Weekly Update: Vaccines, Session Progress, Budget Hearings

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House Speaker Tina Kotek

Weekly Update: Vaccines, Session Progress, Budget Hearings

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

With the lovely spring weather and our need to get out and about, it’s still very important to maintain awareness that COVID is a serious threat and we all need to be careful. The most recent Oregon Health Authority’s COVID-19 Weekly Report showed a third consecutive week of surging daily cases, higher hospitalizations, and higher deaths than the previous week. This past Saturday, we hit 888 cases, a number we haven’t seen since the end of the hard winter months.

So, please keep masking and maintaining good social distancing. Please, please, please be careful. We are so close to making it through this pandemic.

Today, all Oregonians over 16 are now eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. This is a big day for the state. Many thanks to the folks on the front lines who are running vaccination sites and working so hard to get as many people as possible vaccinated. See below for information on getting scheduled for a vaccine.


Accelerated Access to COVID-19 Vaccinations

Scheduling a Vaccination

The Oregon Health Authority (OHA) has created several resources to assist individuals in planning for their COVID-19 vaccination:

Scheduling a COVID-19 vaccine is primarily managed through the OHA’s Get Vaccinated Oregon website. The OHA has created a Get Vaccinated Oregon Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page. Multi-lingual assistance using the Get Vaccinated Oregon tool is also available by calling 211.

Some local pharmacies are offering vaccinations through a Federal Retail Pharmacy Program partnership. 

Appointments can be made by visiting pharmacy websites directly:

If you need to get a vaccine through the drive-through site at PDX Airport, please go to OHSU’s COVID-19 Vaccine: Information and Appointments page.

All COVID-19 vaccine sites are dependent upon the availability of vaccine supply, which is determined by many factors, including supply at the national level and allocation at the federal and state levels. Appointments are required.

Multnomah County maintains the COVID-19 Vaccine page which includes information options for scheduling a vaccination and resources for individuals who may need assistance scheduling an appointment due to language or barriers with technology.

Lastly, if you’re an immigrant, please know the following:

  • All eligible people in Oregon can get the vaccine.
  • You do NOT need to be a U.S. citizen to get the vaccine.
  • Getting the vaccine will NOT affect your immigration status or count as a public charge.
  • You do not need to have or provide a social security number.
  • You do not need to have identification.
  • If you need help, you can call the Safe + Strong Helpline at 1-800-923-HELP (4357).

How to sign up for vaccine. Call 211

Pause on the Johnson & Johnson Vaccine

Last week, the OHA asked all of the state’s vaccine providers to stop administering the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine per the announcement from the CDC and the FDA. This is out of an abundance of caution as they review six cases of a rare and severe type of blood clot occurring in women ages 18-48 who have received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

More than 85,000 Johnson & Johnson vaccine doses have been administered in Oregon. The vaccine has been delivered to pharmacies, outpatient clinics, federally qualified health centers, local public health authorities and health systems.

There have been no reports of the blood clots happening to anyone in Oregon who has received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. If you received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, don’t panic. I received the vaccine myself. If you develop severe headache, abdominal pain, leg pain, or shortness of breath within three weeks of your Johnson & Johnson vaccination, you should contact your health care provider or seek emergency care.

For more information, see the OHA’s FAQ: Oregon Health Authority Immediately Pauses Administering Johnson & Johnson Vaccine


Police Accountability

The never-ending headlines about more deaths from police violence are unacceptable, sad, and sobering. There needs to be more progress in solving this problem. Here in Oregon, we took some early steps last year to hold police more accountable for their actions.

Tomorrow, on the House floor, we will be going further by taking up another nine bills from the House Committee on Judiciary’s Subcommittee on Equitable Policing. These bills address a variety of issues, including the charge of interfering with a police officer, booking photos, improved training, tracking misconduct, uniform identification, and background checks for officers. The bills are listed below for your review:

HB 3164

HB 3273  

HB 2986

HB 2513  

HB 3047  

HB 3059  

 

HB 3355  

 

HB 2929  

   

HB 2936  

   

Session Update

The work of your Legislature continues, with important committee deadlines for House policy bills behind us and many bills getting votes on the House floor last week and this coming week. Big issues or contentious issues usually get most of the press, and many good bills pass without much fanfare. But these smaller bills really matter. Here’s a sampling of some of our work over the last week:

Wildfire Recovery – Legislators are committed to making sure Oregonians devastated by the Labor Day 2020 wildfires are not left behind. House Bill 2809 allows temporary siting of RVs on residential properties that have been made uninhabitable by a natural disaster. House Bill 3219 requires local governments to approve development of manufactured home parks destroyed by a natural disaster and provides protections for park residents impacted by a disaster.

Child Care – Supporting child care providers and parents is also a priority for us this session. Most of that work will be budget centered, but here are several bills that are helpful: House Bill 2474House Bill 3109 and House Bill 2484

Housing and Homelessness – House Bill 3115 protects Oregonians sleeping outdoors when no reasonable alternative is available. House Bill 3124 clarifies what happens to people’s property after a sweep. House Bill 2550 reduces discriminatory practices in the home buying process. 

Helping Oregon Recover – House Bill 2966 extends the grace period to repay back rent, as businesses recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. House Bill 2654, related to broadband easements, also passed the House floor with strong bipartisan support. House Bill 3361  prohibits third-party platforms (i.e., delivery apps) from taking and arranging for delivery of an order from a restaurant without written consent of the restaurant.

Behavioral Health – Improving access to behavioral health services and prevention of suicide, substance use disorder and other negative outcomes is more important than ever. House Bill 2315 requires behavioral health licensing boards to require licensees to complete continuing education related to suicide risk assessment, treatment and management. House Bill 3037 requires the reporting of deaths suspected to be by suicide to a local mental health authority to ensure timely and appropriate postvention response to the community. House Bill 2758 requires the Oregon Liquor Control Commission to have two commissioners with public health backgrounds.

Higher Education Affordability – House Bill 2919  requires universities and community colleges to prominently display online the total costs of all required course materials and fees for at least 75 percent of courses offered.

Health and Safety – House Bill 2623 limits the price of insulin under a health benefit plan and ties future price increases to cost of living. House Bill 3379 bans the marketing, distribution and sale of dangerous crib bumpers in Oregon.


Budget Hearings

President Biden’s American Rescue Plan has created a once-in-a-generation opportunity for our state.

Oregon is receiving about $2.6 billion in federal dollars, which means we can protect critical services from budget cuts and make some urgent, new investments. We need to seize this moment to provide relief to workers and families, revitalize Oregon’s economy, and address the disparities that were exacerbated by the pandemic.

Last Wednesday and Saturday, the legislature’s budget committee, the Joint Committee on Ways and Means, held two of its five planned community meetings to get public input on how to balance the state budget and spend federal dollars from the American Rescue Plan. 

You can help shape Oregon’s budget by making your voice heard. The three remaining hearings are this week on Wednesday, April 21, 5:30-7:30 pm (3d Congressional District), Thursday, April 22, 5:30-7:30 pm (4th Congressional District) and Saturday, April 24, 1:00-3:00 pm for folks who live in the 5th Congressional District. More details available here.

In recent weeks, legislators also put forward a variety of concepts for how to spend the federal funds. Here is a thematic overview of the concepts proposed in each budget area so far: 2021 American Rescue Plan – Overview of Legislator Concepts.

I look forward to hearing from you about your budget priorities.


The Latest News

  • The Oregon Health Authority announced 473 new confirmed cases of coronavirus today, bringing the statewide total of new and presumptive cases to 175,592. There are no new COVID-19 related deaths in Oregon today, so the state’s death toll remains at 2,460. As of today, 1,033,175 Oregonians have been fully vaccinated. There have been more than 2.5 million total doses administered. You can click the images below for links to interactive data tables about coronavirus and vaccines in Oregon.
  • OHA publishes two data dashboards on COVID-19 vaccination. OHA has launched two new dashboards on its public Tableau site which highlight the state’s progress on COVID-19 vaccination efforts. 
    • The first dashboard, Tracking the COVID-19 Vaccination Effort, shows the percent of people living in Oregon who have been vaccinated at both the state and county level. The dashboard also shows how many people still have to receive another dose of vaccine to be fully vaccinated and how many have completed their vaccination series. As of today, 37% of Oregonians have received at least one dose of any COVID-19 vaccine, while 13.1% are in progress to be completely vaccinated and 23.9% are fully vaccinated.
    • The second dashboard is the Daily COVID-19 Vaccine Update, which is helpful for state planning purposes because it provides a snapshot each morning of vaccine  administration, allocation and delivery data. This information has previously been distributed by email each morning and will continue to be available in Tableau format. Please be aware that COVID-19 vaccine deliveries are commonly re-distributed throughout the state between locations and do not reflect future inventory at each location.

Case and Testing- April 17-19

daily data April 17-19

https://public.tableau.com/profile/oregon.health.authority.covid.19#!/vizhome/OregonCOVID-19HospitalCapacity/BedAvailabilitybyRegion

Vaccination Trend- April 19

To read past newsletters, you can go to this link. For up to date information, please check this link to the Oregon Health Authority where regular updates are posted: https://www.oregon.gov/oha/ERD/Pages/News-Releases.aspx

Please email me at Rep.TinaKotek@oregonlegislature.gov if you have specific concerns that have not been addressed by the OHA. Our office will do all we can to help and protect all Oregonians.

Thank you for reading! We will get through this together.

Best,

tk-signature_original

Tina Kotek

State Representative
House District 44
Speaker of the House

email: Rep.TinaKotek@oregonlegislature.gov I phone: 503-986-1200
address: 900 Court St NE, H-269, Salem, OR 97301
website: http://www.oregonlegislature.gov/kotek