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February 16, 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, especially those faced with the extra challenge of loss of electricity, refrigeration, and heat.
Today’s COVID case count has gone back up to the level it was prior to the severe reduction in testing and reporting that we saw during the weekend and weather event. As testing and reporting pick back up, we hopefully won’t see a surge in case counts or deaths. Given that hospitalizations are continuing to decline, that seems unlikely at this point. Our downward trajectory seems to be continuing. We’re seeing the same thing to a lesser degree at the national level, but there too short-term weather disruptions and longer-term reductions in testing (perhaps due to the shift of focus onto vaccinations) may be partially responsible.
Vaccinations are similarly way down again. As a result of the weather, we’re also facing a reduction in doses coming to us from the federal supply, and there are also reports of vaccination sites losing power and having to have their doses moved elsewhere. It’s hard to know what the effect will be on those expecting to be vaccinated this week. I assume I’ll hear more in the coming days.
Meanwhile, most Senate committee hearings will be canceled for a third straight day tomorrow. The problem now is not workers unable to get into the Capitol, but the thousands of people who are still without power and who therefore cannot access our hearings as witnesses or observers.
The decision to cancel or not was left up to individual chairs. I for one did decide to cancel Senate Education for tomorrow. We had a really important hearing scheduled on disrupting the school-to-prison pipeline with testimony on several bills focused on addressing that problem. Unfortunately, several of the people who had intended to testify let me know that they were told they likely still wouldn’t have power by tomorrow afternoon. For that reason, and in order to maintain equal access to all, postponing the session seemed like the right choice. We’ll probably reschedule this session for the week after next.
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 411 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 150,875.
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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 few 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 348 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 197,882.
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Total Tests: OHA reported an additional 8,125 tests today. Our cumulative total of reported tests is now 3,419,985.
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Positivity Rate: Today’s test positivity ratio for Oregon is 4.3%. The national ratio today is 5.3%.
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Hospitalization Information:
- Patients Currently with Confirmed COVID-19: 195 (15 fewer than yesterday)
- ICU Patients Confirmed w COVID-19: 51 (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: 24 (3 fewer than yesterday).
- Available Ventilators: 796 (17 fewer than yesterday).
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Deaths: I’m sorry to report 1 newly-reported COVID death today. You can read about the Oregonian we lost further down in the newsletter. The total number of COVID deaths in Oregon is now at 2,138.
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Vaccinations: As of the end of yesterday, here are the latest numbers:
- New Immunizations Reported Today: 7,568
- 5,282 administered yesterday
- 2,286 administered previously and report received yesterday
- Total First and Second Doses Administered So Far: 691,455
- 367,164 Pfizer doses
- 323,642 Moderna doses
- Total Oregonians vaccinated so far: 487,273
- 198,898 now fully vaccinated with two doses
- To date, 905,725 doses of vaccine have been delivered to sites across Oregon.
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Today’s National Numbers:
- Total Tests: 337,280,386 (up 1,060,442 from yesterday).
- Total Cases: 27,540,885 (up 56,312 from yesterday).
- Deaths: 478,259 (up 1,353 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:
- OHA has just released the latest County Metrics. They show the ongoing decline in infection rate and positivity rate for the state as a whole, especially for Multnomah County. It also includes an explanation of the Risk Level process.
- OHA reported today that vaccine shipments may be delayed due to severe weather here in Oregon and across the country. This may have an effect on this week’s vaccinations. They are working with the CDC to guarantee the safety of the doses that should be headed our way. They are also assisting Oregon COVID-19 vaccine sites that have lost power to their freezers by moving doses to powered sites to avoid spoilage. We should hear more about how this is going in the coming days.
- OPB’s Elizabeth Miller has a story on decisions being made by parents on whether or not to send their kids back to in-person schooling. It’s not a straightforward decision for many. Some districts are split down the middle on this question.
- Here’s a K-12 In-Person School Trackerthat shows data from across the country.
- Axios has an interesting story about the way the winter surge has disproportionately affected older white Americans. winter surge has disproportionately affected while Americans.
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 411. Here is the breakdown of cases by county today:
Baker (2)
Benton (15)
Clackamas (40)
Columbia (1)
Coos (11)
Crook (2)
Curry (3)
Deschutes (8)
Douglas (37)
Harney (1)
Jackson (42)
Jefferson (3)
Josephine (13)
Klamath (2)
Lake (3)
Lane (21)
Lincoln (1)
Linn (6)
Malheur (1)
Marion (25)
Multnomah (134)
Polk (6)
Umatilla (4)
Wallowa (3)
Wasco (1)
Washington (22)
Yamhill (5)
And the Death:
Oregon’s 2,138th COVID-19 death is an 85-year-old man in Marion County who tested positive on Feb. 7 and died on Feb. 14 at Salem 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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