Dec. 27 at Portland VA Medical Center.

Oregon’s 1,435th COVID-19 death is a 61-year-old man in Douglas County who tested positive on Nov. 30 and died on Dec. 12 at his residence.

Oregon’s 1,436th COVID-19 death is a 63-year-old woman in Harney County who tested positive on Dec. 23 and died on Dec. 27 at St. Charles Medical Center — Bend.

Oregon’s 1,437th COVID-19 death is a 92-year-old man in Hood River County who tested positive on Dec. 13 and died on Dec. 23 at his residence.

Oregon’s 1,438th COVID-19 death is an 86-year-old man in Jackson County who tested positive on Dec. 24 and died on Dec. 25 at Asante Rogue Regional Medical Center.

Oregon’s 1,439th COVID-19 death is a 71-year-old man in Jefferson County who tested positive on Dec. 11 and died on Dec. 24 at St. Charles Medical Center — Bend.

Oregon’s 1,440th COVID-19 death is a 51-year-old woman in Josephine County who tested positive on Dec. 9 and died on Dec. 23 at Asante Three Rivers Medical Center.

Oregon’s 1,441st COVID-19 death is a 72-year-old man in Josephine County who tested positive on Dec. 10 and died on Dec. 23 at Asante Three Rivers Medical Center.

Oregon’s 1,442nd COVID-19 death is a 78-year-old woman in Lane County who tested positive on Dec. 16 and died on Dec. 27 at her residence.

Oregon’s 1,443rd COVID-19 death is a 76-year-old man in Lane County who tested positive on Dec. 17 and died on Dec. 28 at PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center at RiverBend.

Oregon’s 1,444th COVID-19 death is a 90-year-old woman in Multnomah County who tested positive on Dec. 17 and died on Dec. 25 at her residence.

Oregon’s 1,445th COVID-19 death is a 95-year-old woman in Multnomah County who tested positive on Dec. 17 and died on Dec. 20 at her residence.

Oregon’s 1,446th COVID-19 death is a 79-year-old woman in Polk County who tested positive on Nov. 25 and died on Dec. 11 at Salem Hospital.

Oregon’s 1,447th COVID-19 death is a 90-year-old woman in Polk County who tested positive on Nov. 27 and died on Dec. 9 at her residence.

Oregon’s 1,448th COVID-19 death is an 85-year-old woman in Polk County who tested positive on Nov. 27 and died on Dec. 20 at her residence.

Oregon’s 1,449th COVID-19 death is an 84-year-old man in Washington County who tested positive on Dec. 27 and died on Dec. 28 at Legacy Meridian Park Medical Center.

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