January 12th COVID-19 Update

January 12, 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.

Today’s COVID numbers are back up to the general range of where they had been, as are hospitalizations.  However, the number of additional COVID deaths has soared to 54 after a couple of weeks of much lower numbers.  However, as you’ll see from the descriptions of those we’ve lost, more than half of those (31) were late reports from December or earlier.  Most of the deaths were the lagging results of the surge in cases that we experienced in Oregon before Thanksgiving.

The big news today has to do with vaccinations.  As you’ll see in the report below, our ability to vaccinate Oregonians is continuing to improve, with another 10,500 additional vaccinations reported today. 

As you may have heard, the Trump administration has just decided to distribute all the doses they have on hand, no longer holding on to second doses to guarantee that everyone who received their first dose will be able to get their second.  They’re hoping that the producers will be able to speed up their production to the point that there will be enough to get second shots into the arms of the larger population that will now be able to receive a first shot. 

It's not clear that the medical experts in the incoming Biden administration support this strategy, but by the time they come into office, those doses will be out to the states.

With the increased supply, states will be required to make first doses available to their residents 65 and older.  The allocations to the states will be determined based on the number of residents in this age range. 

You can read more about the new program in this New York Times article.

So what does this mean for Oregon?  I was part of a meeting this afternoon with the Governor’s vaccination advisor (Connie Seeley, on temporary loan from OHSU).  She had been on a couple of calls with Health and Human Services this morning, and it was clear that this new development came as a complete surprise to the states.  It has definitely upended our current strategy here in Oregon. 

She told us that she assumed that Oregon would soon be taking advantage of this new resource and its attendant requirements and would soon begin offering vaccines to those 65 and older.

By the end of the day, the decision had been made, and the Governor issued a press releasewith the news that Oregon will begin making vaccines available to everyone 65 and older, along with pre-K to 12 educational workers beginning January 23.  You can read more about it in this Oregonian article.

Obviously, the OHA and Governor’s Office has a lot of work to do in the coming days in order to create a successful program to inoculate this much larger group while still focusing on the remaining members of Group 1a.  It’s not going to be easy.  We must avoid the mess that we’re seeing in states like Florida that just opened the floodgates more or less willy-nilly.  I doubt that we’ll have clarity on implementation plans for a few days at least.  As you’ll see in the news release, the Governor is asking us to be patient.

The good news is that hundreds of thousands of Oregonians who are most at risk of severe consequences from the disease will become much safer very soon.  The bad news is that implementation will be difficult and will likely have its share of problems. Assuming that the federal government is in fact able to deliver the doses it says it will (or that it’s leaving it up to the Biden administration to do), it will take many workers, volunteers, and services such as the National Guard to make it work. 

Stay tuned for more.

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

• New COVID Cases: OHA reports 1,203 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 127,780.
• Positive Test Results: OHA reports 1,030 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 now 171,576.
• Total Tests: OHA reported an additional 16,847 tests today. Our cumulative total of reported tests is now 2,856,686.
• Positivity Rate: Today’s test positivity ratio for Oregon is 6.1%. The national ratio today is 11.4%.
• Deaths: I’m sorry to report 54 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 1,667.
• Hospitalized: OHA reports 60 new COVID hospitalizations. The total number of new hospitalizations since the beginning of the pandemic is 7,052.
• Vaccinations: As of the end of yesterday, here are the latest numbers:
  • New Immunizations Reported: 10,465
    • 5,422 administered yesterday
    • 2,163 administered previously and report received yesterday
  • Total First and Second Doses Administered So Far: 115,060
  • Total Oregonians vaccinated so far: 107,812
    • 7,029 now fully vaccinated with two doses
  • 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. Finally, here is the daily vaccination tracker from Bloomberg.
• 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): 447 (6 fewer than yesterday). Of those, 403 (6 fewer than yesterday) have already received a positive test back.
  • Available ICU Beds: 127 (48 fewer than yesterday)
  • Other Available Beds: 662 (98 fewer than yesterday).
  • ICU Patients Confirmed w COVID-19: 103 (18 more than yesterday).
  • Confirmed COVID-19 Patients Currently on Ventilators: 50 (1 more than yesterday).
  • Available Ventilators: 772 (17 more than yesterday).

• Dashboards:
  • Oregon (OHA)
  • Multnomah, Washington, Clackamas, & Yamhill Counties
  • Oregon COVID Cases by Zip Code
• Today’s National Numbers:
  • Total Tests: 271,960,830 (up 1,871,244 from yesterday).
  • Total Cases: 22,538,426 (up 213,885 from yesterday.)
  • Deaths: 371,449 (up 4,056 from yesterday).
  • These national numbers come from the COVID Tracking Project. You can visit that site here.
• Additional Brief Updates:
  • The recent increase in COVID cases has caused four counties to be put on notice that they will be moved back to the Extreme Risk Category. The Governor announced this change in a press release today. The four counties being moved are Baker, Clatsop, Coos, and Morrow.  Here is the complete list of county risk levels. The new assignments go into effect on January 15.  For more background, here’s an article in today’s Oregonian.

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 is 1,203.  Here is the breakdown of cases by county today:

Baker (8)

Benton (16)

Clackamas (98)

Clatsop (11)

Columbia (1)

Coos (9)

Crook (19)

Curry (8)

Deschutes (56)

Douglas (21)

Gilliam (1)

Harney (3)

Hood River (11)

Jackson (61)

Jefferson (19)

Josephine (39)

Klamath (46)

Lake (3)

Lane (89)

Lincoln (6)

Linn (24)

Malheur (32)

Marion (97)

Morrow (4)

Multnomah (265)

Polk (10)

Tillamook (2)

Umatilla (53)

Union (5)

Wasco (10)

Washington (155)

Yamhill (21)

And the Deaths:

Oregon’s 1,614^th COVID-19 death is a 75-year-old man in Deschutes County who tested positive on Dec. 2 and died on Dec. 28 at St. Charles Medical Center—Bend.

Oregon’s 1,615^th COVID-19 death is an 84-year-old man in Deschutes County who tested positive on Jan. 1 and died on Jan. 8 at St. Charles Medical Center—Bend. He had underlying conditions.

Oregon’s 1,616^th COVID-19 death is a 99-year-old woman in Deschutes County who tested positive on Jan. 4 and died on Jan. 9 at her residence.

Oregon’s 1,617^th COVID-19 death is an 89-year-old man in Deschutes County who tested positive on Nov. 24 and died on Dec. 30 at his residence.

Oregon’s 1,618^th COVID-19 death is a 59-year-old man in Jefferson County who tested positive on Dec. 23 and died on Dec. 18 at his residence.

Oregon’s 1,619^th COVID-19 death is an 80-year-old woman in Jefferson County who tested positive on Dec. 30 and died on Jan. 2 at St. Charles Medical Center—Bend.

Oregon’s 1,620^th COVID-19 death is an 88-year-old woman in Klamath County who tested positive on Dec. 22 and died on Jan. 4 at her residence.

Oregon’s 1,621^st COVID-19 death is a 69-year-old woman in Klamath County who tested positive on Dec. 17 and died on Dec. 26 at Sky Lakes Medical Center.

Oregon’s 1,622^nd COVID-19 death is a 79-year-old woman in Jackson County who tested positive on Dec. 18 and died on Dec. 26 at her residence.

Oregon’s 1,623^rd COVID-19 death is an 83-year-old woman in Klamath County who tested positive on Dec. 28 and died on Jan. 9 at her residence.

Oregon’s 1,624^th COVID-19 death is a 91-year-old woman in Klamath County who tested positive on Dec. 28 and died on Jan. 6 at her residence.

Oregon’s 1,625^th COVID-19 death is a 73-year-old woman in Lake County who tested positive on Nov. 16 and died on Dec. 22 at Lake District Hospital.

Oregon’s 1,626^th COVID-19 death is an 89-year-old man in Lane County who tested positive on Dec. 11 and died on Jan. 5 at his residence.

Oregon’s 1,627^th COVID-19 death is a 96-year-old man in Lane County who tested positive on Dec. 18 and died on Jan. 5 at his residence.

Oregon’s 1,628^th COVID-19 death is a 96-year-old woman in Lane County who tested positive on Dec. 26 and died on Jan. 5 at her residence.

Oregon’s 1,629^th COVID-19 death is a 94-year-old woman in Linn County who tested positive on Dec. 7 and died on Dec. 28 at her residence.

Oregon’s 1,630^th COVID-19 death is an 84-year-old man in Linn County who died on Dec. 29 at his residence.

Oregon’s 1,631^st COVID-19 death is an 86-year-old woman in Marion County who tested positive on Nov. 30 and died on Dec. 23 at her residence.

Oregon’s 1,632^nd COVID-19 death is a 94-year-old woman in Marion County who tested positive on Dec. 4 and died on Dec. 23 at her residence.

Oregon’s 1,633^rd COVID-19 death is a 79-year-old man in Marion County who tested positive on Dec. 11 and died on Dec. 24 at his residence.

Oregon’s 1,634^th COVID-19 death is an 87-year-old man in Marion County who tested positive on Nov. 30 and died on Dec. 23 at his residence.

Oregon’s 1,635^th COVID-19 death is a 101-year-old woman in Marion County who tested positive on Dec. 14 and died on Dec. 29 at her residence.

Oregon’s 1,636^th COVID-19 death is a 71-year-old man in Marion County who tested positive on Dec. 21 and died on Jan. 4 at Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center.

Oregon’s 1,637^th COVID-19 death is an 85-year-old woman in Marion County who tested positive on Dec. 22 and died on Jan. 1 at her residence.

Oregon’s 1,638^th COVID-19 death is a 94-year-old woman in Marion County who tested positive on Jan. 2 and died on Jan. 2 at her residence.

Oregon’s 1,639^th COVID-19 death is a 59-year-old man in Marion County who tested positive on Dec. 18 and died on Dec. 27 at his residence.

Oregon’s 1,640^th COVID-19 death is a 73-year-old woman in Multnomah County who tested positive on Dec. 9 and died on Jan. 1 at Adventist Hospital.

Oregon’s 1,641^st COVID-19 death is a 65-year-old man in Multnomah County who tested positive on Dec. 22 and died on Dec. 22 at Adventist Hospital.

Oregon’s 1,642^nd COVID-19 death is a 77-year-old woman in Multnomah County who tested positive on Dec. 18 and died on Jan. 2 at her residence.

Oregon’s 1,643^rd COVID-19 death is a 90-year-old man in Multnomah County who tested positive on Dec. 8 and died on Dec. 25 at his residence. He had underlying conditions.

Oregon’s 1,644^th COVID-19 death is a 95-year-old man in Multnomah County who tested positive on Dec. 22 and died on Dec. 22 at Adventist Hospital.

Oregon’s 1,645^th COVID-19 death is an 80-year-old man in Multnomah County who tested positive on Dec. 9 and died on Jan. 4 at Oregon Health Science University.

Oregon’s 1,646^th COVID-19 death is a 77-year-old woman in Multnomah County who tested positive on Dec. 6 and died on Dec. 25 at Providence Portland Medical Center.

Oregon’s 1,647^th COVID-19 death is a 33-year-old woman in Multnomah County who tested positive on Dec. 1 and died on Dec. 30 at Legacy Good Samaritan Medical Center.

Oregon’s 1,648^th COVID-19 death is a 78-year-old woman in Multnomah County who tested positive on Nov. 23 and died on Jan. 3 at her residence.

Oregon’s 1,649^th COVID-19 death is a 55-year-old woman in Multnomah County who tested positive on Nov. 13 and died on Dec. 30 at Hillsboro Medical Center.

Oregon’s 1,650^th COVID-19 death is a 95-year-old man in Polk County who tested positive on Dec. 29 and died on Jan. 5 at his residence.

Oregon’s 1,651^st COVID-19 death is a 63-year-old woman in Umatilla County who died on Dec. 27 at her residence.

Oregon’s 1,652^nd COVID-19 death is a 97-year-old woman in Wasco County who died on Dec. 30 at her residence.

Oregon’s 1,653^rd COVID-19 death is an 88-year-old woman in Washington County who tested positive on Dec. 23 and died on Jan. 5 at her residence.

Oregon’s 1,654^th COVID-19 death is a 96-year-old woman in Washington County who tested positive on Dec. 10 and died on Jan. 2 at her residence.

Oregon’s 1,655^th COVID-19 death is an 88-year-old woman in Yamhill County who tested positive on Nov. 16 and died on Dec. 29 at her residence. Presence of underlying conditions are being confirmed.

Oregon’s 1,656^th COVID-19 death is an 87-year-old man in Yamhill County who tested positive on Dec. 18 and died on Jan. 4 at Providence St. Vincent Medical Center.

Oregon’s 1,657^th COVID-19 death is a 63-year-old woman in Yamhill County who tested positive on Dec. 20 and died on Dec. 23 at Willamette Valley Medical Center.

Oregon’s 1,658^th COVID-19 death is a 30-year-old woman in Josephine County who tested positive on Nov. 17 and died on Nov. 27 at Rogue Valley Medical Center.

Oregon’s 1,659^th COVID-19 death is a 72-year-old man in Clackamas County who tested positive on Nov. 14 and died on Jan. 2 at his residence.

Oregon’s 1,660^th COVID-19 death is a 91-year-old woman in Coos County who tested positive on Jan. 4 and died on Jan. 9 at her residence.

Oregon’s 1,661^st COVID-19 death is an 85-year-old man in Columbia County who tested positive on Dec. 18 and died on Dec. 29 at Legacy Meridian Park.

Oregon’s 1,662^nd COVID-19 death is an 85-year-old man in Clatsop County who tested positive on Dec. 3 and died on Dec. 31 at Legacy Meridian Park.

Oregon’s 1,663^rd COVID-19 death is an 86-year-old man in Clackamas County who tested positive on Dec. 28 and died on Dec. 29 at Legacy Mt. Hood Medical Center.

Oregon’s 1,664^th COVID-19 death is a 49-year-old woman in Clackamas County who tested positive on Dec. 13 and died on Jan. 4 at Kaiser Sunnyside Medical Center.

Oregon’s 1,665^th COVID-19 death is a 65-year-old man in Clackamas County who tested positive on Dec. 26 and died on Dec. 30 at Kaiser Sunnyside Medical Center.

Oregon’s 1,666^th COVID-19 death is an 88-year-old man in Clackamas County who tested positive on Dec. 12 and died on Dec. 30 at Kaiser Sunnyside Medical Center.

Oregon’s 1,667^th COVID-19 death is a 100-year-old man in Clackamas County who tested positive on Dec. 9 and died on Dec. 30 at his 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:

• Multnomah County has a status report on reopening.
• You can view the reopening status of all 36 counties here.
• Here is the OHA’s coronavirus page, with links to a number of resources. 
• Oregon's Office of Emergency Management now has a website for information about COVID-19.
• You can sign up here for regular coronavirus updates from OHA.
• Multnomah County has an excellent website with lots of really important advice and guidance.
• Here’s one from the Governor’s Office.
• The Employment Department has put together a webpage with Q&A’s on a number of employment issues related to COVID-19 (e.g., eligibility for Unemployment Insurance benefits).
• The Oregon Education Department has a new site for COVID-19 updates.
• The Department of Corrections has a COVID tracking website.

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,

AND FINALLY,

Here again are some resources that you will find useful:

• Multnomah County has a status report on reopening.
• You can view the reopening status of all 36 counties here.
• Here is the OHA’s coronavirus page, with links to a number of resources. 
• Oregon's Office of Emergency Management now has a website for information about COVID-19.
• You can sign up here for regular coronavirus updates from OHA.
• Multnomah County has an excellent website with lots of really important advice and guidance.
• Here’s one from the Governor’s Office.
• The Employment Department has put together a webpage with Q&A’s on a number of employment issues related to COVID-19 (e.g., eligibility for Unemployment Insurance benefits).
• The Oregon Education Department has a new site for COVID-19 updates.
• The Department of Corrections has a COVID tracking website.

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