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February 23, 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.
COVID numbers are back where they’ve been for the last few week, with hospitalizations and positivity rate lower, and eight COVID deaths (though, as you’ll see below, two of them actually date back to late December and early January).
As a result of declining infection and positivity rates, a number of additional counties are on track to have their COVID restrictions eased somewhat.
I’m pleased to report a huge influx of COVID vaccines yesterday, double the amount we normally would have expected. It makes up for what didn’t arrive last week due to weather. As a result, our current administration rate went back down to the mid-70% range for today. That will go back up again over the next few days.
You won’t be surprised to hear that I’ve received many more complaints regarding constituents’ attempts to get appointments scheduled yesterday. Again, though, I also heard stories of success, both at the OHA site and at the pharmacy sites. I’ve passed the complaints on to OHA and hope that they will lead to improvements.
Given the huge gap that still exists between supply and demand in the Portland metro area (it’s much better in the more rural areas), frustration and impatience are inevitable. But there should be a way for the system to be constructed so that at least people have a sense of where they stand. I’m very sorry that it’s this way for now.
The vaccine manufacturers did testify to Congress this morning that big increases in doses are coming to the states over the next month. Let’s see if that happens and what kinds of improvements that increased supply brings with it.
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 528 new COVID cases today. The cumulative number of cases in Oregon since the beginning of the pandemic is 153,645.
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Variant COVID Cases: OHA now reports a total of 9 Oregonians who have tested positive for the B.117. (UK) variant and none of the other variants, an increase of 5 cases from previous reporting. (However, although 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 407 positive tests today, in addition to the 32 from yesterday. The average per day is thus 381. The cumulative total of positive test results since the beginning of the pandemic is now 200,508. 200,915.
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Total Tests: OHA reported an additional 12,526 tests today. Our cumulative total of reported tests is now 3,510,691,
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Positivity Rate: Today’s test positivity ratio for Oregon is 3.2%. The national ratio today is 5.7%.
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Hospitalization Information:
- Patients Currently with Confirmed COVID-19: 165 (2 fewer than yesterday)
- ICU Patients Confirmed w COVID-19: 44 (3 fewer than yesterday).
- Available ICU Beds: 156 (30 fewer than yesterday)
- Other Available Beds: 676 569 (107 fewer than yesterday).
- Confirmed COVID-19 Patients Currently on Ventilators: 22 (1 more than yesterday).
- Available Ventilators: 779 (9 fewer than Friday).
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Deaths: I’m happy to report 8 newly-reported COVID deaths today. You can read more about those we’ve lost further down in the newsletter. The total number of COVID deaths in Oregon remains at 2,162.
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Vaccinations: As of the end of yesterday, here are the latest numbers:
- New Immunizations Reported Today: 14,917
- 9,235 administered yesterday
- 5,682 administered previously and report received yesterday
- Total First and Second Doses Administered So Far: 836,075
- 44,078 Pfizer doses
- 391,245 Moderna doses
- Total Oregonians vaccinated so far: 548,398
- 282,236 now fully vaccinated with two doses
- To date, 1,092,385 doses of vaccine have been delivered to sites across Oregon. (That’s a huge jump of 167,810 new doses coming into the state yesterday.)
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Today’s National Numbers:
- Total Tests: 346,460,862 (up 1,188,609 from yesterday).
- Total Cases: 28,000,689 (up 67,879 from yesterday).
- Deaths: 492,578 (up 2,196 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 Quick Updates:
- OHA has released the latest County Metrics. You’ll see ongoing declines in the statewide number of COVID cases, infection rate, and positivity rate. The same is true of most individual counties, notably the three large Portland-area counties.
- COVID vaccine manufacturers told a Congressional committee that they are looking at big increases in doses available to the states over the next month. Pfizer and Moderna testified that they have overcome initial bottlenecks in raw material supply, and Johnson & Johnson believes that its single-dose vaccine is close to distribution. Read more here. Read more here.
- OPB’s Amelia Templeton reports on an important piece of COVID good news:nearly every resident of an Oregon long-term care facility has received at least one dose of the vaccine. Residents in congregate care settings have constituted the majority of all Oregonians who have died of COVID, so this is an extremely important milestone. Oregon has been a real leader in prioritizing this population.
Coming Up On Wednesday: Next Constituent Zoom
I’ll be holding a constituent zoom this Wednesday, 5:30-7:00. It’ll be a chance for me to update you on the latest legislative news, including Wednesday morning’s revenue forecast, update you on COVID response, and answer your questions. You can sign up here
Sixteen Counties See Risk-Level Improvements
The Governor announced today that 16 counties improved in risk level, with 10 of those moving down from Extreme Risk to High Risk. One county (Wasco) moved all the way from Extreme Risk to Lower Risk.
Three counties unfortunately went the other way: Curry and Harney moved from Lower Risk to Moderate Risk. Douglas County went from High Risk to Extreme Risk.
Effective Feb. 26 through Mar. 11, only five counties will be in the Extreme Risk level, 11 in High Risk, 10 in Moderate Risk and 10 in Lower Risk. A complete list is available here.
OHA examines and publishes county data weekly. (You’ll find a link to this week’s metric in the “Brief Updates” section above. County risk levels are reassigned every two weeks. The first week's data provides a "warning week" to prepare counties for potential risk level changes. The next assignment of risk levels will be announced March 9 and will take effect March 12.
Coming Up on Wednesday: Quarterly Revenue Forecast
Tomorrow 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 p.m. 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.
Also Coming Up Wednesday Evening: OHA en Español
OHA en Español will host a Spanish language Facebook Live event on Wednesday, February 24, from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. about the COVID-19 vaccine. They’ll share vaccine updates, hear from people who have received the vaccine and have a Q&A exchange. OHA Senior Health Advisor Dr. Emilio DeBess and Director of Sabiduría: Latina/o Psychology Emphasis, Dr. Ruth Zúñiga, PhD, will lead the discussion.
You can participate in the Facebook Live event at www.facebook.com/ohaespanol. If you can’t make it to the live event, you’ll find a recording of it on that same page following the live session.
Hopping from Zoom Room to Zoom Room: Lots of Testimony
One of the challenges that legislators face during a session is juggling committee responsibilities with advocacy on bills that we’re sponsoring. We frequently have to hop out of a committee that we sit on to run down the hall to another committee, in order to speak on one of the bills that we’re sponsoring and try to convince that committee to support it. It’s part of the mad dash of a session.
In this unusual session we still have to do that, but the “mad dash” doesn’t actually involve leaving one’s seat—it just means leaving one zoom meeting and linking into another, speaking and answering questions, then getting back to the original committee. It’s of course easier when the bill is being heard in a committee hearing that I’m already part of, but often it’s not. In just the last two days, I’ve had to speak on a half dozen bills that I’m chief sponsoring or have a strong interest in. Here they are:
SB 137 Disconnect from tax breaks in the Cares Act, in Senate Finance and Revenue. (The Senate version is actually a committee bill, meaning it’s without sponsors; I’m one of the chief sponsors of the House version.)
SB 551 Health Insurance Coverage for Part-Time Higher Ed Faculty, in Senate Education.
SB 576 Increases apprenticeship utilization on public projects, in Senate Labor and Business.
SB 577 Improves apprenticeship utilization and other labor standards on state-funded education projects, in Senate Labor and Business.
SB 578 Requires that legal counsel be provided for individuals being placed into a mandatory guardianship, in Senate Judiciary.
SB 575 Allows juveniles with low-level criminal offenses to have their records cleared automatically at age 18 if they have not reoffended, in Senate Judiciary. (Actually, the committee ran out of time, and this one was carried over to tomorrow.)
SB 391 Allowing people in rural residential areas to have ADUs, in Senate Housing and Development.
In addition, I had two recycling bills that I’m chief sponsoring up for public hearing in Senate Energy and Environment (which I sit on) this afternoon, but I couldn’t present them myself because I was off arguing for SB 391 at the same time . . . Welcome to session!
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 528. Here is today’s breakdown by county:
Baker (5)
Benton (17)
Clackamas (47)
Clatsop (4)
Columbia (12)
Coos (11)
Crook (6)
Curry (3)
Deschutes (34)
Douglas (29)
Grant (1)
Harney (4)
Hood River (2)
Jackson (46)
Jefferson (9)
Josephine (17)
Klamath (11)
Lane (40)
Lincoln (3)
Linn (8)
Malheur (5)
Marion (37)
Morrow (4)
Multnomah (55)
Polk (12)
Tillamook (2)
Umatilla (20)
Union (5)
Washington (64)
Yamhill (15)
And the Deaths:
Note from OHA: Oregon’s 1,450th and 1,509th COVID-19 deaths, reported on Dec. 30, 2020 and Jan. 5, 2021, are the same person. Because of this error, we are renumbering our reported deaths starting with 2,155 today.
Oregon’s 2,155th COVID-19 death is a 92-year-old man in Clackamas County who tested positive on Nov. 11 and died on Dec. 21 at Providence Portland Medical Center.
Oregon’s 2,156th COVID-19 death is a 74-year-old man in Josephine County who tested positive on Feb. 18 and died on Feb. 21 at Asante Three Rivers Medical Center.
Oregon’s 2,157th COVID-19 death is a 47-year-old man in Lane County who tested positive on Jan. 22 and died on Feb. 19 at Legacy Emanuel Medical Center.
Oregon’s 2,158th COVID-19 death is a 76-year-old man in Lincoln County who tested positive on Feb. 6 and died on Feb. 22 at Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center.
Oregon’s 2,159th COVID-19 death is a 77-year-old man in Marion County who tested positive on Jan. 28 and died on Feb. 20 at Legacy Meridian Park Medical Center.
Oregon’s 2,160th COVID-19 death is a 93-year-old woman in Marion County who tested positive on Feb. 16 and died on Feb. 18 at her residence.
Oregon’s 2,161st COVID-19 death is an 82-year-old woman in Multnomah County who tested positive on Feb. 16 and died on Feb. 22 at Legacy Emanuel Medical Center.
Oregon’s 2,162nd COVID-19 death is a 63-year-old woman in Umatilla County who tested positive on Dec. 17 and died on Jan. 2 at her residence.
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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