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February 12, 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’s COVID case count was again relatively low, as were hospitalizations. However, today’s death count spiked to 38. We haven’t yet received the details about the deaths, and it’s likely that many occurred earlier and are only now being reported to the state. I should be able to say more about this tomorrow.
Yesterday was a great day for vaccinations. We received many new doses and administered more than 25,000. We remain on track to move to the next tranche of seniors next week—those 75 and older.
On the down side, thousands of appointments had to be canceled today and tomorrow as a result of snow in Portland. I know this must be frustrating for those who were ready to get their dose. On the upside, all those appointments have already been rescheduled, and those affected have been or soon will be contacted with their new time next week. The health systems that are partnering on the large vaccination sites feel confident that next week they’ll be able to accommodate both those who needed to be rescheduled and those who already had appointments scheduled for next week.
You’ll find more information below about the new federal pharmacy program, which I mentioned in last night’s newsletter. In that newsletter I provided the scheduling link for Albertson’s and Safeway and encouraged people in the 80+ category (they’re currently eligible) to try it out. I’m pleased to report that a number of you did, either late last night or early this morning, and were successful. I heard from a half-dozen of you. I’m so glad that info came to legislators yesterday evening in time to get it out and be of some help.
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 517 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 149,576.
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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 622 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 196,624.
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Total Tests: OHA reported an additional 19,326 tests today. Our cumulative total of reported tests is now 3,383,703.
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Positivity Rate: Today’s test positivity ratio for Oregon is 3.2%. The national ratio today is 5.5%.
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Hospitalization Information:
- Patients Currently with Confirmed COVID-19: 202 (7 fewer than yesterday)
- ICU Patients Confirmed w COVID-19: 48 (2 fewer than yesterday).
- Available ICU Beds: 165 (13 more than yesterday)
- Other Available Beds: 673 (90 more than yesterday).
- Confirmed COVID-19 Patients Currently on Ventilators: 27 (2 more than yesterday).
- Available Ventilators: 813 (8 more than yesterday).
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Deaths: I’m sorry to report 38 newly-reported 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 2,094.
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Vaccinations: As of the end of yesterday, here are the latest numbers:
- New Immunizations Reported Today: 25,772
- 16,877 administered yesterday
- 8,895 administered previously and report received yesterday
- Total First and Second Doses Administered So Far: 649,602
- 348,991 Pfizer doses
- 299,976 Moderna doses
- Total Oregonians vaccinated so far: 466,788
- 177,848 now fully vaccinated with two doses
- To date, 884,275 doses of vaccine have been delivered to sites across Oregon.
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Today’s National Numbers:
- Total Tests: 331,882,750 (up 1,816,007 from yesterday).
- Total Cases: 27,266,230 (up 100,570 from yesterday).
- Deaths: 470,986 (up 5,418 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:
- Wishful thinking or clear promise? The AP reports that Dr. Fauci is predicting that we’ll have enough vaccines available by April, as a result of increased production and additional vaccine approvals, to begin to vaccinate everyone. This would put us on track to achieve “herd immunity” by late summer. Fingers crossed. Read about it here.
- The CDC has issued new guidelines encouraging schools to reopen to in-person instruction as soon as possible, with a number of caveats and strict requirements. It says that teachers should be prioritized for the COVID vaccine but also tells districts they can safely reopen their schools according to strict guidelines even if teachers have not yet been fully vaccinated. Here's coverage from the NEW YORK TIMES.
OHA Provides Update on COVID and Vaccines
In today’s OHA press conference we heard about vaccine supply and distribution, the new Federal Retail Pharmacy Program, the effect of the current snowstorm on vaccinations in the Portland region, and the discovery of four “breakthrough” cases in Oregon—cases where individuals developed COVID despite having been vaccinated.
You can watch the recording of the press conference (including ASL interpretation) here, and find the slides from today’s briefing here.
Here are some highlights of what we learned:
- Federal allocations are gradually increasing. Oregon’s current allocation of 75,000 doses per week will be increasing to 88,000 very soon.
- The 211 telephone option is proving to be a very effective option for seniors and others who might have challenges with the technology of online appointment-setting. Thanks to the assistance of 30 National Guard soldiers, call wait times have gone down dramatically.
- Appproximately 4,000 vaccinations are now being administered each day at the Convention Center, with plans to increase to 6,000 per day shortly.
- As the federal supply becomes more stable and certain, the OHA is trying to bring more predictability to the distribution to county health authorities and health systems, so they can make appointments beyond the current week.
- Allocations to counties are now based on the number of seniors who live in them.
- As the new pharmacy program ramps up, they will seek to steer more doses to pharmacies with high socio-economic need.
- As a result of snow, 5,780 appointments scheduled for today and tomorrow at the Convention Center and Portland Airport parking lot have had to be cancelled. They are being automatically rescheduled for next week. Affected individuals will be contacted by email or phone.
- The plan for Sunday’s appointment is still up in the air, depending on the snow situation.
- The current plan for the Convention Center and Airport is to open up new appointments on Mondays and Thursdays at 9 a.m.
- Yesterday they opened up 4,500 appointments for February 19 to 23 for seniors and remaining Group 1a individuals, and 2,600 for remaining eduators.
- Along with these large vaccination sites and the incipient pharmacy program, OHA is working with Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) to hold targeted vaccination clinics for high-need populations.
- In addition, health systems are also working on outreach to at-risk populations. Kaiser has just issued two grants—$150,000 each for the Pacific Islander Coalition and the Latino Health Coalition.
- The CDC has issued new guidelines for masking, suggesting that people work harder to make sure there’s a tight fit around nose, mouth, and chin, make sure there are no gaps, and using masks with more than one layer (e.g., a cloth mask over a disposable mask).
- Even with declining cases and an increased number of vaccinations, we can’t assume we’ll be back in pre-COVID times anytime soon.
More on the Federal Retail Pharmacy Program
Last night I shared information from Albertson/Safeway about their participation in the new pharmacy program. It’s a collaboration between the federal government, states and territories, and 21 national pharmacy partners and independent pharmacy networks to increase access to COVID-19 vaccination across the country. The program is coming online this week in Oregon. Shipments arrived on Feb. 10 at 127 retail pharmacies in Oregon.
This program offers locations in 27 of Oregon’s 36 counties. These locations include 103 Safeway/Albertson’s locations, 13 Costco Locations, and 11 Health Mart (independent affiliate) pharmacies. They will offer vaccinations to seniors, starting with people 75 and older.
Eligible Oregonians can make appointments at these retailers’ websites. For now, supply will be limited: each site is currently only scheduled to receive 100 doses per week.
Here are the chain pharmacies’ websites; individual Health Marts will need to be contacted directly:
People can also phone their local pharmacy and try to schedule an appointment over the phone.
What Are the “Breakthrough Cases of COVID-19?
The current COVID vaccines are extremely effective. The clinical trials that preceded their approval showed they are 95% effective. That’s not 100%, though, so some cases will still occur. Such cases are referred to as “breakthrough” cases—i.e., the virus “breaks through” the barrier created by the vaccine. Breakthrough cases exist with all vaccines.
Four breakthrough cases were just identified in Oregon. These are cases where a person has tested positive for COVID-19 at least 14 days after completing their vaccination series. Two of the cases were in Yamhill County, and two were in Lane County. OHA is working with local public health officials to investigate the origin.
Fortunately, the vaccine still effectively reduces the seriousness of the disease. In these cases, the illnesses range from people showing no symptoms and others showing mild symptoms.
Unless they work in a hospital setting or with individuals in congregate care, those who have been fully vaccinated but test positive should not have to quarantine for 10 days.
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 517. More than two-thirds 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 (31)
Clackamas (43)
Clatsop (1)
Columbia (3)
Coos (8)
Crook (5)
Curry (5)
Deschutes (32)
Douglas (18)
Harney (3)
Hood River (2)
Jackson (35)
Jefferson (11)
Josephine (16)
Klamath (10)
Lake (7)
Lane (48)
Lincoln (4)
Linn (13)
Marion (59)
Morrow (4)
Multnomah (57)
Polk (13)
Tillamook (1)
Umatilla (19)
Union (3)
Wallowa (2)
Wasco (1)
Washington (50)
Yamhill (13)
And the Deaths
OHA has not yet provided the details on the 38 people reported today. They will likely become available in time for tomorrow’s newsletter.
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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