January 20th COVID and Legislative Update

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January 20, 2021

Friends and Neighbors,

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.

We have much to be thankful for today.  We had an orderly transition to the new presidency, apparently without serious incident in Washington, D.C., or in state capitals. For me, it was a very moving day, historic on many levels.  If you missed Amanda Gorman, our nation’s Youth Poet Laureate, reciting her poem, “The Hill We Climb,” please watch it here. If you’re like me, you’ll be impressed, moved, and filled with hope.

I’m pleased to report that our COVID case counts continue to be low. This seems to be more than holiday reporting disruptions.  Over the last week, our new case numbers appear to be declining.  Oregon is again among the states with the fewest new cases.

We continue to make progress on vaccinations, but as expected we’ve fallen back a few percentage points in terms of available doses administered.  That’s because we’ve received a large shipment of new doses (mainly second doses from Moderna)—which is obviously good news.  For what it’s worth, Oregon continues to be ahead of all our neighbors in the West in terms of percentage of our population vaccinated so far.

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 704 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 135,142.
• Positive Test Results: OHA reports 809 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 179,384.
• Total Tests: OHA reported an additional 15,950 tests today. Our cumulative total of reported tests is now 3,003,213.
• Positivity Rate: Today’s test positivity ratio for Oregon is 5.1%. The national ratio today is 10.4%.
• Deaths: I’m sorry to report 3 additional 24 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 1,832.
• Hospitalized: OHA reports 63 new COVID hospitalizations. The total number of new hospitalizations since the beginning of the pandemic is 7,387.
• Vaccinations: As of the end of yesterday, here are the latest numbers:
  • New Immunizations Reported Today: 13,694
    • 8,570 administered yesterday
    • 5,124 administered previously and report received yesterday
  • Total First and Second Doses Administered So Far: 238,760
  • Total Oregonians vaccinated so far: 207,876.
    • 27,464 now fully vaccinated with two doses
  • To date, 436,250 doses of vaccine have been delivered to sites across Oregon.
    • 54.7% of these doses have been administered so far (national average is now 47.7%). Oregon is now #14 in the nation for the percentage of doses administered.

• For more details, including the demographics of those receiving the vaccine, here is a link to more information about the vaccine and vaccination protocols.
• Here is the daily vaccination tracker from Bloomberg.
• And here is a link to each county's vaccination website. It provides access information for those in Category 1a and (eventually) in 1b.

• Other Hospital Information:
  • Patients Currently with COVID-19 Symptoms (who may or may not have received a positive test result yet): 379 (8 fewer than yesterday). Of those, 328 (8 more than yesterday) have already received a positive test back.
  • Available ICU Beds: 161 (19 fewer than yesterday)
  • Other Available Beds: 692 ( fewer than yesterday).
  • ICU Patients Confirmed w COVID-19: 90 (2 fewer than yesterday).
  • Confirmed COVID-19 Patients Currently on Ventilators: 50 (5 fewer than yesterday).
  • Available Ventilators: 775 (5 fewer than yesterday).
• Today’s National Numbers:
  • Total Tests: 287,519,743 (up 1,788,698 from yesterday).
  • Total Cases: 24,109,760 (up 185,822 from yesterday.)
  • Deaths: 390,262 396,837 (up 4,409 from yesterday).
  • These national numbers come from the COVID Tracking Project. You can visit that site HERE https://covidtracking.com/data/national

• Additional Brief Updates:
  • The Governor will be delivering her State of the State Address Thursday morning at 10:30. Normally, it would have been delivered to the Legislature in joint session following the swearing-in of newly-elected members. The pandemic made that impossible, so her address—in which she will lay out her plans and priorities for the final two years of her term—will be held in that form we’ve come to know so well—via You Tube.  You can watch her address live or later here.

• OHA has released the most recent county COVID metrics. They show reductions in infection rates for the state as a whole and most counties over the last two weeks.
• Portland’s first large vaccination site opened today. You can read all about it in this Oregonian article.

• On Sunday California decided to halt use of a batch of the Moderna vaccine after six individuals had serious allergic reactions. Two Oregonians have had allergic reactions to vaccines from this same batch.  However, based on recommendations from the CDC, OHA will continue to use doses from this batch while closely monitoring the results.  You can read more in this OHA news release.  And  here's more background from the Oregonian.

Senate Education Committee Will Hold Hearings on School Reopening

The Department of Education has released the latest update to its Ready Schools, Safe Students Guidelines that includes changes to the advisory metrics and safety requirements for school districts considering reopening.

Under Version 5.5.0 the advisory metrics have been modified to bring the state more in line with other states and the recommendations of the Harvard Global Health Institute.  Under the revised metrics, more elementary schools will be eligible to reopen for in-person instruction. (This includes much of the Portland area, thanks to improvements in our COVID rates here over the last few weeks.)  The decision to reopen remains with individual school districts. If they do choose to reopen, their reopening plans will still need to be approved by the Oregon Department of Education and they will need to comply with all the safety protocols around masking, small class size, cleaning, and other requirements.

You can read more about the new plan in this press release from the Department.and in this Oregonian article by Eder Campuzano.

Needless to say, there is much that is controversial about potential reopenings, concerns that they will occur too slowly or too quickly.  In order to better understand the plans, their benefits, and remaining safety concerns, I’ve decided to use both sessions of the Senate Education Committee next week to focus on this issue.  On Monday we’ll hear invited testimony from the department, health professionals, teachers, students, parents, and others.  It will be an opportunity for Senate and House Education Committee members to hear from and query those invited to testify.  Then on Wednesday we’ll open the floor to the public, taking public testimony from those who want to share their ideas and reactions.  Both hearings will run from 3:15 to 4:45.  Agendas should be posted tomorrow, and you’ll be able to get to them here.

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

Baker (3)

Benton (21)

Clackamas (36)

Clatsop (6)

Coos (12)

Crook (7)

Deschutes (38)

Douglas (17)

Harney (3)

Hood River (6)

Jackson (38)

Jefferson (7)

Josephine (15)

Klamath (16)

Lake (4)

Lane (53)

Lincoln (4)

Linn (26)

Malheur (29)

Marion (83)

Morrow (4)

Multnomah (99)

Polk (22)

Tillamook (2)

Umatilla (53)

Union (7)

Wallowa (1)

Wasco (6)

Washington (60)

Yamhill (28)

And the Deaths:

OHA is still analyzing today’s reported deaths and doesn’t yet have the details available for us.

Additional Graphs:

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.

Senator Michael Dembrow
District 23

email: Sen.MichaelDembrow@oregonlegislature.gov
web: www.senatordembrow.com
phone: 503-281-0608
mail: 900 Court St NE, S-407, Salem, OR, 97301