March 15th COVID-19 Update

March 15, 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.

COVID case counts dipped below 200 today, reaching their lowest daily level since September. COVID testing remains low, but so is the positivity rate (2.9%), which suggests that it’s an appropriate level of testing for now.  Unfortunately, COVID hospitalizations—which seemed on track to go below 100—instead went up by 18.  We’ll see if that suggests a problem or is a reporting anomaly.

OHA reported 24,000 new vaccinations today, a good number considering that yesterday was a Sunday. 

In tonight’s newsletter you’ll find information about the newly-released school-reopening standards as well as initial plans for the big investment in summer enrichment programs designed to help kids catch up with their learning, social interactions, creativity, and just plain fun.

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 178 new COVID cases today.  The cumulative number of cases in Oregon since the beginning of the pandemic is 159,788.
• Variant COVID Cases: OHA reports no change to the count of reported variant cases in Oregon.  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.
• Positive Test Results: OHA reported 202 positive tests today. The cumulative total of positive test results since the beginning of the pandemic is now 231,335.
• Total Tests: OHA reported an additional 6,999 tests today. Our cumulative total of reported tests is now 3,970,707.
• Positivity Rate: The test positivity ratio for Oregon today is 2.9%.
• Hospitalization Information:
  • Patients Currently with Confirmed COVID-19: 118 (18 more than yesterday)
  • ICU Patients Confirmed w COVID-19: 23 (2 more than yesterday).
  • Available ICU Beds: 184 (11 more than Friday)
  • Other Available Beds: 718 (126 more than Friday).
  • Confirmed COVID-19 Patients Currently on Ventilators: 6 (2 fewer than Friday).
  • Available Ventilators: 802 (5 fewer than Friday).
• Deaths: I’m sorry to report 2 additional COVID deaths today.  The total number of COVID deaths in Oregon is now at 2,324.
• Vaccinations: As of the end of yesterday, here are the latest numbers:
  • New Immunizations Reported Today: 24,077
    • 13,529 were conducted yesterday
    • 10,548 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: 1,346,090
    • 660,557 Pfizer doses
    • 664,329 Moderna doses
    • 20,320 Johnson & Johnson doses
  • Total Oregonians vaccinated so far: 865,800
    • 493,440 now fully vaccinated with two doses
  • To date, 1,642,505 doses of vaccine have been delivered to sites across Oregon. (66,800 more than yesterday.)
    • 82.0% of these doses have been administered so far. The national average is now 80.3%. 
    • 21.1% of Oregonians have now been vaccinated with one dose..
    • 12.1% 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.

• Additional Quick Updates:
  • OHA released the new County Metrics Report. You’ll see that our statewide infection rates and positivity rates have continued to decline. This is definitely the case for the Portland Metropolitan area, with the rates for Multnomah County especially low once again.
  • We learned this morning that PPS and its teachers reached a tentative agreement late last night for a return to in-person instruction for its younger students on April 1. You can read more about it here.
  • Multnomah County Democrats in HD 47 have selected three candidates for the seat vacated by Diego Hernandez today. Representative Hernandez resigned his seat following a vote by the House Conduct Committee recommending that he be expelled. They are Andrea Verderrama, Adrienne Enghouse, and Robin Castro.  The County Commission will choose among the three by the end of the month.  Read more here.

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!

Oregon Department of Education Releases Revised Standards for Safe Schools

With nearly all of Oregon’s schools set to reopen to in-person instruction over the next month, the Oregon Department of Education released revised reopening standards for districts to follow. You can see them here.

The new guidance lifts the 100-student-per week cohort limit (we are currently the only state with this standard), but it maintains the 6-foot distancing requirement, at least for now.  This is a controversial feature of the new plan, as it limits the number of students who can be in a classroom at the same time, and thus the number of hours that students can be on-site in-person at any one time.  ODE (and we legislators) are hearing from many parents who want to see the distance requirements lowered, as a recent study suggest they can be for kids. 

The CDC is still calling for that longer distance to be maintained in schools, but that may change at some point (or so Dr. Fauci has suggested).  If and when it does, the ODE will likely make the change for Oregon.

More on Summer Learning and Enrichment

This afternoon the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Education (which I sit on) heard from the Governor, Speaker of the House, and Senate President about their goals for the big investment that the Legislature is about to make to make sure that Oregon’s kids have the kinds of enrichment programs that they need to start making up for lost time.  We then heard preliminary details from the Oregon Department of Education.

ODE is surveying districts to get a sense of their plans for the summer and partnering with the Oregon Community Foundation, which will work with a variety of nonprofits and community-based organizations to help provide out-of-school enrichment programs and camps.  I’m also working to have youth employment opportunities as part of the programs.   Having access to paid work opportunities will help kids in a variety of ways.

We’ll hear more about the planning in the coming weeks.  The budget will be secured this week as part of the Legislature’s current budget rebalance process.  Contracts for the summer will need to be in place by mid-May.

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 178. Here is today’s breakdown by county:

Baker (1)

Benton (5)

Clackamas (20)

Coos (13)

Curry (1)

Deschutes (2)

Douglas (5)

Harney (1)

Jackson (22)

Josephine (3)

Klamath (11)

Lane (10)

Lincoln (1)

Linn (1)

Marion (7)

Multnomah (36)

Polk (4)

Washington (32)

Yamhill (1)

And the Deaths:

Oregon’s 2,323rd COVID-19 death is a 69-year-old woman in Columbia County who tested positive on Feb. 19 and died on March 2.

Oregon’s 2,324th COVID-19 death is an 85-year-old woman in Columbia County who tested positive on Feb. 19 and died on Feb. 27.

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:

• Multnomah County has a status report on reopening.
• You can view the reopening status of all 36 counties here.
• Here is the OHA’s coronavirus page, with links to a number of resources. 
• Oregon's Office of Emergency Management now has a website for information about COVID-19.
• Multnomah County has an excellent website with lots of really important advice and guidance.
• Here’s one from the Governor’s Office.
• The Employment Department has put together a webpage with Q&A’s on a number of employment issues related to COVID-19 (e.g., eligibility for Unemployment Insurance benefits).
• The Oregon Education Department has a site for COVID-19 updates.
• The Department of Corrections has a COVID tracking website.

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