January 15th COVID-19 Update

Oregon State Legislature sent this bulletin at 01/15/2021 11:35 PM PST
Michael Dembrow

January 15, 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 continue to move in the right direction today in today’s report.  Case numbers, hospitalizations, deaths, and positivity rates are all lower than they’ve been. 

Today we learn of another big jump in COVID inoculations in Oregon.  In another piece of good news, vaccination rates are continuing to improve.  As of late last night, we saw another big jump, with nearly 27,000 additional vaccinations reported.  We have now been able to administer 53% of the doses that have been delivered to us doubling where we were just a little over a week ago. 

However, we received a big blow late last night to our expectation of being able to vaccinate those 65 and older starting January 23.  As you’ll see detailed further down in the newsletter, the extra doses promised by the federal government turn out not to exist. So, our seniors won’t begin to access the vaccine until February, beginning with those in the highest-risk group, 80 and above.

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 1,037 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 131,258.
  • Positive Test Results: OHA reports 978 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 175,006.
  • Total Tests: OHA reported an additional 23,892 tests today. Our cumulative total of reported tests is now 2,919,566.
  • Positivity Rate: Today’s test positivity ratio for Oregon is 6.0%. The national ratio today is 10.7%.
  • Deaths: I’m sorry to report 21 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 1,758.
  • Hospitalized: OHA reports 25 new COVID hospitalizations. The total number of new hospitalizations since the beginning of the pandemic is 7,198.
  • Vaccinations: As of the end of yesterday, here are the latest numbers:
  • 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): 418 (26 fewer than yesterday). Of those, 387 (28 fewer than yesterday) have already received a positive test back.
    • Available ICU Beds: 152 (5 more than yesterday)
    • Other Available Beds: 614 (23 fewer than yesterday).
    • ICU Patients Confirmed w COVID-19: 97 (4 fewer than yesterday).
    • Confirmed COVID-19 Patients Currently on Ventilators: 56 (1 fewer than yesterday).
    • Available Ventilators: 774 (6 fewer than yesterday).
  • Dashboards:
  • Today’s National Numbers:
    • Total Tests: 278,054,836 (up 2,279,606 from yesterday).
    • Total Cases: 23,226,923 (up 243,996 from yesterday.)
    • Deaths: 383,130 (up 3,679 from yesterday).
    • These national numbers come from the COVID Tracking Project. You can visit that site here.
  • Additional Brief Updates:
    • Multnomah County has created a website for county residents who are part of the 1a priority group and need help finding out how they can access the COVID vaccine. Here is the link.
    • I’ve been very concerned about the slow rollout of the vaccine to the vulnerable populations in skilled nursing and memory care, and concerned that the expansion of access to the entire 1a group would distract from the focus on this group. I’m pleased to report that I learned today from the Long-Term Care Ombudsman’s office that Oregon’s 130 nursing facilities are mostly done with their first round of vaccines, with the final inoculations scheduled to be completed by this coming Monday.
    • The Oregon Health Authority has scheduled another Facebook Live event next Wednesday at 11:30. It will feature OHA Public Health Division Director Rachael Banks and Chief Medical Officer Dr. Dana Hargunani to answer your questions about vaccinations. The Facebook Live is available in Spanish and English.

The Return of the Constituent Coffee

If you were able to attend the town hall that I held on Monday with Reps Barbara Smith Warner and our new colleague Khanh Pham, you got a good overview of the upcoming session and our priorities.  (It also gave us a chance to say farewell to our dear friend and colleague Alissa Keny-Guyer. It was very moving for all concerned.)

I know that we were only able to scratch the surface of the issues before us, so I promised to go back to constituent coffees, which allow for more conversation.  I wish it could be in person, and someday it will again be, but for now it will have to be by zoom.

I’ll start tomorrow (Saturday 1/16) morning with a 10am constituent coffee, and alternate with evening gatherings. I’ll be keeping the numbers relatively low, so that it can be more of a real dialogue.

Register for tomorrow's Zoom constituent coffee here.

Governor Shares Bad News About Federal Vaccine Supply

It has been a rocky 24 hours on the COVID supply front.  Or a better analogy might be that it has been a roller-coaster of a week.  As I’ve reported, the Trump administration announced a few days ago that they were releasing all the doses still being held in reserve because they were confident that the supply chain from manufacturing would be steady.  These extra doses would allow us to start vaccinating Oregonians 65 and older.

It was exciting news, especially for Oregonians in this age group (including me).  But it turned out to be misleading.

Oregon leaders learned late last night that the supposed large reserve supply was non-existent.  Those doses had already gone out to the states as part of their regular distributions. 

You can read about it in this article in the Washington Post, including mention of a letter OHA Director Pat Allen sent to Health and Human Services late last night.

In her press conference today, Governor Brown was clearly irate and frustrated with the inconsistent, ultimately deceptive information from the federal administration.  Her advisors have been meeting non-stop to plan for the orderly rollout of vaccines to educators and seniors starting on January 25.  They then had to scramble to readjust. 

Here is the plan for the state going forward—at least for now:

  • The current administration of vaccines to the remainder of those in Group 1a will continue. Forty percent of those in this group have already received their first dose at least.  If vaccinations continue at our current rate, by January 25 56% (225,000 people) of this group will be vaccinated.  By January 30, 75% (300,000) will have been vaccinated.  If you’re in this group and aren’t sure how to get your vaccine, you should go to your county health website for more information.  Here’s the access site for Multnomah County.
  • Starting on January 25, educators throughout the state can begin receiving the vaccine. (In some rural counties it may begin sooner.) This includes teachers and other front-line staff, including paraprofessionals, custodial and food service staff, and bus drivers. There are approximately 100,000 people in this group, and with the current rate of vaccine supply, they should all receive their first dose within two weeks.
  • Starting on February 8, we will see the vaccine made available to the following age groups:
    • 8: 80 and older
    • 15: 75 and older
    • 22: 70 and older
    • March 1: 65 and older

This is all of course contingent on our receiving the federal supply as we originally anticipated.  If the supply is made available more quickly, that timeline will accelerate; if supply is reduced, then it will take longer.

When we thought we would be receiving the extra reserve doses, I’m sure everyone 65+ assumed that they would get their vaccine on January 23, the first day it became available. (Ever the optimist, I know I did!)  We learned today that the reserve doses would have allowed us to start sooner but it still would have taken around 12 weeks to get through everyone in this large group (around 750,000 Oregonians).  We likely still would have had to do the vaccines in phases—it just would have started a few weeks earlier.

Given the improvements in the way vaccines are now being administered, OHA is confident that they came meet this new timeline—assuming there aren’t any further glitches in the federal supply.  They are working with public health, health care providers, and the National Guard (in The Dalles and Salem) to create more large scale vaccine locations across the state, and simultaneously working to expand partnerships to get vaccines to high-risk individuals who can’t come to a large scale vaccination event.

We heard from the chief operating officer for Legacy systems that plans are being put in place to do very large scale inoculations in high-population areas—ultimately ramping up from 5,000 to 25,000 a day if we have enough supply. 

We learned that there is a new chat tool on the vaccine website to help people with questions that aren’t answered in other areas.  It should pop up on the right side of your screen at https://covidvaccine.oregon.gov/, or if you scroll to the “vaccine eligibility & FAQ Tool” about 2/3 of the way down the page.  I tried it, and it was quite user-friendly (though it didn’t tell me the answer I wanted to hear . . .)

We were also asked to remember that not all the doses that OHA currently has on hand can go to vaccinate additional people.  They are holding second doses for people who have received first doses, per the guidance from the CDC and other public health officials.  Next week, for example, we are scheduled to receive 72,000 additional Moderna vaccines, but they must be used to give the second dose to individuals who received their first Moderna dose a few weeks ago.

For more on the Governor’s news conference, with some implicit criticism of her decision to lead with teachers rather than the elderly, see Aimee Green’s article in the Oregonian.

And here’s a NY Times piece on President-Elect Biden’s vaccination plans that references the setback that states like ours have just experienced.

First Case of COVID Variant Strain Detected in Oregon

We just received the following message from OHA, confirming something that we knew was inevitable—the arrival in Multnomah County of the more contagious, so-called “UK Variant” of COVID:

Oregon Health Authority has been notified today that a person in Oregon, identified as a Multnomah County resident, has tested positive with the variant COVID-19 virus strain originally detected in the United Kingdom.

This is the first identification in Oregon of the United Kingdom variant strain, also called strain B.1.1.7 or SARS-CoV-2 VOC 202012/01. The individual has no known travel history. Health officials are still investigating the possible sources of infection. The strain has been detected in several states, including California.

“The detection of the first case of this variant strain is a concern, and we have been monitoring movement of this strain,” said Dean Sidelinger, M.D., health officer and state epidemiologist at OHA. “As we learn more about this case and the individual who tested positive for this strain, OHA continues to promote effective public health measures, including wearing masks, maintaining six feet of physical distance, staying home, washing your hands, and avoiding gatherings and travel.”

Information about the characteristics of COVID-19 variants is rapidly emerging, for the U.K. strain and another variant first found in South Africa.

Viruses constantly mutate, and new variants of a virus are expected to occur over time. Multiple variants of the virus that causes COVID-19 have been documented in the United States and globally during this pandemic. Most variants do not change how the virus behaves, and many disappear. 

Scientists are working to learn more about how easily they might spread, and currently there is no evidence that these variants cause more severe illness or increased risk of death, or affect vaccine effectiveness, according to the Centers for the Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Multnomah County public health staff is working tonight and through the weekend to go back over details with this individual related to their isolation plan, contacts and any possible exposures.

“Confirming this strain locally is distressing,” said Multnomah County Health Officer Dr. Jennifer Vines. “Until we have enough vaccine, we must continue using face masks, distancing, and limiting our social interactions.”

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 1,037. Two-thirds of today’s cases are from outside the Portland Tri-County region.  Here is the breakdown of cases by county today:

Baker (2)

Benton (21)

Clackamas (54)

Clatsop (4)

Columbia (11)

Coos (3)

Crook (4)

Curry (1)

Deschutes (43)

Douglas (21)

Grant (31)

Harney (1)

Hood River (4)

Jackson (52)

Jefferson (14)

Josephine (48)

Klamath (14)

Lake (1)

Lane (86)

Lincoln (5)

Linn (16)

Malheur (5)

Marion (95)

Morrow (5)

Multnomah (155)

Polk (23)

Umatilla (111)

Union (7)

Wallowa (2)

Wasco (14)

Washington (141)

Yamhill (43)

And the Deaths:

The 1,709-1,737 deaths are those reported yesterday but lacked details.  You’ll see that once again that the great majority (22 out of 29) actually dated from December or earlier.  We are still waiting for details about today’s 21 additional deaths.

Note from OHA: Updated information is available for Oregon’s 1,582nd death reported on Jan 9. He is an 89-year-old man from Josephine County. He was originally reported as a Jackson County case.

Oregon’s 1,709th COVID-19 death is a 67-year-old woman in Clackamas County who tested positive on Nov. 26 and died on Nov.30 at her residence.

Oregon’s 1,710th COVID-19 death is a 91-year-old woman in Clackamas County who tested positive on Oct.14 and died on Nov. 28 at her residence.

Oregon’s 1,711th COVID-19 death is an 85-year-old woman in Clackamas County who tested positive on Oct. 29 and died on Nov. 19 at her residence.

Oregon’s 1,712th COVID-19 death is a 96-year-old woman in Clackamas County who tested positive on Nov. 30 and died on Dec. 8 at her residence.

Oregon’s 1,713th COVID-19 death is a 91-year-old woman in Clackamas County who tested positive on Nov. 30 and died on Dec.15 at Kaiser Sunnyside Medical Center.

Oregon’s 1,714th COVID-19 death is a 68-year-old man in Deschutes County who tested positive on Dec. 7 and died on Dec.13 at St. Charles Medical Center in Bend.

Oregon’s 1,715th COVID-19 death is an 81-year-old woman in Hood River County who tested positive on Dec. 2 and died on Dec. 21 at her residence.

Oregon’s 1,716th COVID-19 death is a 76-year-old woman in Jefferson County who tested positive on Dec.1 and died on Dec. 10 at St. Charles Medical Center in Bend.

Oregon’s 1,717th COVID-19 death is a 77-year-old woman in Jackson County who tested positive on Nov. 10 and died on Dec. 12 at her residence.

Oregon’s 1,718th COVID-19 death is a 95-year-old woman in Lane County who tested positive on Nov. 11 and died on Nov. 27 at her residence.

Oregon’s 1,719th COVID-19 death is a 58-year-old man in Lane County who tested positive on Dec. 16 and died on Jan. 11 at Oregon Health Sciences University.

Oregon’s 1,720th COVID-19 death is an 89-year-old woman in Linn County who tested positive on Nov. 28 and died on Dec.12 at her residence.

Oregon’s 1,721st COVID-19 death is an 85-year-old woman in Linn County who tested positive on Oct. 28 and died on Dec. 8 at her residence.

Oregon’s 1,722nd COVID-19 death is a 94-year-old woman in Linn County who tested positive Jan. 6 and died on Jan. 11 at Albany General Hospital.

Oregon’s 1,723rd COVID-19 death is an 80-year-old man in Linn County who tested positive on Dec. 22 and died on Jan. 1 at Salem Hospital.

Oregon’s 1,724th COVID-19 death is an 83-year-old woman in Multnomah County who tested positive on Nov. 16 and died on Nov. 26 at her residence.

Oregon’s 1,725th COVID-19 death is a 65-year-old woman in Multnomah County who tested positive on Nov. 20 and died on Dec. 6 at Providence Portland Medical Center.

Oregon’s 1,726th COVID-19 death is an 88-year-old woman in Multnomah County who tested positive on Dec. 2 and died on Dec. 13 at her residence.

Oregon’s 1,727th COVID-19 death is a 77-year-old woman in Multnomah County who tested positive on Nov. 30 and died on Dec. 6 at her residence.

Oregon’s 1,728th COVID-19 death is a 98-year-old woman in Multnomah County who tested positive on Nov. 27 and died on Dec. 10 at her residence.

Oregon’s 1,729th COVID-19 death is a 79-year-old woman in Multnomah County who tested positive on Nov. 21 and died on Dec. 6 at her residence.

Oregon’s 1,730th COVID-19 death is a 75-year-old man in Multnomah County who tested positive on Dec. 7 and died on Dec. 17 at his residence.

Oregon’s 1,731st COVID-19 death is an 80-year-old woman in Multnomah County who became symptomatic after contact with a confirmed case and died on Dec. 3 at her residence. 

Oregon’s 1,732nd COVID-19 death is a 60-year-old man in Umatilla County who tested positive on Dec. 15 and died on Dec. 21 at his residence.

Oregon’s 1,733rd COVID-19 death is an 84-year-old man in Washington County who tested positive on Dec. 9 and died on Jan. 12 at his residence.

Oregon’s 1,734th COVID-19 death is an 86-year-old man in Washington County who tested positive on Dec. 25 and died on Jan. 12 at his residence.

Oregon’s 1,735th COVID-19 death is an 82-year-old man in Yamhill County who tested positive on Jan. 8 and died on Jan. 11 at his residence.

Oregon’s 1,736th COVID-19 death is a 68-year-old man in Yamhill County who tested positive on Jan. 4 and died on Jan.10 at his residence.

Oregon’s 1,737th COVID-19 death is a 95-year-old woman in Clackamas County who tested positive on Dec. 11 and died on Dec. 19 at her residence.

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