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January 4, 2021
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’m happy to report that today’s COVID metrics are down again today in Oregon, including hospitalizations from over the weekend. We’ll see if this progress holds up as we get further into the week.
Please stay safe, and let me know if you have any questions about information in today’s newsletter.
TODAY’S CORONAVIRUS AND CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE UPDATE
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New COVID Cases: OHA reports 728 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 118,453.
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Positive Test Results: OHA reports 765 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 161,817.
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Total Tests: An additional 9,520 test results were reported today. Our cumulative total of reported tests is 2,722,777.
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Positivity Rate: The test positivity rate for Oregon today is 8.0%. The national ratio today is 11.2%.
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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 1,506.
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Hospitalized: OHA reports 137 new COVID hospitalizations since Thursday, an average of 34 per day. The total number of new hospitalizations since the beginning of the pandemic is 6,635.
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Vaccinations: As of the end of yesterday, a total of 51,275 Oregonians have received the COVID vaccine. That’s an increase of 2,550 doses. (1,663 inoculations occurred yesterday, and 887 occurred earlier but hadn’t been reported.) To date, 190,500 doses have been delivered to sites across Oregon. 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.
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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): 520 (4 fewer than Thursday). Of those, 477 (11 fewer than Thursday) have already received a positive test back.
- Available ICU Beds: 155 (12 more than Thursday)
- Other Available Beds: 648 (80 more than Thursday).
- ICU Patients w COVID-19 Symptoms: 107 (12 fewer than Thursday).
- COVID-19 Patients Currently on Ventilators: 55 (5 fewer than Thursday).
- Available Ventilators: 771 (20 more than Thursday).
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Dashboards:
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Today’s National Numbers:
- Total Tests: 256,914,140 (up 1,638,082 from yesterday).
- Total Cases: 560,549 (up 183,828 from yesterday.)
- Deaths: 344,808 (up 1,631 from yesterday).
- These national numbers come from the COVID Tracking Project. You can visit that site here.
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Additional Brief Updates:
- The Governor released a statement today about the slow pace of COVID vaccinations in the state. (Actually, we’re pretty much in the middle of the pack at #29 in terms of vaccinations so far according to the daily Bloomberg tracker.) She is calling on OHA to increase the pace to 12,000 per day within the next two weeks.
- OHA released the latest County Metrics report today. You’ll see that the state’s infection rate has continued to go down, while the test positivity rate has gone up slightly. The same is true more or less of the individual counties.
- If you’d like to learn more about Oregon’s COVID-19 data, you can have your questions answered by OHA’s data experts directly. Join them at 12:30 p.m. on their Facebook page for a live Q&A on COVID-19 data. Watch in English or Spanish.
- On the good-news front: The Employment Department reports that the $300 additional payments authorized by the new COVID legislation are already starting to be paid. As opposed to the experience last spring, it’s much easier to add the extra dollars to the benefits that are already going out. Here’s more detail.
- The IRS has again created a “Get My Payment” Tracker to help people find out the status of their second stimulus payment. This one is for $600 per person. You can read more about it in this Oregonian article.
- The New York Times has an article today about the sad state of our nation’s prisons with respect to COVID. The number of cases among adults in custody and staff in correctional institutions has now passed 500,000.
Welcome Ayleen!
With the approach of the 2021 legislative session, Logan and I will be joined by several interns and one full-time legislative assistant. Today, it’s my pleasure to introduce to you Ayleen Ruvalcaba Villa, who started with us today.
Ayleen grew up in the Medford area, then attended and graduated from George Washington University in Washington, D.C., where she majored in International Affairs. She has served as an intern in Ron Wyden’s Senate office, in WOLA (Washington Office of Latin America) and for the Democratic Legislation Campaign Committee.
Most recently Ayleen has been back home in Medford, working as a Rent Relief Specialist, helping to get CARES Act funds into the hands of people most in need.
Along with being part of our overall constituent problem-solving effort, Ayleen will be focusing on justice reform, immigration, climate/environmental justice, and housing issues.
She’s going to be a great addition to our team during this unique legislative session.
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 728. Here is the breakdown of cases by county today:
Baker (10)
Clackamas (67)
Clatsop (2)
Columbia (10)
Coos (20)
Curry (2)
Deschutes (45)
Douglas (14)
Harney (2)
Jackson (40)
Jefferson (6)
Josephine (16)
Klamath (31)
Lake (1)
Lane (62)
Lincoln (4)
Linn (10)
Marion (79)
Morrow (4)
Multnomah (92)
Polk (16)
Tillamook (2)
Umatilla (24)
Union (4)
Wasco (2)
Washington (141)
Yamhill (22)
And the Deaths:
Oregon’s 1501st COVID-19 death is an 83-year-old female in Lane County who tested positive on December 23 and died on January 1 at PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center—Riverbend.
Oregon’s 1502nd COVID-19 death is a 92-year-old female in Linn County who tested positive on December 18 and died on December 18 at Salem Hospital.
Oregon’s 1503rd COVID-19 death is a 90-year-old female in Multnomah County who tested positive on December 22 and died on December 22 at Adventist Hospital.
Oregon’s 1504th COVID-19 death is a 47-year-old male in Washington County who tested positive on December 18 and died on January 3 at Legacy Emanuel Medical Center.
Oregon’s 1505th COVID-19 death is a 81-year-old female in Washington County who tested positive on December 18 and died on January 2 at Legacy Meridian Park Medical Center.
Oregon’s 1506th COVID-19 death is a 92-year-old female in Coos County who tested positive on December 24 and died on January 1 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
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