February 26th COVID-19 Update

Click to edit this placeholder text.

Michael Dembrow

February 26, 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 numbers reflect a significant drop in new cases—but once again they should be taken with a grain of salt.  Many of the positive test results came in late yesterday and weren’t added to the calculation of reported new cases.  They’ll presumably show up in tomorrow’s report.  Otherwise, all the COVID metrics remain consistent with where they’ve been—low positivity rate, low hospitalization rates, and low COVID death rate.

The number of vaccinations that occurred yesterday hit a new high, with more than 30,000 vaccinations reported. 

That’s despite the failures in the appointment scheduling system that I reported last night.  Despite the frustrations, many are in fact getting appointments (small comfort, of course, to those who went away empty-handed). 

In tonight’s newsletter you’ll find a summary of the Governor’s press conference today, which revealed a new, more ambitious timetable for completed immunizations as a result of increased production.  It also revealed a new scheduling method for appointments in the Portland area.

The Governor also announced the next wave of vaccine priority groups that will follow seniors in the 65+ category. 

Please stay safe, and let me know if you have any questions about information in today’s newsletter.

 

intro

TODAY’S CORONAVIRUS AND CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE UPDATE

  • New COVID Cases: OHA reports 336 new COVID cases today.  The cumulative number of cases in Oregon since the beginning of the pandemic is 154,878.
  • Variant COVID Cases: OHA reports that an additional Oregonian has tested positive for the B.117. (UK) variant and none of the other variants. (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 623 positive tests today, The cumulative total of positive test results since the beginning of the pandemic is now 202,565.
  • Total Tests: OHA reported an additional 17,803 tests today. Our cumulative total of reported tests is now 3,564,120.
  • Positivity Rate: Today’s test positivity ratio for Oregon is 3.5%. The national ratio today is 4.1%.
  • Hospitalization Information:
    • Patients Currently with Confirmed COVID-19: 152 (4 fewer than yesterday)
    • ICU Patients Confirmed w COVID-19: 34 (4 fewer than yesterday).
    • Available ICU Beds: 167 (1 more than yesterday)
    • Other Available Beds: 616 (73 more than yesterday).
    • Confirmed COVID-19 Patients Currently on Ventilators: 15 (2 more than yesterday).
    • Available Ventilators: 806 (6 fewer than yesterday).
  • Deaths: I’m sorry to report 2 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 is now 2,206.
  • Vaccinations: As of the end of yesterday, here are the latest numbers:
    • New Immunizations Reported Today: 30,594
      • 22,353 administered yesterday
      • 8,241 administered previously and report received yesterday
    • Total First and Second Doses Administered So Far: 911,648
      • 476,922 Pfizer doses
      • 433,932 Moderna doses
    • Total Oregonians vaccinated so far: 588,698
      • 317,267 now fully vaccinated with two doses
    • To date, 1,177,945 doses of vaccine have been delivered to sites across Oregon. (That’s an additional 7,350 new doses distributed to sites the yesterday.)
  • Today’s National Numbers:
    • Total Tests: 351,578,714 (up 1,793,570 from yesterday).
    • Total Cases: 28,225,167 (up 74,429 from yesterday).
    • Deaths: 500,345 (up 2,137 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:
    • The Johnson & Johnson vaccine took a step closer to FDA approval today. Approval could come as soon as Sunday.  If so, we could see 20 million doses become available very quickly—for Oregon that will likely mean 200,000 doses by the end of March and 1 million by the end of June.  You can read more here.

 

Governor Announces Further Vaccination Priority Lists

The Governor held a COVID press conference this morning.  It was largely full of positive news about the pandemic in Oregon and efforts to combat it with vaccinations.  OHA reports that increased supply from the manufacturers should allow everyone 65 and older to get their first dose by March 29.  By July 1 any Oregonian 16 and older who wants the vaccine will be able to access it. 

She also unveiled the new prioritization list for the next wave of vaccinations after seniors get their first doses by March 29.  You’ll see it below.

This is all of course welcome news, but the Governor took pains to point out that it would be a mistake for Oregonians to let their guard down this close to the end: “The finish line is in sight, and we can’t let up.  We’re not out of the woods just yet.”

The one blemish on the otherwise positive picture was the flawed vaccination scheduling process in the Portland Metro area.  In response to that, OHA Director Pat Allen revealed that they are planning a big change next week to an invitation system where people who are eligible will be contacted and offered appointments.  You can read more about that further down in the newsletter.

Here are some specific points made at the news conference:

  • The federal government is offering FEMA resources to the states in order to help them with administration of vaccines. We can expect financial resources to compensate hospitals for the help they’ve been providing.  FEMA will also provide personnel at large vaccination sites—starting with 20 next week. After analyzing our staffing needs here in Oregon, they may recommend additional staff.
  • We received 111K first doses this week and can expect 120,000 next week. Over the next month those numbers could rise to 190,000-205,000, based on what we’re hearing from the manufacturers.
  • If these higher numbers are reached, that means all Oregonians who want the vaccine could receive it by the end of May.
  • If we include all the Oregonians 65 and older who have already been vaccinated (because they live in congregate care or fit into other 1a or 1b categories), we have already vaccinated 1 in 3 seniors. Nearly half of all 80+ have already been vaccinated.
  • 14% of all Oregonians have now received at least their first dose. That’s right at the national average. 7.2% are fully immunized with both doses, which is higher than the national average of 6.5%.    
  • With the gradual increase in the number of people infected with the more contagious mutating versions of COVID-19, it’s critical that we get as many people vaccinated as possible, as quickly as possible.
  • The next wave of people to receive the vaccine (on March 29) will be those with at least one pre-existing condition (see below for how that’s defined) who are 45 to 65 years old. There are estimated to be 800,000 in that group (though that number includes people who may have already been vaccinated because they qualified for other 1a and 1b reasons.)
  • While a problem in the Metro area because of the huge numbers of people who are eligible and want the vaccine, scheduling has not been a problem in other parts of the state. In those areas the age priority bands appear to be working well.  Even in the Metro area, though, every available appointment is being filled.
  • We know that some ineligible people have been able to get the vaccine, crowding out seniors and other eligible Oregonians. However, Director Pat Allen believes that their numbers are small.

Here is a chart with the next waves of prioritization for the vaccine, listing the various pre-existing conditions:

sequencing

 

And here is a chart and those who qualify as frontline workers:

frontline

 

Oregon is largely following the CDC recommendations, with a few exceptions:

  • Smokers are not included as a priority group. However, if they have a smoking-related preexisting condition they are.
  • We include a few additional essential-worker groups that are high-risk and somewhat unique to us: agricultural field workers, food-processing and seafood works and wildfire fighters.

You can watch a video of the Governor’s press conference here.

 

New Method of Signing Up for a Vaccine Coming Next Week

We learned in the news conference that OHA and the four hospital groups that are partnering to offer vaccines at the Convention Center are moving to invitation-only appointment scheduling starting next week.

  • Those who are eligible and have registered with Get Vaccinated Oregon (getvaccinated.oregon.gov) will be contacted and offered an appointment when they’re eligible and an appointment at the Convention Center is available.
  • Eligible seniors will be selected at random to fill the appointments. There won’t be prioritization by age:  seniors 65 and older will be chosen at random starting next week.
  • This is an effort to avoid the frustrating bottlenecks and system failures that occurred yesterday, as hundreds of thousands of clicks occurred at the same time.
  • People can still use the pharmacy sites. I’ve heard from many of you that have had success at the easy-to-use sites—but they are still receiving limited supply.

You can read more about the new process in this Oregonian article.

 

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 336.  More than 2/3 of today’s cases are from outside the Portland Tri-County area.  Here is today’s breakdown by county: 

Note from OHA: Due to a server error, a large volume of electronic laboratory reports (ELRs) were not processed until after business hours yesterday. Today’s test counts include all ELRs received yesterday. Case counts are lower than anticipated because local health departments were not able to create cases from positive ELRs that were received after hours.

Baker (2)

Benton (7)

Clackamas (20)

Columbia (5)

Coos (15)

Curry (8)

Deschutes (17)

Douglas (19)

Harney (1)

Hood River (1)

Jackson (16)

Jefferson (1)

Josephine (14)

Klamath (9)

Lane (28)

Linn (12)

Malheur (2)

Marion (38)

Morrow (2)

Multnomah (47)

Polk (10)

Tillamook (2)

Umatilla (8)

Union (6)

Washington (38)

Yamhill (8)

 

And the Deaths:

Oregon’s 2,205th COVID-19 death is a 73-year-old man in Douglas County who tested positive on Feb. 10 and died on Feb. 24 at Mercy Medical Center.

Oregon’s 2,206th COVID-19 death is a 55-year-old man in Umatilla County who tested positive on Jan. 28 and died on Feb. 23 at Legacy Emanuel Medical Center.

 


cases

cases 7

cases 14

positive

tests

percent

hospitalizations

icu

ventilatorws

deaths

 

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.


graphic



 

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