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Friends and Neighbors,
March 14, 2021
Dear 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.
Not surprisingly for a Sunday, today’s reported COVID case numbers (234) and COVID deaths (0) are low, and the number of Oregonians in hospital with COVID continues to decline. We’ll see if these low numbers continue as the work week gets underway.
As we have in the past, we again saw a decline in vaccinations reported for Saturday, but again that may be a function of weekend reporting, since sites have three days to report and tend to take their time over the weekend. No new doses came in yesterday, so our administration rate increased to 84%. I’m told that we have reached the 50% vaccination mark for those 65 and older, which has us on track to hit the goal of 70% of this group by the end of the month.
On another note, I hope that you’re surviving another round of change-the-clock. How many more of these will there be? You may recall that in 2019 the Legislature passed SB 320. a bill to keep Oregon permanently on Daylight Savings Time. However, it cannot go into effect until Congress has given us permission to do so. (California and Washington also had to pass similar legislation, which they have.) A bipartisan group of U.S. Senators (including our own Senator Wyden) have filed the Sunshine Protection Act of 2021 to do just that. We’ll see how it goes.
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 234 new COVID cases today. The cumulative number of cases in Oregon since the beginning of the pandemic is 159,617.
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Variant COVID Cases: OHA doesn’t report on the variants over the weekend. So the reported number of the B.1.1.7 (UK) variant in Oregon remains at 17, and the P.1 (Brazilian) variant is still at 1.
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Positive Test Results: OHA reported 366 positive tests today. The cumulative total of positive test results since the beginning of the pandemic is now 231,133.
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Total Tests: OHA reported an additional 14.454 tests today. Our cumulative total of reported tests is now 3,963,774.
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Positivity Rate: The test positivity ratio for Oregon today is 3.5%.
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Hospitalization Information: Over the weekend OHA only reports on the first two bulleted items. The remainder will be updated on Monday.
- Patients Currently with Confirmed COVID-19: 100 (4 fewer than yesterday)
- ICU Patients Confirmed w COVID-19: 21 (2 fewer than yesterday).
- Available ICU Beds: 173 (5 more than yesterday)
- Other Available Beds: 592 (13 more than yesterday).
- Confirmed COVID-19 Patients Currently on Ventilators: 8 (1 fewer than yesterday).
- Available Ventilators: 765 (5 fewer 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 2,322.
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Vaccinations: As of the end of yesterday, here are the latest numbers:
- New Immunizations Reported Today: 20,045
- 15,530 were conducted yesterday
- 4,515 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: 1,322,013
- 643,782 Pfizer doses
- 659,476 Moderna doses
- 17,873 Johnson & Johnson doses
- Total Oregonians vaccinated so far: 849,080
- 483,660 now fully vaccinated with two doses
- To date, 1,575,705 doses of vaccine have been delivered to sites across Oregon. (same as yesterday.)
- 83.9% of these doses have been administered so far. The national average is now 78.8%.
- 20.6% of Oregonians have now been vaccinated.
- 11.8% of Oregonians have now been fully vaccinated.
- For more details, including the demographics of those receiving the vaccine, here is a link to more information about the vaccine and vaccination protocols.
- Here is the daily vaccination tracker from Bloomberg.
- And here is a link to each county's vaccination website. It provides access information for those in Category 1a and 1b.
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Additional Quick Updates:
- Now that President Biden has signed the American Rescue Plan, the $1400 economic impact payments (i.e., stimulus checks) will soon be heading out to individuals and families. To find out how you will be receiving your payment and its status, go to the IRS Get My Payment site (https://www.irs.gov/coronavirus/get-my-payment).
- The Oregonian ran an article today from the AP with the title, "Biden's Gamble on COVID-19 Vaccine Depends on a Lot Going Right" The title says it all. It’s an interesting read.
- The New York Times reports on a new study from Massachusetts suggesting that schools can adopt a 3-foot distancing requirement (rather than 6-foot) without fearing an increase in COVID transmission—as long as there is masking and proper ventilation in place. We may be seeing a change coming from the CDC, which likely will influence future standards from the Oregon Department of Education. The 3-foot standard would allow more students to be in the same classroom at the same time, thereby allowing more in-person time overall. Of course, it’s controversial. Here's more info about the story, which was published on March 10 in the Journal of the Infectious Diseases Society of America.
COMING THIS WEDNESDAY EVENING: ZOOM TOWN HALL!!!!
This coming Wednesday from 5:30 to 7:00, Representatives Barbara Smith Warner and Khanh Pham and I will be holding another joint town hall. This will be a chance for us to catch you up on what’s going on in the Legislature, update you on our priority bills, hear your concerns, and answer your questions. We’re also hoping to have someone from Multnomah County Public Health with us to let you know about some of the special outreach efforts that are underway to make sure hard-to-reach people are getting access to the COVID vaccine.
You can register for the Zoom Town Hall here.
Hope to see you on Wednesday!
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 234. Here is today’s breakdown by county:
Baker (1)
Benton (6)
Clackamas (19)
Columbia (3)
Coos (11)
Curry (7)
Deschutes (15)
Douglas (4)
Grant (6)
Jackson (21)
Josephine (7)
Lane (5)
Linn (11)
Marion (25)
Morrow (1)
Multnomah (46)
Polk (3)
Tillamook (1) Wasco (1)
Washington (39)
Yamhill (2)
 
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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