April 19th COVID-19 Update

April 19, 2021

Dear Neighbors and Friends,

I hopethat 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 again lower, and again no COVID deaths were reported.  If you look at the individual county reports, however, you’ll see that some counties either clearly underreported or did not report at all on Sunday.  I expect that we’ll learn of more cases in the next few days.

Percentages of positive test results have risen again, suggesting that more people that are choosing to be tested have COVID symptoms and for known contact with infected persons. 

COVID hospitalizations are also up again today, more than double where we were a month ago. We now have 243 Oregonians in the hospital for COVID.  You may remember that the Governor said two weeks ago that she would not agree to have counties return to extreme risk status as long as hospitalizations remained below 300.  As you can see, we’re getting close.

Tomorrow we should be learning about upcoming changes in County risk levels. 

I haven’t heard much of anything yet about how today’s expansion of vaccine eligibility has gone here in Oregon.  I’m sure we’ll be hearing more soon. I did here a fair amount of excitement from kids and teachers alike over middle- and high school reopening today after all these months.  

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 473 new COVID cases today.  The cumulative number of cases in Oregon since the beginning of the pandemic is 175,592.
• 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.  The reported numbers are the same as yesterday:  69 cases of the B.1.1.7 (UK) variant, 4 cases () of the P.1 (Brazilian) variant, and 8 cases) of the B.1.351 (South African) variant.  In addition, we are now seeing 124 cases of the B.1.427 variant, and 474 of the B.1.429 variant. 
• Positive Test Results: OHA reported 654 positive tests today. The cumulative total of positive test results since the beginning of the pandemic is now 253,681 .
• Total Tests: OHA reported an additional 9,212 tests today. Our cumulative total of reported tests is now 4,483,745.
• Positivity Rate: The test positivity ratio for Oregon today is 7.1%.
• Hospitalization Information:
  • Patients Currently with Confirmed COVID-19: 243 (28 more than yesterday)
  • ICU Patients Confirmed w COVID-19: 57 (9 more than yesterday).
  • Available ICU Beds: 169 (5 more than Friday)
  • Other Available Beds: 630 (40 more than Friday).
  • Confirmed COVID-19 Patients Currently on Ventilators: 22 (1 fewer than Friday).
  • Available Ventilators: 793 (13 fewer than Friday).
• Deaths: I’m happy to report 0 additional COVID deaths today.  The total number of COVID deaths in Oregon is now 2,460.
• Vaccinations:
  • As of the end of yesterday, here are the latest numbers:
    • New Immunizations Reported Today: 25,474
      • 17,649 were conducted yesterday
      • 7,825 were conducted earlier, but the reports were received yesterday (there can potentially be a three-day window for reporting)
      • The 7-day running average is now 35,522 doses per day.
    • Total First and Second Doses Administered So Far: 2,549,210
      • 1,333,010 Pfizer doses
      • 1,126,589 Moderna doses
      • 88,547 Johnson & Johnson doses
    • Total Oregonians vaccinated so far: 1,600,343
      • 1,033,175 now fully vaccinated with two doses
    • To date, 3,068,725 doses of vaccine have been delivered to sites across Oregon. (That’s the same as yesterday, so our total for last past week was 296,590.)
      • 83.1% of these doses have been administered so far. The national average is now 80.0%.
      • 39.3% of Oregonians have received at least one dose.
      • 25.3% of Oregonians are now fully vaccinated.
      • For more details, including the demographics of those receiving the vaccine and the counties in which the vaccines are being administered, 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 Brief Updates:
  • Today the OHA released the latest County COVID Metrics.  Not surprisingly, they are continuing to move in the wrong direction.  We will likely see more counties move to high risk levels in the next day or two.
  • Transit riding has been deeply affected by the pandemic. What are the long term implications for the changes we’ve seen?   Read more.
  • CNN reports on a new Quinnipiac poll. showing the extent to which younger Americans are unlikely to seek out the vaccine.
  • And the New York Times has a story about resistance among seniors.
  • OPB’s Geoff Norcross talks to Dawn Nolt, infectious diseases specialist with OHSU Doernbecher Children’s Hospital, about what to do when we're fully vaccinated.
  • KGW has a story about breakthrough cases in the U.S. As you'll see, we are seeing cases of people testing positive for COVID after being fully vaccinated, but the numbers are extremely low.

Coming Up:  Another Ways and Means “Road Show”

We’re approaching that point in session where budgetary decisions for the next two years will begin to be made.  As usual, that won’t happen until the public has had a chance to weigh in with their priorities.  This usually comes in the form of a somewhat grueling series of “road shows,” as legislators travel around the state to hear directly from individuals in a succession of 2-minute oral testimonies and thousands of pages of written testimony.  It’s always enlightening and always painful, as we hear about the huge and varied levels of need there are out there.

This year, thanks to COVID, it will be different.  All the “road shows” will be virtual.  Instead of being held at a local community college or city hall, into which hundreds of people cram in hopes that their time driving or riding the bus will yield a couple of minutes of air time, this year time will be equally at a premium, but the distances traveled won’t be so great. 

The Road Shows continue on Wednesday evening, this time for residents of CD 3.  Here is the overall schedule:

And here is the Ways and Means webpage for Wednesday, with the links to the meeting agendas, info on how to sign up to testify, and how to watch the meeting and testimony.

Please let us know if you have any questions.

OHA Launches New Vaccination Dashboards

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.

This information is broken down by age group at the state and county level, as well as by race and ethnicity at the state level. Future versions of this dashboard will include race and ethnicity at a regional level. For people who received either a Pfizer or Moderna vaccine, the dashboard shows the percentage of people who completed the series by the number of weeks between their first and second doses.

Lincoln, Hood River, Benton and Deschutes counties are leading the way in the vaccination effort. Vaccination estimates for these counties show that more than 40% of their population have received at least one dose.

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.

According to the OHA, COVID-19 vaccine deliveries are commonly re-distributed throughout the state between locations and do not necessarily reflect future inventory at each location.

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 473.  Here is today’s breakdown by county:

Baker (3)

Clackamas (63)

Clatsop (4)

Columbia (6)

Coos (3)

Crook (1)

Deschutes (44)

Douglas (2)

Hood River (2)

Jackson (15)

Jefferson (3)

Josephine (3)

Lane (65)

Lincoln (3)

Linn (15)

Marion (65)

Multnomah (135)

Polk (16)

Tillamook (1)

Wasco (8)

Washington (1)

Yamhill (15)

And the Deaths:

OHA reports no COVID deaths today.

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