January 23rd COVID-19 Update

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January 23, 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.

Today we see improvements in all of Oregon’s COVID metrics.  This is a continuation of the generally improved picture that began last week and which you can read about in the summary of this past week’s Weekly Data Report further down in the newsletter.

As you’ll also see below, our vaccination rate is continuing to improve.  In the last week  80,941 vaccines were administered, and we received 157,375 additional doses (many of them to be reserved for second doses).

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 775 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 137,600.
• Positive Test Results: OHA reports 799 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 182,183.
• Total Tests: OHA reported an additional 16,666 tests today. Our cumulative total of reported tests is now 3,060,458.
• Positivity Rate: Today’s test positivity ratio for Oregon is 4.8%. The national ratio today is 9.2%.
• Hospitalization Information: The first two bullets are newly-reported numbers; the others are the same as Friday’s, as the OHA does not report on these over the weekend.
  • Patients Currently with Confirmed COVID-19: 310 (7 fewer than yesterday)
  • ICU Patients Confirmed w COVID-19: 83 (4 more than yesterday).
  • Available ICU Beds: 183 (19 fewer than yesterday)
  • Other Available Beds: 713 ( fewer than yesterday).
  • Confirmed COVID-19 Patients Currently on Ventilators: 41 (9 fewer than yesterday).
  • Available Ventilators: 796 (12 fewer than yesterday).
• Deaths: I’m sorry to report 13 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 1,877.
• Vaccinations: As of the end of yesterday, here are the latest numbers:
  • New Immunizations Reported Today: 15,461
    • 11,151 administered yesterday
    • 4,310 administered previously and report received yesterday
  • Total First and Second Doses Administered So Far: 285,914
  • Total Oregonians vaccinated so far: 231,600.
    • 34,902 now fully vaccinated with two doses
  • To date, 492,450 doses of vaccine have been delivered to sites across Oregon.
    • 58.1% of these doses have been administered so far (national average is now 50.1%). Oregon is now #12 for the percentage of doses administered, and remains much higher than our neighboring states in the West.
    • 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.

• Today’s National Numbers:
  • Total Tests: 293,305,580 (up 1,898,062 from yesterday).
  • Total Cases: 24,657,405 (up 173,729 from yesterday.)
  • Deaths: 408,272 (up 3,577 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:
  • OHA has reported a second case of the variant, more contagious COVID-19 strain known as B.1.1.7. This case is in Yamhill County. The contact tracers are working to find out what possible contacts the Yamhill County resident might have had. The first one was detected in an employee at the University of Portland. 

• We’ve just learned of another bit of collateral damage from the recent assault on the U.S. Capitol. The consequent deployment of National Guard soldiers from around the country appears to have been a “super-spreader” COVID event, with 200 Guard members testing positive already.  You can read more here.
• The New York Times Education department has taken a close look at seven school districts around the country to see the different ways they’ve operated during the pandemic. It’s a mix of those that have been in-person and those that have stayed remote, and some that have had to move back and forth between the two.  You can find it here.

Info from Last Week’s OHA Weekly COVID Report: Mainly Good News

OHA released its COVID Weekly Data Report on Thursday. It is again a very comprehensive snapshot of different aspects of transmission of the disease in Oregon over the past week or so. 

This week’s report is overall a relief.  Case counts are down, test positivity is down (which testing rates have increased), hospitalizations are down.  Unfortunately, deaths are high, actually setting a new record for a week’s reported deaths (but many of these deaths actually occurred in December).  They are for the most part the ongoing legacy of infections that began back in November.

Here are some of OHA’s broad observations of where we are now, based on data from Monday, January 11 through Sunday, January 17:

• OHA has reported 7,860 new cases of COVID-19 infection, a 4% decrease from last week’s total of 8,150.
• The number of COVID tests has increased to 129,723 (up from the previous week’s 113,648).
• The positivity rate decreased substantially, from 8.2% to 5.9%.
• The number of new COVID hospitalizations decreased by 7% last week, from 357 to 332. That’s an average of 47 new COVID hospitalizations a day.
• The number of COVID deaths last week set a sad new record, with 195 COVID deaths reported (up from 107, which was itself a record)
• The cumulative death rate since the beginning of the pandemic reached 1,613 on January 10. With a cumulative case count of 134,468 on January 17, this is again an average case fatality rate of 1.3% (though the fatality rate for those who have contracted COVID is much higher for older Oregonians—it has increased to 18.7% for those over 80).

The report again provides information about disease symptoms and risk factors; along with racial/ethnic/age/gender demographics. It provides an update on people with intellectual/developmental disabilities and the number of COVID patients at various hospitals around the state.

It no longer includes information on outbreaks in long-term care, workplaces, child care, and K-12.  That information is now included in a separate weekly outbreak report.

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 775. Two-thirds of today’s reported cases are in counties outside of the Portland Tri-County area. Here is the breakdown of cases by county today:

Baker (2)

Benton (25)

Clackamas (51)

Columbia (7)

Coos (12)

Crook (7)

Deschutes (43)

Douglas (10)

Gilliam (1)

Harney (1)

Hood River (2)

Jackson (49)

Jefferson (7)

Josephine (7)

Klamath (19)

Lake (4)

Lane (75)

Lincoln (8)

Linn (15)

Malheur (9)

Marion (94)

Morrow (1)

Multnomah (112)

Polk (29)

Tillamook (1)

Umatilla (35)

Union (6)

Wasco (12)

Washington (106)

Yamhill (25) 

And the Deaths:

Note from OHA: Updated information is available about Oregon’s 1,798th COVID-19 related death, which was reported Jan. 16 as a 71-year-old man in Jackson County. The updated death certificate does not list COVID-19 disease or SARS-CoV-2 as a cause of death or as a significant condition that contributed to his death, and he is no longer considered a COVID-19 related death or case.

Because of this error we are renumbering our reported deaths starting with 1,865 today.

Oregon’s 1,865th COVID-19 death is a 69-year-old woman in Crook County who tested positive on Jan. 16 and died on Jan. 21 at St. Charles Bend Hospital.

Oregon’s 1,866th COVID-19 death is a 79-year-old woman in Crook County who tested positive on Dec. 22 and died on Jan. 21 at St. Charles Bend Hospital.

Oregon’s 1,867th COVID-19 death is an 84-year-old man in Douglas County who tested positive on Jan. 8 and died on Jan. 21 at Mercy Medical Center.

Oregon’s 1,868th COVID-19 death is an 87-year-old man in Malheur County who tested positive on Dec. 24 and died on Jan. 16 at Boise VA Medical Center in Idaho.

Oregon’s 1,869th COVID-19 death is a 71-year-old man in Malheur County who tested positive on Jan. 3 and died on Jan. 21 at St. Luke’s Boise Medical Center in Idaho.

Oregon’s 1,870th COVID-19 death is an 84-year-old man in Marion County who tested positive on Jan. 21 and died on Jan. 21 at his residence.

Oregon’s 1,871st COVID-19 death is a 62-year-old man in Multnomah County who tested positive on Jan. 5 and died on Jan. 11 at Portland Adventist Medical Center.

Oregon’s 1,872nd COVID-19 death is an 87-year-old woman in Multnomah County who tested positive on Dec. 2 and died on Jan. 20 at her residence.

Oregon’s 1,873rd COVID-19 death is a 77-year-old woman in Multnomah County who tested positive on Jan. 8 and died on Jan. 11 at Providence Portland Medical Center.

Oregon’s 1,874th COVID-19 death is a 63-year-old man in Jackson County who tested positive on Jan. 20 and died on Jan. 21 at Providence Medford Medical Center.

Oregon’s 1,875th COVID-19 death is an 84-year-old woman in Washington County who tested positive on Nov. 17 and died on Jan. 10 at her residence.

Oregon’s 1,876th COVID-19 death is a 53-year-old woman in Yamhill County who tested positive on Dec. 21 and died on Jan. 11 at Providence St. Vincent Medical Center.

Oregon’s 1,877th COVID-19 death is a 76-year-old man in Umatilla County who tested positive on Jan. 12 and died on Jan. 16 at Good Shepherd Hospital.

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.

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