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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 numbers remain stable, with a big drop in hospitalizations reported today. Good news indeed.
Immunizations are back up. Nearly 80% of all the vaccines we’ve received have now been administered. Unfortunately, that’s partly due to the fact that no new doses came to Oregon yesterday.
The newly-released weekly data report and outbreak report show the effects of our ongoing reduction in new cases in the population as a whole, and particularly for those living in congregate care.
Although Oregon is doing a superior job of containing the virus (according to COVID-Act Now, Oregon currently has the lowest infection rate in the continental U.S.), we are certainly not without tragedy. Every loss to this disease is tragic. However, one of the losses newly reported today was a particularly tragic landmark: last month we lost our first infant to this disease.
OHA reported today that an infant boy in Umatilla County tested positive for COVID on January 17 and died that same day. For confidentiality reasons, we don’t know many details; all that we do know is that the infant had unspecified underlying conditions. This is an extremely rare phenomenon anywhere, but to have it happen so close to home is especially sobering.
The Governor issued the following condolence message: “The loss of a life so young is an indescribable tragedy for a family. Dan and I send our thoughts and condolences to the mother and family of this child, whose grief must be unimaginable in this moment. The hearts of all Oregonians are with you today.”
Please keep them in your thoughts.
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 466 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 151,713.
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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 640 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 198,254. 198,894
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Total Tests: OHA reported an additional 17,415 tests today. Our cumulative total of reported tests is now 3,449,326.
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Positivity Rate: Today’s test positivity ratio for Oregon is 3.7%. The national ratio today is 4.9%.
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Hospitalization Information:
- Patients Currently with Confirmed COVID-19: 169 (21 fewer than yesterday)
- ICU Patients Confirmed w COVID-19: 52 (8 more than yesterday).
- Available ICU Beds: 167 (15 more than yesterday)
- Other Available Beds: 581 (50 more than yesterday).
- Confirmed COVID-19 Patients Currently on Ventilators: 27 (5 more than yesterday).
- Available Ventilators: 804 (14 more than yesterday).
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Deaths: I’m sorry to report 6 newly-reported COVID deaths today. You can read about the Oregonians we lost further down in the newsletter. The total number of COVID deaths in Oregon is now at 2,149.
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Vaccinations: As of the end of yesterday, here are the latest numbers:
- New Immunizations Reported Today: 22,663
- 14,414 administered yesterday
- 8,249 administered previously and report received yesterday
- Total First and Second Doses Administered So Far: 729,823
- 373,806 Pfizer doses
- 332,778 Moderna doses
- Total Oregonians vaccinated so far: 496,079
- 205,901 now fully vaccinated with two doses
- To date, 922,300 doses of vaccine have been delivered to sites across Oregon (same as yesterday).
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Today’s National Numbers:
- Total Tests: 339,981,823 (up 1,356,782 from yesterday).
- Total Cases: 27,674,548 (up 66,824 from yesterday).
- Deaths: 483,223 (up 2,616 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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New Senate Bills Introduced Today
This morning I drove down to Salem to help guarantee quorum for our weekly floor session, a session that lasted all of ten minutes.
The purpose of the session was to formally introduce a number of new Senate bills. Here they are. The new House bills will be introduced on Tuesday.
Weekly COVID and Outbreak Reports Released
The Oregon Health Authority’s COVID-19 Weekly Data report was released today, covering the week of Monday, February 8, to Sunday, February 14. It shows sharp decreases in daily cases and positivity rate. It shows large increases in COVID deaths, but most of these actually occurred back in December and January. We also saw increases in hospitalizations. Here are some of the highlights:
- OHA has reported reported 3,453 new daily cases of COVID-19--a 15% decrease from the previous week. This is less than half the rate of a month ago.
- The number of COVID tests unfortunately declined again, to 102.112.
- The positivity rate declined again. The percentage of positive tests was 3.4%, down from 4.2% the previous week. That’s the lowest percentage of weekly positive tests since Oregon implemented its test-based method in mid-November.
- New COVID-19 related hospitalizations increased from 230 to 272.
- COVID-19 related deaths also increased—from 66 to 114 (though many of those actually occurred in December and January).
- Of the 150,875 cases reported in Oregon since the start of the pandemic, 2,138 have died—a case-fatality rate of 1.4%. For those 80 years old and older with COVID, the fatality rate has risen to nearly 20%.
Today’s COVID-19 Weekly Outbreak report shows 96 active COVID-19 outbreaks in senior living communities and congregate living settings. This is less than half the number a month ago. The number of new cases in those settings last week was just 172, a quarter of the number a month ago.
Landlord Compensation Fund Taking Applications
Back in December, when the Legislature met for our third special session of the year, we extended the moratorium on renter evictions and at the same time created a new fund to provide compensation to landlords whose livelihoods would be adversely affected by the exgtension.
We just learned today from Oregon Housing and Community Services (OHCS) that the Landlord Compensation Fund is now accepting applications! The fund provides relief to residential landlords who have been unable to collect tenant rent due to tenant hardships. Landlords whose applications are selected for funding will receive 80% of unpaid rent they are owed by current qualified tenants (from April 2020 on) and the remaining 20% of unpaid rent is forgiven.
The February application will be open until March 2nd and cover rent debt accrued from April 2020 – February 2021. This round of application includes $50 million of the total $150 million available for this program.
Here's a flyer about the program that went out to landlords. It provides information about the program and the 5 steps landlords will need to take to access the fund.
Tenants in need of assistance can call or text 2-1-1 or reach out to their local community action agency. Additionally, homeowners in need of support can access assistance through the Oregon Homeownership Stabilization Initiative.
Need Transportation to Your Vaccination Appointment?
Having access to a vaccine is great, but many people need more than an appointment—they need transportation to their appointment as well. This is particularly the case for seniors and people in the 1a category that includes people with disabilities who receive care at home. Some of you may qualify for free transportation to your appointments.
Those who are enrolled in Oregon Health Plan (OHP), either with a Coordinated Care Organization (CCO) managed-care plan or under an OHP Open Card (fee for service) plan, can use Non-Emergent Medical Transportation (NEMT) to get to a clinic and get back home. Here is a map of NEMT brokerages. Those eligible can call the brokerages directly to schedule a ride.
If you’re an older adult or an adult with a physical disability, there may also be other services in your community to assist with transportation. To learn more:
Biden Administration Reopens Insurance Marketplace
If you don’t qualify for the Oregon Health Plan and don’t get health insurance through your job, now through Saturday, May 15, is an important time. If you missed open enrollment, this is an excellent time to get health coverage for 2021.
Use the Marketplace’s window shopping feature at OregonHealthCare.gov/WindowShop to find out:
- How can I save money on health insurance?
- What would my health plan cover?
- Once I know what I can afford, what’s next?
OregonHealthCare.gov is the online home of the Oregon Health Insurance Marketplace, a part of state government. It is the state-level partner of HealthCare.gov, the national website where people enroll in Marketplace plans and access subsidies.
Health insurance sold through the Marketplace is individual and family coverage offered by private companies, such as Bridgespan, Kaiser Permanente, Moda, PacificSource, Providence, and Regence. Not every company is available in every part the state, but at least three insurance companies and at least 15 plan choices are available everywhere in Oregon.
More than 70 percent of Oregonians enrolled through the Marketplace last year qualified for a subsidy. People who received help with the costs of their health insurance paid, on average, $137 per month. An insurance expert can help you, at no cost, apply for the subsidy and enroll in coverage. They are listed at OregonHealthCare.gov/GetHelp.
For more information, visit OregonHealthCare.gov or call 855-268-3767 (toll-free).
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 466. More than two-thirds of today’s reported cases are from outside the Portland Tri-County region. Here is the breakdown of cases by county today:
Baker (6)
Benton (17)
Clackamas (31)
Clatsop (2)
Columbia (6)
Coos (8)
Crook (9)
Curry (4)
Deschutes (19)
Douglas (25)
Harney (1)
Hood River (2)
Jackson (27)
Jefferson (12)
Josephine (13)
Klamath (6)
Lake (3)
Lane (41)
Lincoln (1)
Linn (5)
Malheur (3)
Marion (46)
Morrow (2)
Multnomah (66)
Polk (13)
Tillamook (3)
Umatilla (21)
Union (2)
Wasco (4)
Washington (54)
Yamhill (14)
And the Deaths:
Oregon’s 2,144th COVID-19 death is a 76-year-old man in Deschutes County who tested positive on Feb. 10 and died on Feb. 15 at St. Charles Bend Hospital.
Oregon’s 2,145th COVID-19 death is an 84-year-old man in Deschutes County who tested positive on Feb. 8 and died on Feb. 12 at his residence.
Oregon’s 2,146th COVID-19 death is a 68-year-old man in Marion County who tested positive on Nov. 18 and died on Feb. 14 at Kaiser Permanente Westside Medical Center.
Oregon’s 2,147th COVID-19 death is an 84-year-old man in Josephine County who tested positive on Jan. 25 and died on Feb. 12 at his residence.
Oregon’s 2,148th COVID-19 death is a 72-year-old man in Coos County who tested positive on Jan. 16 and died on Feb. 11 at Oregon Health & Science University Hospital.
Oregon’s 2,149th COVID-19 death is an infant boy in Umatilla County who tested positive on Jan. 17 and died on Jan. 17 at Kadlec Regional Medical Center. He had underlying conditions.
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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