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February 1, 2021
Dear Neighbors and Friends:
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.
OHA’s OPERA server, which collects COVID data that has been reported to it, was down for maintenance yesterday, so yesterday’s and today’s reported numbers are combined. Nevertheless, they show ongoing declines in cases, hospitalizations, and deaths (just one reported COVID death for the last two days). Again, this is probably due in part to weekend reporting, but it is a continued positive sign. We just received the new County Metrics Report, and it too shows downward trends over the last few weeks for the state as a whole and for individual counties.
Vaccinations also continue to be deployed at a steady rate now. Nearly two-thirds of all available doses have already been administered. We are currently right at the national average for inoculations.
In the ongoing saga of OHA’s policy regarding the listing and description of individuals lost to the disease, it was reported over the weekend that OHA has now decided to go back to the original daily descriptive reports, something that was confirmed by OHA earlier today. However, we have yet to see that list . . .
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 964 new COVID cases over the last two days, an average of 482 per day. 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 143,373.
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Positive Test Results: OHA reports 1,060 positive test results over the last two days, an average of 530 per day. (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 189,816.
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Total Tests: OHA reported an additional 21,136 tests for the last two days, an average of 10,568 per day. Our cumulative total of reported tests is now 3,202.207.
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Positivity Rate: Today’s test positivity ratio for Oregon over the last two days is 5.0%. The national ratio today is 7.4%.
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Hospitalization Information:
- Patients Currently with Confirmed COVID-19: 271 (9 fewer than Saturday)
- Available ICU Beds: 160 (9 more than Friday)
- Other Available Beds: 565 (117 more than Friday).
- ICU Patients Confirmed w COVID-19: 64 (3 fewer than Saturday).
- Confirmed COVID-19 Patients Currently on Ventilators: 30 (3 fewer than Friday).
- Available Ventilators: 782 (14 more than Friday).
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Deaths: I’m sorry to report 1 COVID death for the last two days. You’ll find more information about those we’ve lost recently further down in the newsletter. The total number of COVID deaths in Oregon is now 1,958.
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Vaccinations: As of the end of yesterday, here are the latest numbers:
- New Immunizations Reported Today: 14,693
- 10,208 administered yesterday
- 4,485 administered previously and report received yesterday
- Total First and Second Doses Administered So Far: 438,299.
- Total Oregonians vaccinated so far: 353,028.
- 80,561 now fully vaccinated with two doses
- To date, 665,325 doses of vaccine have been delivered to sites across Oregon.
- 65.9% of these doses have been administered so far (national average is now 65.8%). Washington has moved just ahead of us in terms of administration of available doses.
- 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.
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Today’s National Numbers:
- Total Tests: 309,308,610 (up 1,610,238 from yesterday).
- Total Cases: 25,937,115 (up 119,747 from yesterday).
- Deaths: 433,751 (up 1,562 from yesterday).
- These national numbers come from the COVID Tracking Project. You can visit that site HERE https://covidtracking.com/data/national
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Additional Brief Updates:
- The latest County COVID rates were just released today. You’ll see declines in all metrics for the state as a whole and for nearly every county, some of the declines quite dramatic.
- Good news for nursing homes: COVID cases nationwide appear to be on the decline at last, the result of the vaccine and of a generally downward trend in cases nationwide. Read more here.
- However, there’s further evidence that many nursing home staff are refusing the vaccine.
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Redux: the link to the following article from the last newsletter was flawed. Here it is again: The Oregonian’s Kate Williams has a troubling story about the growing impacts of COVID infections on adults in custody in our state prisons. You’ll find it here.
Welcome Back, Bill!
We just learned today that the Clackamas County Commission has appointed Bill Kennemer to the Senate District 20 (Oregon City, Canby) seat vacated by Senator Alan Olsen, who recently resigned the seat. I appreciate Bill’s coming out of a well-earned retirement to fill this vacancy. I served with Bill in the House (he was actually in the Senate earlier in his career) and look forward to having him as a colleague again, this time in the Senate.
OHA and ODE Collaborate on a Facebook Live
To give parents a better sense of what in-person school reopening might look like this spring, the Oregon Health Authority is hosting a Facebook Live event on Wednesday, Feb. 3, at 1:30 p.m. Oregon Department of Education Director Colt Gill and OHA Deputy State Health Officer and Epidemiologist, Dr. Thomas Jeanne will answer school-related questions. Join in English or Spanish.
Starting This Weekend: The 31st Annual Cascade Festival of African Films!
 As many of you know, I’ve been closely involved with this remarkable film festival, which shows us Africa through African lenses (i.e., through the eyes of filmmakers from throughout the African continent) since its inception in 1990. It runs each February, coinciding with Black History Month. Five weeks long, it’s a community-building, educational, cultural, cinematic experience. It has been a hub for immigrants and refugees new to this country, a chance for them to meet with Oregonians interested in expanding their cultural horizons, engaging in dialogue, and seeing the world through other people’s eyes. It generally takes place at different venues in Portland, most notably and frequently at PCC-Cascade in North Portland.
This year, of course, will be different. This year the Festival goes all-virtual, with the films, Q&As with directors, and a series of “community chats” all available via the CFAF Website. https://www.africanfilmfestival.org/ For those of you outside the Portland area, this is your chance to check it out. You’ll find descriptions of all the films and other resources on the website.
The Festival starts this Friday with a welcoming ceremony that I’ll be hosting, including music from Sudan (the location of the opening night film, You Will Die at Twenty), acknowledgments, and videos about the Festival. Films will then show each Friday and Saturday evening (with a Saturday matinee). Thursday evenings bring documentaries, and the entire final week of the Festival features films by women directors from different parts of Africa. Each Monday evening will feature the zoom “community chats” in which viewers have a chance to talk about the films, ask questions, and get background and context directly from people from the countries and regions featured in the films.
As always, all the films are free of charge and open to the community—which is now unlimited by geography! (though some of the films are limited to viewers in Oregon). Once you download a film, you’ll have five days to watch it. Here’s more information https://www.africanfilmfestival.org/festival/venues/ about this virtual format.
This year I can’t say I hope to see you there, but I do hope that you’ll check it out and enjoy it if you can.
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 964, but they are a combination of the cases over the last two days (OHA didn’t report yesterday because of server maintenance. Here is the breakdown of cases by county today:
Benton (18)
Clackamas (92)
Columbia (4)
Coos (19)
Crook (3)
Curry (3)
Deschutes (31)
Douglas (14)
Grant (1)
Harney (1)
Hood River (7)
Jackson (44)
Jefferson (3)
Josephine (36)
Klamath (4)
Lake (2)
Lane (105)
Lincoln (3)
Linn (30)
Malheur (2)
Marion (137)
Morrow (4)
Multnomah (178)
Polk (32)
Tillamook (1)
Umatilla (17)
Union (8)
Wallowa (2)
Wasco (9)
Washington (126)
Yamhill (28)
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: 503-281-0608
mail: 900 Court St NE, S-407, Salem, OR, 97301
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