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March 24, 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.
We hit a vaccination milestone today, with more than a million Oregonian’s now having received at least one dose of the COVID vaccine.
COVID case numbers remain more or less where they’ve been over the last few weeks, with reported hospitalizations and deaths both down today. Today being Wednesday, the weekly data reports and outbreak reports were released today. They too reflect improvements overall.
Finally, tomorrow will be a big day on the Senate floor. We’ll be debating and voting on an important gun safety bill, SB 554. It’s a bill that will bar all firearms from the Capitol and allow local governments, public colleges and universities, and school districts to do the same if that’s their choice. Needless to say, it’s controversial, and Republicans are being urged to deny a quorum rather than stay, debate, and vote.
The Legislature is also set to vote on the important “rebalance” and “program change” bills, which are needed to fund operations through the end of the session (end of June), pay our firefighting bills, and make the highly popular investments in summer learning and enrichment programs.
At this point, I believe that we will have a quorum, and I obviously hope that’s the case. Much more to come tomorrow.
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 379 new COVID cases today. The cumulative number of cases in Oregon since the beginning of the pandemic is 162,384.
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Variant COVID Cases: OHA again reports no increases in the number of variant cases in Oregon. 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. There are still 0 reported cases of the other variants.
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Positive Test Results: OHA reported 510 positive tests today. The cumulative total of positive test results since the beginning of the pandemic is now 235,342.
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Total Tests: OHA reported an additional 12,948 tests today. Our cumulative total of reported tests is now 4,098,594.
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Positivity Rate: The test positivity ratio for Oregon today is 3.9%.
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Hospitalization Information:
- Patients Currently with Confirmed COVID-19: 102 (7 fewer than yesterday)
- ICU Patients Confirmed w COVID-19: 19 (3 more than yesterday).
- Available ICU Beds: 169 (3 fewer than yesterday)
- Other Available Beds: 696 (32 fewer than yesterday).
- Confirmed COVID-19 Patients Currently on Ventilators: 9 (2 more than yesterday).
- Available Ventilators: 782 (6 fewer than yesterday).
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Deaths: I’m sorry to report 1 additional COVID death today. The total number of COVID deaths in Oregon is now at 2,368.
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Vaccinations:
- As of the end of yesterday, here are the latest numbers:
- New Immunizations Reported Today: 28,655
- 17,914 were conducted yesterday
- 10,741 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: 1,577,638
- 782,263 Pfizer doses
- 760,229 Moderna doses
- 34,165 Johnson & Johnson doses
- Total Oregonians vaccinated so far: 1,019,135
- 585,657 now fully vaccinated with two doses
- To date, 2,057,655 doses of vaccine have been delivered to sites across Oregon (an additional 47,470 doses).
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Additional Quick Updates:
- The OHA reported today that a computer glitch led to 11,000 people in the Portland area receiving appointments at the Convention Center prematurely. These were individuals who would otherwise not have become eligible for several weeks. All4Oregon, the consortium of hospitals in charge of the mass vaccination site, has decided not to cancel those appointments after learning of the error—doing so, they decided, would have been far too disruptive. You can read more here.
- OPB’s Jes Burns has a story about the"double-edged sword" of Oregon's COVID success. If Oregon’s death rate were at the national average, an estimated 4,000 additional Oregonians would have died of the disease. On the downside, fewer Oregonians have acquired natural immunity from having already been infected. Thus, access to the vaccine is particularly important for Oregonians.
- The Associated Press does a deep dive into racial and geographic disparities in school reopening around the country.
- The Brookings Institution has recommendations to local leaderson how they should be using their ARP funding.
- And VOX provides a detailed look at what’s new in the American Rescue Plan for small businesses.
Ways and Means Co-Chairs Release Budget Framework
Today marked an important day in the process of developing this session’s legislative budget. Today the Ways and Means Co-Chairs released their budget framework, the second big step in the process. The first was when the Governor released her budget proposal at the beginning of December, which included agency requests and her own priorities and proposed cuts. The Co-Chairs’ budget at this point is very high-level. The specific cuts and adds will largely come out of the subcommittee process that will continue for the next three months.
The full budget framework can be found here.
It reflects our overall positive budget outlook for the next two years, much of it the result of one-time federal money to help us address COVID and the pandemic recession. However, it also reflects concerns around the following biennium (2023-25), particularly if federal dollars are used to fund new, ongoing programs. It proposes putting large sums of money into reserves to prepare for future needs.
Needless to say, you can expect lots of debate over the particular choices reflected in the document and in decisions to comes.
And here is the press release about the budget from the offices of the Speaker of the House and Senate President.
OHA Weekly Reports Show Reductions
The Oregon Health Authority’s COVID-19 Weekly Report, released today, shows decreased daily cases and increases in hospitalizations and deaths from the previous week.
- OHA reported 1,920 new daily cases of COVID-19 during the week of Monday, March 15 through Sunday, March 21. That represents a 15% decrease from the previous week.
- New COVID-19 related hospitalizations rose slightly to 139, up from 130 last week.
- Reported COVID-19 related deaths rose to 41, up from 26 last week. Most of that increase is due to the big number of cases reported on March 16, most of them from January and February. Setting those aside, the overall trajectory continues downward.
- There were 102,287 tests for COVID-19 for the week of March 14 through March 20 — an 8.7% increase from last week.
- The percentage of positive tests fell from 3.6% to 2.9%.
Today’s COVID-19 Weekly Outbreak Report shows 31 active COVID-19 outbreaks in senior living communities and congregate living settings. This marks another reduction in outbreaks in our most vulnerable settings.
12/9/20 191
1/13/21 202
2/10/21 116
3/10/21 44
3/17/21 37
3/24/21 31
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 379. A little more than a third are from the Portland Tri-County area. Here is today’s breakdown by county:
Baker (6)
Benton (11)
Clackamas (41)
Clatsop (9)
Columbia (8)
Coos (12)
Curry (1)
Deschutes (23)
Douglas (5)
Grant (3)
Hood River (1)
Jackson (45)
Jefferson (1)
Josephine (16)
Lane (26)
Lincoln (5)
Linn (9)
Malheur (3)
Marion (46)
Multnomah (63)
Polk (5)
Tillamook (5)
Umatilla (7)
Union (3)
Wasco (1)
Washington (30)
Yamhill (5)
And the Death:
Oregon’s 2,368th COVID-19 death is an 85-year-old woman in Multnomah County who tested positive on Jan. 17 and died on Feb. 15 at her residence.
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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