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March 7, 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.
As you’ll see in tonight’s newsletter, COVID case numbers are low, as are COVID hospitalizations and test positivity, and in today’s report there are no deaths (which is not to say that they won’t be reported later). This is not unusual for a Sunday.
Yesterday’s vaccination numbers were the highest we’ve seen for a Saturday. At this rate, we should see close to 200,000 more Oregonians vaccinated this week, and more than half of all eligible seniors will have received at least one dose of the vaccine.
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 211 new COVID cases today. The cumulative number of cases in Oregon since the beginning of the pandemic is 157,285.
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Variant COVID Cases: OHA doesn’t report on variants of the COVID virus on weekends, so the B.1.1.7 (UK) variant in Oregon is still at 11 and the P.1 (Brazilian) variant is still at 1.
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Positive Test Results: OHA reports 338 positive tests today. The cumulative total of positive test results since the beginning of the pandemic is now 227,389.
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Total Tests: OHA reported an additional 10,090 tests today Our cumulative total of reported tests is now 3,859,605.
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Positivity Rate: The test positivity ratio for Oregon today is 3.3%. The national ratio today is 3.6%.
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Hospitalization Information: OHA only reports on the first two bulleted items over the weekends.
- Patients Currently with Confirmed COVID-19: 116 (3 more than yesterday)
- ICU Patients Confirmed w COVID-19: 34 (5 more than yesterday).
- Available ICU Beds: 173 (2 fewer than yesterday)
- Other Available Beds: 564 (51 fewer than yesterday).
- Confirmed COVID-19 Patients Currently on Ventilators: 12 (2 fewer than yesterday).
- Available Ventilators: 795 (13 more than yesterday).
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Deaths: I’m happy to report 0 additional COVID deaths today. The total number of COVID deaths in Oregon remains at 2,296.
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Vaccinations: As of the end of yesterday, here are the latest numbers:
- New Immunizations Reported Today: 26,235
- 16,414 were conducted yesterday
- 9,821 were conducted earlier, but the reports were received yesterday (there can potentially be a three-day window for reporting)
- Total First and Second Doses Administered So Far: 1,142,035
- 571,738 Pfizer doses
- 567,265 Moderna doses
- 2,216 Johnson & Johnson doses
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- Total First and Second Doses Administered So Far: 1,142,035
- 571,738 Pfizer doses
- 567,265 Moderna doses
- 2,216 Johnson & Johnson doses
- Total Oregonians vaccinated so far: 727,029
- 410,434 now fully vaccinated with two doses
- To date, 1,362,535 doses of vaccine have been delivered to sites across Oregon. (no increases from yesterday’s report)
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Today’s National Numbers:
- Total Tests: 363,789,451 (up 1,156,241 from yesterday).
- Total Cases: 28,756,241 (up 41,265 from yesterday).
- Deaths: 515,142 (up 839 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:
- As schools start reopening to in-person instructions, it’s crucial that they be safe environments for students and school personnel. But what exactly does that mean? We’re fortunate here in Portland to have one of the country’s leading experts on indoor air quality now working at PSU. I invited him to testify to the Senate Education Committee earlier in the session, and that was followed up recently by his meeting with building facilities managers from districts around the state. He believes we should be focusing more on air quality than on sanitizing of surfaces and has a number of low-cost suggestions that can produce real improvements. Check out his audio interview on OPB's Think Out Loud Last Week
- Yesterday morning the Senate approved the new $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan. It includes a number of relief elements, including a landmark short-term effort to deal with child poverty. Here are many details. We expect the House to go along with the plan and for President Biden to sign it into law very soon.
- Here’s more on the new child tax credit.
- With the new $1400 stimulus checks likely to start going out in the next week, you likely have questions about how that will work and who will be eligible. Here are some answers.
- Today’s Oregonian has a story about groups of volunteers who are helping seniors find COVID appointments. Read it here.
More On School Reopening
As I mentioned in Friday’s newsletter, the Governor is preparing an executive order directing all districts whose COVID metrics allow them to reopen to in-person or hybrid (mixed in-person and online) to do so. The target dates are the end of this month for K-5 and mid-April for middle school and high school. Here is her letter to the Oregon Health Authority and the Oregon Department of Education and her press release about the decision.
I largely agree with this decision, and it’s where nearly all school districts were heading. If we do a risk vs. benefit analysis of returning kids to in-person learning for the final months of this school year, I think the calculus is clearly on the side of doing so for younger kids. Having in-person instruction, even if only for a few hours a day, is clearly going to be beneficial for them. They appear to be largely (though of course not entirely) immune to the worst effects of COVID and appear to transmit the disease at low levels. Also, having them in school frees up their parents for work, as they obviously can’t be left at home alone.
With older kids the risk/benefit calculus is not as clear. The evidence seems to point in the direction of teens transmitting the disease at the same rates as adults. Nevertheless, the CDC believes that under the right conditions—masking, proper ventilation, proper distancing, relatively small cohorts—they too can return to school safely. Where districts and teachers unions have been at odds is over the details of those conditions. These are gradually being worked out.
Nevertheless, not all families are going to be ready to send their children back to in-person instruction because there are vulnerable people in their household, because they don’t trust that the district will be able to take the steps necessary to keep their child safe, or for other reasons. I believe that their children should be able to continue with distance learning if that’s their choice for the remainder of the year. The Governor’s initial letter didn’t make that as clear as it should have. I expect that to be clarified in the actual order.
Looking Forward to the Summer
It has obviously been a very difficult year for the children of this country, including the children of Oregon. Some children have managed to keep up with their learning and social interactions, but most have not. Returning to school for the last 2-3 months of the year will help, but more will be needed. As Education Committee Chair, I’ve been advocating for a significant investment in programs for this summer to help kids catch up on their socializing and their learning and their creativity.
I’ve been able to bring people together to start the process of planning and allocating resources. Summer learning/activities is one of the allowable uses of the federal dollars coming our way. There is a lot of interest in providing opportunities for kids to learn while having fun, doing art, building things, getting outdoors.
It will be a challenge for this year, since planning time is short and districts have their hands full with the immediate reopening process. Still, I believe that many community groups and non-profits will step up to be partners and help make this a reality.
I expect an announcement coming soon, perhaps as early as tomorrow. I’ll provide more details then.
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 211. A little less than 2/3 of all COVID cases reported today were from outside the Portland Tri-County area. Here is today’s breakdown by county:
Benton (10)
Clackamas (26)
Columbia (1)
Coos (4)
Curry (8)
Deschutes (9)
Douglas (12)
Hood River (1)
Jackson (13)
Jefferson (3)
Josephine (5)
Klamath (1)
Lake (3)
Lane (16)
Lincoln (1)
Linn (7)
Malheur (2)
Marion (17)
Morrow (1)
Multnomah (27)
Polk (6)
Tillamook (4)
Washington (20)
Yamhill (16)
 
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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