|
March 30, 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.
Numbers are back up today, probably due in part to late reporting coming in from the county health departments. COVID deaths remain relatively low. Still, state medical officers are watching the slight uptick in cases and positivity rates over the last week or so with some concern. With the recent relaxation of restrictions in most counties, we expected an increase in cases, as always seems to happen at such times. In the past, the state has had to respond eventually by reimposing restrictions before things got too bad. The hope is that the rapid deployment of vaccines will help to avoid that from happening again.
More than 68% of Oregonians 65 and older have now received at least their first dose of the vaccine. OHA reported today that a very large shipment of vaccines (nearly 200,000) has just come into Oregon and gone out to the counties.
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 415 new COVID cases today. The cumulative number of cases in Oregon since the beginning of the pandemic is 164,570.
-
Variant COVID Cases: OHA reports no new instances of variants in Oregon, so the reported number of the B.1.1.7 (UK) variant in Oregon remains at 18, and the P.1 (Brazilian) variant is still at 1. There are still 0 reported cases of the other variants.
-
Positive Test Results: OHA reported 739 positive tests today. The cumulative total of positive test results since the beginning of the pandemic is now 238,569
-
Total Tests: OHA reported an additional 12,928 tests today. Our cumulative total of reported tests is now 4,177,932.
-
Positivity Rate: The test positivity ratio for Oregon today is 5.7%.
-
Hospitalization Information:
- Patients Currently with Confirmed COVID-19: 139 (3 fewer than yesterday)
- ICU Patients Confirmed w COVID-19: 35 (1 fewer than yesterday).
- Available ICU Beds: 158 (25 fewer than yesterday)
- Other Available Beds: 645 (136 fewer than yesterday).
- Confirmed COVID-19 Patients Currently on Ventilators: 16 (2 more than yesterday).
- Available Ventilators: 794 (6 more than yesterday).
-
Deaths: I’m sorry to report 6 additional COVID deaths today. The total number of COVID deaths in Oregon is now 2,381.
-
Vaccinations:
- As of the end of yesterday, here are the latest numbers:
- New Immunizations Reported Today: 31,616
- 14,312 were conducted yesterday
- 17,304 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: 1,768,155
- 893,460 Pfizer doses
- 833,971 Moderna doses
- 39,698 Johnson & Johnson doses
- Total Oregonians vaccinated so far: 1,133,729
- 667,537 now fully vaccinated with two doses
- To date, 2,299,605 doses of vaccine have been delivered to sites across Oregon (191,650 more doses than yesterday.).
-
Additional Brief Updates and Links:
- The plot thickens in the case of the 2021 redistricting process. The Oregon Supreme Court is considering giving the Legislature two weeks in the fall to come up with the new maps. Read more here.
- Legislators are beginning to receive mass emails from individuals demanding that we block businesses and governments from requiring so-called “vaccine passports,” which would be required for individuals to get on a plane or attend indoor activities. It appears to be coming from individuals who are opposed to vaccination mandates. An article in today’s Washington Post suggests that vaccination passports may be becoming another political punching bag.
- Meanwhile, the Post also has a non-political story describing the vaccine passports that some countries are considering as a requirement for travel.
- The New York Times reports on a recent poll showing an increased willingness among Black Americans to receive the COVID vaccine, along with ongoing resistance from (some, certainly not all) Republicans and white evangelical Christians.
- The CDC has reported that the real-world experience of several months of vaccination use is showing the vaccines to be highly effective at preventing COVID, and even more effective at preventing hospitalization and death. These benefits are being seen as early as the third week following the first dose of the two-dose Pfizer and Moderna vaccine. Read more here.
- Interested in a global perspective on the pandemic in real time? The Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University has a pretty neat COVID-19 Dashboard that’s full of information for you.
Coming This Saturday: April Constituent Coffee
The Saturday is the first Saturday of the month, which means it’s time for a zoom constituent coffee. It’ll be another chance for you to let me know your priorities and suggestions, hear about what’s going on at this point in the session, find out more about what’s in the works, and ask any questions that you have.
It will go from 9 am to 10:30 am. You can sign up here. Hope to see you there!
Another Day of Inaction on the House Floor
The House Republican effort to stall bill passage continued today, despite nearly every bill on the docket having bipartisan if not unanimous support. That includes funding for summer learning programs, wildfire relief, and other statewide budget priorities that have already been passed in the Senate and need House passage to get out to the people.
Today House members spent the day in their offices in order to avoid having to be together in the House chamber while a 170-page bill was being read aloud by a computer. (It was HB 2111, a bill that merely changes the name of the Oregon Liquor Control Commission to the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission. In order to make that change, 170 pages of statute need to be included in the bill to make the necessary name changes.)
A motion was made to waive the requirement to read the bill aloud, but such a motion requires a two-thirds vote, meaning two Republicans would have needed to vote to support. That did not happen.
All the bills that were scheduled for today—including the vote at last on HB 2111—will be taken up tomorrow.
Hopefully, there won’t be news of another legislator COVID case to cause another delay.
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 415. Here is today’s breakdown by county:
Baker (10)
Benton (11)
Clackamas (44)
Clatsop (1)
Columbia (8)
Coos (5)
Crook (6)
Curry (7)
Deschutes (11)
Douglas (18)
Grant (3)
Harney (1)
Jackson (31)
Jefferson (1)
Josephine (8)
Klamath (12)
Lake (3)
Lane (15)
Lincoln (1)
Linn (8)
Malheur (5)
Marion (17)
Morrow (1)
Multnomah (78)
Polk (12)
Tillamook (5)
Umatilla (9)
Union (1)
Wallowa (2)
Washington (75)
Yamhill (6)
And the Deaths:
Oregon’s 2,376th COVID-19 death is a 65-year-old man in Coos County who tested positive on March 25 and died on March 27 at Bay Area Hospital.
Oregon’s 2,377th COVID-19 death is a 93-year-old woman in Jackson County who tested positive on March 7 and died on March 8 at Providence Medford Medical Center.
Oregon’s 2,378th COVID-19 death is an 85-year-old woman in Marion County who tested positive on Jan. 12 and died on Feb. 8 at her residence.
Oregon’s 2,379th COVID-19 death is a 42-year-old man in Morrow County who died on March 30, 2020 at Good Shepherd Medical Center.
Oregon’s 2,380th COVID-19 death is an 80-year-old man in Union County who tested positive on March 22 and died on March 29 at Grande Ronde Hospital.
Oregon’s 2,381st COVID-19 death is a 67-year-old woman in Washington County who tested positive on March 17 and died on March 26 at Providence St. Vincent Medical Center.
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
| 
