February 21st COVID-19 Update

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Michael Dembrow

February 21, 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.

Our reported COVID numbers are low today—deceptively low.  That’s the result of a computer server malfunction, which left most of yesterday’s tests unreported.  OHA expects to have the problem fixed tomorrow, so tomorrow’s numbers will be unusually high.  I’ve gone ahead and included today’s numbers in today’s graphs, but tomorrow I’ll adjust them by combining today’s and tomorrow’s numbers and providing the average of the two for each day.  That will provide a more accurate picture.

We again see a very low COVID death count today, which is welcome news.

With another robust day of vaccinations yesterday, and another day without much if any new doses coming in, our vaccination rate has again gone up—86.8% of all our doses to date have been administered, which is pushing us dangerously close to running out of vaccine.  Fortunately, we’re told that a double shipment of Moderna vaccines is coming to us this week to make up for last week’s delay.  So we can expect to see our administration rate drop back into the 70ish% range, which in this case would be a good thing.

Tomorrow at 9 a.m. the next group of seniors, those 70 and above, will be able to start making vaccination appointments.  You’ll find more information about that in tonight’s newsletter.

You’ll also find info about some of the issues coming up during the first part of this week in the Legislature.

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

  • New COVID Cases: OHA reports 111 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 152,818.
  • NOTE FROM OHA: Due to a server error, a large number of electronic lab results (ELR) were not processed yesterday. As a result, today’s case and ELR totals are lower than usual and the total for tomorrow is expected to be higher than usual. The backlog of ELRs is currently being processed.
  • 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, although Oregon’s testing for the variants is more extensive than in most states, testing for variants remains limited.)
  • Positive Test Results: OHA reports 32 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 199,778.
  • Total Tests: OHA reported an additional 619 tests today. Our cumulative total of reported tests is now 3,477,134.
  • Positivity Rate: Today’s test positivity ratio for Oregon is 5.2%. The national ratio today is 4.8%.
  • Hospitalization Information: During the weekend OHA only reports on the first two items:
    • Patients Currently with Confirmed COVID-19: 166 (3 more than yesterday)
    • ICU Patients Confirmed w COVID-19: 44 (7 fewer than yesterday).
    • Available ICU Beds: 167 (same as yesterday)
    • Other Available Beds: 561 (20 fewer than yesterday).
    • Confirmed COVID-19 Patients Currently on Ventilators: 23 (4 fewer than yesterday).
    • Available Ventilators: 799 (5 fewer than yesterday).
  • Deaths: I’m sorry to report 1 newly-reported COVID death today.  You’ll find more information about the individual we lost further down in the newsletter. The total number of COVID deaths in Oregon is now 2,155.
  • Vaccinations: As of the end of yesterday, here are the latest numbers:
    • New Immunizations Reported Today: 21,202
      • 17,894 administered yesterday
      • 3,308 administered previously and report received yesterday
    • Total First and Second Doses Administered So Far: 802,404
      • 427,045 Pfizer doses
      • 374,659 Moderna doses
    • Total Oregonians vaccinated so far: 535,782
      • 261,316 now fully vaccinated with two doses
    • To date, 924,575 doses of vaccine have been delivered to sites across Oregon. (No change from yesterday.)
  • Today’s National Numbers:
    • Total Tests: 344,360,398 (up 1,225,773 from yesterday).
    • Total Cases: 27,879,604 (up 58,429 from yesterday).
    • Deaths: 489,060 (up 1,286 from yesterday).
    • These national numbers come from the COVID Tracking Project. You can visit that site HERE https://covidtracking.com/data/national
  • Additional Quick Updates:
    • We learned today that Representative Diego Hernandez has tendered his resignation from the Legislature.  The House Committee on conduct had passed a measure calling for the full House to vote to expel him from that body, following serious allegations of harassing misconduct.  His replacement must be a Democrat, selected by the Multnomah County Commission from a group of nominees forwarded by Democratic Precinct Persons in his district.
    • Here’s another promising bit of news about the COVID vaccine’s ability to reduce transmission of the virus. https://www.oregonlive.com/coronavirus/2021/02/pfizer-biontech-vaccine-stops-covid-19-spread-early-israeli-data-shows.html
    • With people around the country pressing for quicker access to their first dose of vaccine, we’re seeing appointments for second doses being canceled because of lack of supply. It reopens the debate over whether we should focus on getting one dose to more people (with potentially a lower efficacy rate) or continue to focus on getting the second dose to everyone (with a higher efficacy rate).  Read more here.l
    • One of the challenges that school districts are facing with reopening their schools to in-person learning is how to accommodate both the students who return and the students who parents don’t feel it’s safe for them to return. An increasingly popular hybrid approach is what’s called “simultaneous teaching”—where a teacher is simultaneous teaching a class where some students are online and some are in person.  It’s a touch challenge.  The Washington Post has this story. this story.
    • OPB’s Rob Manning has a story about the high rates of absenteeism that Portland Public Schools is experiencing this year, particularly among students of color, adding to what was already a problem prior to the pandemic.
    • Economists are starting to talk about a Post-Pandemic economic boom coming our way—the result of declining cases, increasing vaccinations, and lots of unspent cash by those with resources. That’s good news, though it could lead to further disparities between the haves and the have-nots. Here's more.

 

Coming Monday at 9 a.m:  Those Age 70+ Become Eligible to Make Appointments

Those Oregonians who are 70 and older can begin trying to schedule a vaccination appointment starting tomorrow morning at 9:00.  If you living in the Portland area or in Marion County, you’ll want to use the https://covidvaccine.oregon.gov/ website.  (A little orange circle will pop up on the lower right-hand corner—click on it to start the process.)  Thousands of new appointments should be released at that time, but remember that you’ll be competing against those in the 70+ category who haven’t yet scheduled appointments.  You can also use the 211 phone service or try one of the pharmacy services.

Today’s Oregonian has  a very thorough piece on what to expect from the various processes tomorrow morning, along with links and details.  I suggest that you take a look at it before going online.

 

In the Legislature:  The Week Ahead

Tomorrow marks the sixth full week of the 2021 Legislative Session.  Here are some of the things you can expect, with a focus on the committees that I sit on:

  • Floor sessions will be held in the House (Tuesday at 11) and the Senate (Thursday at 11), principally for the purpose of introducing new bills. We are starting to see bills successfully being passed out of committee, at least on the Senate side, and sitting on the President’s desk awaiting their floor votes.  We expect that the following week (i.e., the first week of March) we can expect two floor sessions a week in the Senate, on Wednesdays and Thursdays.
  • Wednesday is one of those milestone days for a session: the release of the next Quarterly Revenue Forecast. It will be presented by our Office of Economic Analysis at a Joint hearing of the Revenue Committees, scheduled for 3:15 pm. on February 24. It will give us a better sense of the revenues we can count on during the next biennium, based on the present state of the economy and expectations going forward. It will help us shape the parameters of the budget bills that we develop over the coming months.
  • As I mentioned last week, Monday morning will be a public hearing in Senate Judiciary of SB 554, an important but controversial bill limiting the ability to bring firearms into public buildings, including the Capitol. Anticipating substantial public interest, the normal 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. time frame will be extended by two hours.  For information on the hearing, including a link to the video, and information on how to submit testimony in writing or via video/audio, here's the link to the agenda.
  • On  Monday Senate Education will be hearing a bill extending health insurance coverage to the many part-time teachers who are providing much of the instruction in our public colleges and universities. On Wednesday we’ll be hearing bills related to disrupting the school-to-prison pipeline.
  • Senate Energy and Environment will be hearing bills to improve our system of disposing of plastic waste via enhanced producer responsibility.

 

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 111. (As mentioned above, this number is unusually low, the result of a server error in reporting electronic lab results.)  Here is the breakdown of cases by county today:

Benton (3)

Clackamas (4)

Columbia (9)

Coos (9)

Curry (3)

Deschutes (11)

Douglas (21)

Jackson (2)

Jefferson (3)

Josephine (1)

Klamath (1)

Lake (1)

Lane (13)

Lincoln (1)

Linn (1)

Marion (11)

Multnomah (8)

Polk (4)

Umatilla (1)

Washington (3)

Yamhill (1)

 

And the Death:

Oregon’s 2155th COVID-19 death is an 84-year-old man in Clackamas County who tested positive on Feb. 16 and died on Feb. 20 at Kaiser Westside Medical Center Hospital.

 


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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.


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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,

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,

dembrow signature

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