|
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.
Today’s COVID case numbers and hospitalizations have gone down slightly today. COVID deaths have jumped up to 32 in today’s report. I suspect that many of these are a function of earlier reports showing up after a delay, but we won’t know that till tomorrow—details about those deaths have not yet been released.
Again, the COVID trends remain very positive. Further down in the newsletter you’ll find information about the latest weekly data and outbreak reports—they continue to show steep declines on a number of fronts.
Yesterday was another big day for vaccinations. We received another batch of doses yesterday (a smaller batch following the huge increase that arrived on Monday).
Tomorrow morning at 9 another group of vaccination appointments will be released in the Portland area. Let’s hope it goes more smoothly than it did on Monday. (Again, though, there still aren’t nearly enough doses to meet the huge demand in the Metro area.) You’ll find contact info and other details further down in the newsletter.
I’m happy to say that today I received as many positive reports as negative reports about the appointment process. I’ve heard good things about the websites in some of the rural counties. Let’s hope we see improvements in this region.
Finally, today we saw the release of the latest revenue forecast for Oregon. The news is surprisingly good, given that we’re still in the middle of a pandemic. You’ll find details further down.
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 437 new COVID cases today. The cumulative number of cases in Oregon since the beginning of the pandemic is 154,062.
-
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.)
-
Positive Test Results: OHA reports 472 positive tests today, The cumulative total of positive test results since the beginning of the pandemic is now 201,387.
-
Total Tests: OHA reported an additional 15,528 tests today. Our cumulative total of reported tests is now 3,526,219.
-
Positivity Rate: Today’s test positivity ratio for Oregon is 3.0%. The national ratio today is 5.0%.
-
Hospitalization Information: OHA only provided updated figures for the first two bulleted items below
- Patients Currently with Confirmed COVID-19: 162 (3 fewer than yesterday)
- ICU Patients Confirmed w COVID-19: 46 (2 more than yesterday).
- Available ICU Beds: 156 (same as yesterday)
- Other Available Beds: 569 (107 fewer than yesterday).
- Confirmed COVID-19 Patients Currently on Ventilators: 22 (1 more than yesterday).
- Available Ventilators: 779 (9 fewer than yesterday).
-
Deaths: I’m sorry to report 32 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.
-
Vaccinations: As of the end of yesterday, here are the latest numbers:
- New Immunizations Reported Today: 22,406
- 14,502 administered yesterday
- 7,904 administered previously and report received yesterday
- Total First and Second Doses Administered So Far: 858,481
- 452,647 Pfizer doses
- 405,066 Moderna doses
- Total Oregonians vaccinated so far: 558,156
- 294,725 now fully vaccinated with two doses
- To date, 1,133,695 doses of vaccine have been delivered to sites across Oregon. (That’s an additional 41,310 new doses coming into the state yesterday.).
-
Today’s National Numbers:
- Total Tests: 347,947,401 (up 1,464,714 from yesterday).
- Total Cases: 28,075,173 (up 73,258 from yesterday).
- Deaths: 495,070 (up 2,397 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:
- A number of news outlets reported today on the FDA’s finding that the Johnson & Johnson vaccine prevents COVID, is safe, and is ready for use. Here's one from the Associated Press.
- For you super-wonks out there, here’s a very detailed description of how the J&J vaccine actually works.
- We’re hearing more and more about evidence pointing to how the vaccines not only prevent death from COVID, but they also do appear to reduce transmission significantly. This article from VOX into detail on how the vaccine keeps one from being a spreader.
- I’ve mentioned that a number of newsletter readers have been frustrated in their attempts to schedule a vaccination appointment, particularly with the Legacy MyHealth sign on (which presumably one can bypass). I’ve passed that concern on to OHA. Here's a story from KGW.
- As I mentioned in last night’s newsletter, a number of counties will see their risk status lowered this Friday. Included in that number are Clackamas and Washington Counties, which will move from “High Risk” to “Moderate Risk,” opening them up to higher numbers of people allowed in restaurants, taverns, and gyms. More here.
- Research is now showing that if you have had COVID-19, you have about as much protection from getting it again (at least in the short run) as if you had been vaccinated. More here.
Convention Center Appointments Canceled for Sunday and Monday
If you have an appointment for a vaccine at the Convention Center this coming Sunday and Monday, I’m afraid your appointment must be rescheduled. (You should actually have heard from them already.) They need to do some rearranging of sites within the Center on those days.
You can read more about the cause and the effects here.
Next Batch of Appointments Will Be Released Tomorrow Morning
As occurs every Thursday at 9 a.m. (along with every Monday morning at 9:00), additional appointments at the big Convention Center and Airport Drive-Through sites will be released. If you’re 70 and older, you have several options:
- Use the OHA appointment chatbox at https://covidvaccine.oregon.gov
- You can call the Oregon Convention Center Vaccine Scheduling Team directly at 971-268-5550. They will call you back – eventually –and I’m told they are helpful.
- You can also try the pharmacy sites:
The vaccine is free of charge at all these locations. Good luck! Remember, there will continue to be many more people trying to get appointments than there are available doses. That will continue to be true over the next few weeks.
Latest Weekly Report and Outbreak Report Again Show Big Declines
The Oregon Health Authority’s COVID-19 Weekly Report, released today, shows sharp decreases in daily cases, hospitalizations and deaths from the previous week.
- OHA reported 2,260 new daily cases of COVID-19 during the week of Monday, Feb. 15 through Sunday, Feb. 21 — a 35% decrease from last week.
- New COVID-19 related hospitalizations fell 42%, dropping from 272 to 159.
- COVID-19 related deaths also decreased from 114 to 17, which represents the lowest weekly death toll since the week of June 29–July 5.
- Unfortunately, there were only 70,200 tests for COVID-19 for the week of Feb. 14 through Feb. 20, which represents a steep decline from the previous week.
- The percentage of positive tests was 3.5%.
Once again, people age 70 and older have accounted for 77% of deaths associated with the virus.
Today’s COVID-19 Weekly Outbreak Report shows 74 active COVID-19 outbreaks in senior living communities and congregate living settings. It also reports on outbreaks in workplaces (with the greatest numbers again in correctional institutions), childcare, and K-12. Check it out, or I’ll have details in future newsletters.
Quarterly Revenue Forecast Shows Surprisingly Big Gains
This afternoon the Office of Economic Analysis presented the latest quarterly revenue forecast at a Joint Hearing of the Revenue Committees
In their presentation economists Mark McMullen and Josh Lehner gave us a look at the present state of the economy and provided their best expectations going forward. The picture that they painted was surprisingly good. Despite many individual stories of hurt and despair, overall income in Oregon is up sharply. This is largely the result of the federal relief dollars that have come into the state, people’s ability to save many of those dollars, big investment returns in the stock markets, improvements in unemployment, and improvements in tackling the pandemic. They project big gains in the economy over the next two years, as the COVID vaccines roll out, COVID cases continue to decline, and things get back to normal.
The effects on state revenues (income tax, corporate activities tax, and lottery funds) will be substantial. So substantial, unfortunately, that both the personal kicker and the corporate kicker (which goes to fund schools) are projected to be triggered once again.
Here are some highlights:
- Net General Fund and Lottery resources for the 2019-21 Biennium are up $642.7 million from the December 2020 forecast.
- Lottery Funds are down $101 million since the December 2020 forecast, the result of holiday COVID tavern closures following months of improvements. With restrictions gradually being lifted, we should see lottery revenues rise.
- A personal kicker of $570 million is projected for the 2021-23 Biennium. The projected corporate kicker of $420 million is to be dedicated to K-12 education spending in in the 2021-23 Biennium.
- The stage is set for a strong recovery this year and next as the pandemic wanes. This is largely due to the improvements seen in public health, the large federal fiscal policy response, and underlying resiliency in the economy. Most encouraging is that there has been surprisingly little economic scarring in the form of business closures and long-term layoffs to date.
- Despite being down 160,000 jobs (9%), total personal income in Oregon today is higher than it was prior to the onset of the pandemic. Personal savings have built up among middle- and upper-income households. Pent-up demand will drive stronger growth in the months ahead.
- The full return to in-person schooling this fall will provide a double boost to the economy as well. There is the direct jobs increase of hiring more teachers and staff, in addition to the indirect boost from freeing parents to rejoin the labor force or increase their hours worked in greater numbers.
- Overall, Oregon’s economy will return to health by early-2023. This is 6-9 months sooner than expected in recent forecasts and more than a full year earlier than expected in the first post-COVID forecast released last May.
- State budget reserves are projected to be over $3 billion.
- The Corporate Activity Tax (CAT), which provides direct funding to schools, is projected to be on target for the next biennium, generating approximately $1 billion per year.
- Unfortunately, Oregon’s recovery has been a disproportionate recovery. Wealthy Oregonians have largely recovered or will recover from the recession, while those in poverty are still struggling. Women (especially those with children), minorities, and LGBTQIA+ community members have been hit hardest.
And here are details on the budget projections from the Legislative Revenue Office.
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 437. More than 2/3 of today’s cases are from outside the Portland Tri-County area. Here is today’s breakdown by county:
Baker (6)
Benton (22)
Clackamas (38)
Clatsop (6)
Columbia (10)
Coos (16)
Crook (8)
Curry (1)
Deschutes (28)
Douglas (28)
Jackson (27)
Jefferson (7)
Josephine (20)
Klamath (4)
Lane (33)
Lincoln (2)
Linn (6)
Malheur (3)
Marion (33)
Morrow (5)
Multnomah (55)
Polk (11)
Sherman (1)
Tillamook (3)
Umatilla (15)
Union (1)
Wasco (1)
Washington (41)
Yamhill (6)
And the Deaths:
We are still awaiting the information about the 32 individual COVID deaths. It will probaly be completed and made available Thursday morning. It’s likely, given this sudden high number, that many if not most of these reported deaths are not recent.
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
|
