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April 8, 2021
Dear Neighbors and Friends,
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.
Today’s COVID case numbers are troubling, revealing again that despite the increased number of those vaccinated, transmission is clearly on the rise. This may be due in part to the presence of more-transparent variants, and it may be due to the recent relaxation of COVID restrictions, or it may be a combination of the two. In any case, today’s case count is the highest we’ve seen since February 4th.
Death counts remain low, fortunately, presumably thank to the increased vaccinations.
As you’ll see below, we’re also learning (at last) about the presence of “Breakthrough Cases,” i.e., individuals who have tested positive for the disease despite having gone two weeks after their final dose—the point at which they should be virtually immune. The key word here, of course, is “virtually.” Even with a vaccine that prevents the disease in 95% of cases, that still leaves 5% who will catch and potentially pass on the virus, which can be a large number when you’re talking about an entire population. Actually, the case numbers that we’re seeing are much lower—168, or just .024% of all of those fully vaccinated in Oregon.
More troubling is that 11 of those cases required hospitalization, and three Oregonians have died from breakthrough cases. That’s troubling because we’d been led to believe from national media that the vaccines were providing full protection from severe cases of the disease. That’s clearly not true.
Still, it’s gratifying to see the number of vaccinations continuing to rise. Today we had a record high number of vaccinations reported—more than 50,000. The 7-day running average is now 34,733 doses per day.
That newly-vaccinated now include many legislators, thanks to an organized event for legislators yesterday. We fortunately haven’t heard of any additional COVID cases at the Capitol for the last two weeks, and this round of inoculations will hopefully preclude the need for another shutdown, as we saw in the House.
Nevertheless, bills continue to crawl through the House at a snail’s pace, despite their being COVID-free. Thanks to the required reading of the bills there, they are lucky to get through a half-dozen bills in a day, despite coming back in the evenings. They’ll be at it again tomorrow and Saturday.
I’ll have more to report on that over the weekend.
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 678 new COVID cases today. The cumulative number of cases in Oregon since the beginning of the pandemic is 168,975.
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Variant COVID Cases: OHA is now producing a Variant Tableau dashboard providing current variant case numbers for the state as a whole and for various parts of the state.
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Positive Test Results: OHA reported 908 positive tests today. The cumulative total of positive test results since the beginning of the pandemic is now 244,102.
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Total Tests: OHA reported an additional 19,073 tests today. Our cumulative total of reported tests is now 4,304,400.
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Positivity Rate: The test positivity ratio for Oregon today is 4.8%.
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Hospitalization Information:
- Patients Currently with Confirmed COVID-19: 168 (3 fewer than yesterday)
- ICU Patients Confirmed w COVID-19: 38 (4 fewer than yesterday).
- Available ICU Beds: 168 (27 more than yesterday)
- Other Available Beds: 482 (46 fewer than yesterday).
- Confirmed COVID-19 Patients Currently on Ventilators: 17 (3 fewer than yesterday).
- Available Ventilators: 771 (38 fewer than yesterday).
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Deaths: I’m sorry to report 5 additional COVID deaths today. The total number of COVID deaths in Oregon is now 2,439.
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Vaccinations:
- As of the end of yesterday, here are the latest numbers:
- New Immunizations Reported Today: 50,429.
- 24,783 were conducted yesterday
- 22,646 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: 2,117,703
- 1,083,976 Pfizer doses
- 971,010 Moderna doses
- 61,539 Johnson & Johnson doses
- Total Oregonians vaccinated so far: 1,347,079
- 824,299 now fully vaccinated with two doses
- To date, 2,738,535 doses of vaccine have been delivered to sites across Oregon (29,900 more than yesterday, 303,960 so far this week).
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Additional Brief Updates:
- The Oregonian’s Fedor Zarkhin reports on the latest news about breakthrough COVID cases in Oregon.
- Here’s an update on school reopening for several Portland-area school districts.
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Here's a story about the tough position Portland-area restaurants now find themselves in, with a spotlight on Amalfi’s, a popular dining choice in my district.
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KATU has a story about a new report showing the economic impact of the pandemic on the 50 states plus Washington, D.C. You may be surprised to learn that Oregon came in at 49th (lowest economic downturn), with Washington coming in at #51.
OHA At Last Reveals “Breakthrough Cases” in Oregon
Reproduced below is a release that just came out from OHA regarding so-called “Breakthrough Cases” in Oregon. Breakthrough cases are those where the virus has “broken through” the protection of the vaccine. Infections in those who have been fully vaccinated for more than two weeks are considered breakthrough cases.
As you’ll see from the release, the news is not at all good. It’s worse than I had feared. Until recently we had been led to believe from national reporting that the COVID vaccines shielded people from the more severe forms of the disease. As you’ll see below, this is clearly not true. True, the numbers of hospitalizations and deaths remain quite low, but they are definitely not nonexistent. Sadly, it appears that those who have been vaccinated cannot count on full immunity and will need to continue to be cautious until the numbers of those vaccinated have gone up substantially and something approaching herd immunity is achieved. I assume that we’ll be hearing more about how this is playing out on the national level. I also hope and assume that we will get more information from the contact tracers who are examining the circumstances of these infections, especially the hospitalizations and deaths.
Here’s the release from OHA:
Oregon Health Authority has identified 168 COVID-19 vaccine breakthrough cases—when vaccinated individuals test positive for the virus—through April 2, including three deaths.
OHA public health officials say it’s a reminder that while the Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines are all highly effective at preventing severe COVID-19 illness and death, no vaccine is 100% effective, and vaccine breakthrough cases will occur.
These cases have been reported in 25 counties and all health care preparedness regions (Region 1: 76; Region 2: 29; Region 3: 27; Region 5: 9; Region 6: 4; Region 7: 17; Region 9: 6). OHA is not reporting the regions in which the deaths took place.
Healthcare preparedness regions map
Vaccine breakthrough cases are defined as instances in which an individual received a positive COVID-19 test result at least 14 days after the final dose of any COVID-19 vaccine series. Vaccine breakthrough cases can be prevented by basic public health interventions, such as masking, physical distancing and avoiding social gatherings.
The number of vaccine breakthrough cases identified in Oregon represents a very small proportion of the more than 700,000 people in Oregon who have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Many of the vaccine breakthrough cases identified experienced asymptomatic infection and were tested for other reasons. Eleven percent (n=19) of the vaccine breakthrough cases were hospitalized within the 30 days following their positive test, and most occurred in people older than 65 or with underlying health conditions. The three deaths represent fewer than 2% of the vaccine breakthrough cases, and none of the vaccine breakthrough cases were associated with a COVID-19 variant.
State and local epidemiologists are continuing to track and investigate vaccine breakthrough cases and are working closely with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to collect information that may provide insight into characteristics associated with vaccine breakthrough.
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 678. Nearly 2/3 of today’s cases are from outside the Portland Tri-County area. Here is today’s breakdown by county:
Baker (4)
Benton (4)
Clackamas (65)
Clatsop (6)
Columbia (10)
Coos (7)
Crook (4)
Curry (3)
Gilliam (1)
Grant (7)
Hood River (5)
Jackson (88)
Jefferson (5)
Josephine (27)
Klamath (42)
Lane (47)
Lincoln (8)
Linn (18)
Malheur (1)
Marion (48)
Morrow (1)
Multnomah (108)
Polk (14)
Tillamook (8)
Umatilla (6)
Union (1)
Wasco (1)
Washington (69)
Yamhill (9)
And the Deaths:
We’re still waiting for OHA to finish their analysis of today’s 5 cases.
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,
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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