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February 11, 2021
Dear 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.
COVID metrics are again doing well, particularly in the Portland Tri-County area. Yesterday was another good day for vaccinations, but with the onset of the winter storm, we’ll be seeing lower numbers over the next few days. On the other hand, new doses are continuing to come in (more than 80,000 in the last two days), which is definitely good news. Once the vaccination sites are back up to normal, we should see those doses quickly put to good use.
Schools are continuing to develop and to some extent implement their in-person reopening plans. These reopenings, though justified by the declining infection rates in many parts of the state, are not without risk, however. We just learned that a high school in Bend has had to close its doors for a few days while just in the middle of its first week back. Apparently, a large off-campus party over the weekend became a “super-spreader” event for many high school students, leading to at least twelve cases. Schools obviously can’t do much to control what happens off-campus, so they’ll need to be prepared for such setbacks. You can read more about it below.
Meanwhile, evidence from around the country suggests that many children are not doing well with distance learning and are experiencing significant learning loss. That’s certainly not true for everyone, but it is for many, particularly for those from lower socio-economic families. It’s important, I believe, for us to begin planning now for summer programs that can creatively help students overcome some of that learning loss and be better prepared for next year. To that end, as Senate Education Chair, I’m convening a group of education leaders and representatives of community-based organizations tomorrow to start the planning and funding process. It’s important and necessary work. I’ll let you know how it goes.
Finally, I was gratified today to hear from a couple of readers who were able to take advantage of the sign-up information provided in yesterday’s newsletter to get scheduled for vaccinations. I’ll try to get you further information as it comes in. (There’s some further down in the newsletter.)
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 621 new COVID cases today. This count is a combination of positive test results and those who are presumed positive. The cumulative number of cases in Oregon since the beginning of the pandemic is 149,082.
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Variant COVID Cases: OHA continues to report a total of 4 Oregonians who have tested positive for the B.117. (UK) variant and none of the other variants. We haven’t seen any new cases in the last two weeks. (However, though Oregon’s testing for the variants is more extensive than in most states, testing for variants remains limited.)
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Positive Test Results: OHA reports 647 positive tests 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 196,002.
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Total Tests: OHA reported an additional 20,150 tests today. Our cumulative total of reported tests is now 3,364,377.
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Positivity Rate: Today’s test positivity ratio for Oregon is 3.2%. The national ratio today is 5.4%.
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Hospitalization Information:
- Patients Currently with Confirmed COVID-19: 209 (2 fewer than yesterday)
- ICU Patients Confirmed w COVID-19: 50 (3 fewer than yesterday).
- Available ICU Beds: 152 (5 fewer than yesterday)
- Other Available Beds: 583 (75 more than yesterday).
- Confirmed COVID-19 Patients Currently on Ventilators: 25 (3 fewer than yesterday).
- Available Ventilators: 805 (16 more than yesterday).
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Deaths: I’m sorry to report 12 new COVID deaths. You’ll find more information about the Oregonians we’ve lost recently further down in the newsletter. The total number of COVID deaths in Oregon is now 2,056.
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Vaccinations: As of the end of yesterday, here are the latest numbers:
- New Immunizations Reported Today: 19,695
- 14,004 administered yesterday
- 5,619 administered previously and report received yesterday
- Total First and Second Doses Administered So Far: 623,909
- 335,573 Pfizer doses
- 287,710 Moderna doses
- Total Oregonians vaccinated so far: 455,614
- 163,406 now fully vaccinated with two doses
- To date, 884,175 doses of vaccine have been delivered to sites across Oregon.
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Today’s National Numbers:
- Total Tests: 330,086,893 (up 1,892,736 from yesterday).
- Total Cases: 27,166,267 (up 103,024 from yesterday).
- Deaths: 465,580 (up 3,885 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 President announced today that the federal government is lining up millions of extra doses from Pfizer and Moderna, suggesting that 300 million Americans could be vaccinated by the end of July. Read more here. If it works out, this would be good news indeed.
- Interested in Salem-Keizer School District’s in-person reopening plan? Here it is.
- Meanwhile, Bend’s Summit High School has had to close down in the middle of its first week of reopening as a result of 12 COVID cases being reported at the school. Although nothing is official yet, it is apparently the result of a large off-campus party last weekend. You can read more about it i in this article from the Bend Bulletin. Students will return to distance learning while students are tested and contact traced. They hope to be back on campus by the middle of next week.
Interested in the New COVID Pharmacy Program?
Legislators received the following email from a representative for Safeway/Albertson’s this evening:
Good evening,
Today, Safeway and Albertsons launched their COVID-19 vaccine scheduling platform, allowing eligible individuals to sign-up to receive the vaccine at their local, participating Safeway/Albertsons store. The platform allows eligible individuals to enter their zip code and identify the nearest store receiving vaccine doses through the Federal Retail Pharmacy Partnership. Eligible individuals, or frontline health care workers, first responders, teachers and individuals ages 75 and older, can schedule their appointment online to receive their vaccine as early as February 12. If an individual does not have access to internet, a computer or smart device, they can call their local pharmacy to help schedule.
Safeway/Albertsons and other participating pharmacies have received a combined 12,000 doses this week, equating to roughly 100 doses available at each participating pharmacy. These stores appreciate your patience and recognition that they have a limited supply available. We encourage the public to regularly check the online scheduling platform for opportunities to schedule an appointment at their local Safeway/Albertsons store, or visit OHA’s “Get Vaccinated Oregon” tool to identify other vaccination opportunities within their community.
As dose allocations increase, so will the opportunity to secure an appointment. The Safeway/Albertsons' team appreciates you support, patience and the opportunity to help ensure all Oregonians have access to the COVID-19 vaccines.
Please reach out if you have any questions.
If you have success with this new access point, please let me know.
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 621. Nearly three-fourths of today’s reported cases were again from counties outside the Portland Tri-County region. Here is the breakdown of cases by county today:
Benton (35)
Clackamas (35)
Clatsop (1)
Columbia (11)
Coos (17)
Crook (11)
Curry (4)
Deschutes (26)
Douglas (46)
Grant (1)
Hood River (1)
Jackson (43)
Jefferson (16)
Josephine (14)
Klamath (6)
Lake (10)
Lane (57)
Lincoln (2)
Linn (23)
Malheur (1)
Marion (32)
Morrow (6)
Multnomah (77)
Polk (17)
Tillamook (2)
Umatilla (27)
Union (5)
Wallowa (4)
Wasco (4)
Washington (58)
Yamhill (24)
And the Deaths:
Oregon’s 2,045th COVID-19 death is a 79-year-old man in Clackamas County who tested positive on Dec. 27 and died on Feb. 6 at Kaiser Sunnyside Medical Center.
Oregon’s 2,046th COVID-19 death is a 96-year-old man in Jackson County who tested positive on Dec. 22 and died on Feb. 10 at his residence.
Oregon’s 2,047th COVID-19 death is a 93-year-old man in Deschutes County who tested positive on Nov. 23 and died on Jan. 17 at his residence.
Oregon’s 2,048th COVID-19 death is an 83-year-old woman in Josephine County who tested positive on Jan. 1 and died on Feb. 7 at her residence.
Oregon’s 2,049th COVID-19 death is a 91-year-old woman in Marion County who tested positive on Dec. 15 and died on Jan. 20 at her residence.
Oregon’s 2,050th COVID-19 death is a 74-year-old woman in Multnomah County who tested positive on Nov. 24 and died on Dec. 31 at her residence.
Oregon’s 2,051st COVID-19 death is a 58-year-old man in Multnomah County who tested positive on Feb. 9 and died on Feb. 10 at Adventist Hospital.
Oregon’s 2,052nd COVID-19 death is a 67-year-old man in Multnomah County who tested positive on Feb. 4 and died on Jan. 31 at his residence.
Oregon’s 2,053rd COVID-19 death is a 72-year-old man in Multnomah County who tested positive on Jan. 15 and died on Feb. 2 at his residence.
Oregon’s 2,054th COVID-19 death is a 66-year-old man in Washington County who tested positive on Dec. 10 and died on Feb. 6 in Portland.
Oregon’s 2,055th COVID-19 death is an 88-year-old man in Washington County who tested positive on Dec. 23 and died on Feb. 5 at his residence.
Oregon’s 2,056th COVID-19 death is a 76-year-old woman in Jefferson County who died on Dec. 15 at St. Charles Bend 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.
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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