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April 21, 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 increase is extremely high, the result of yesterday’s under-report. Put them together and the two-day average is high, but in line with where we’ve been recently. Six COVID deaths were reported today, and unfortunately they are recent. Four out of the six are in their forties, fifties, and sixties.
COVID hospitalizations are continuing to rise. At 272, we getting close to the 300-patient line in the sand that the Governor set to trigger counties entering Extreme Risk status.
This past week’s Weekly Report was released today, and it shows increases in nearly all the metrics for the fourth week in a row. Only the number of reported deaths has come down.
I’m sorry to report that we received notice of another person at the Capitol testing positive for COVID-19. Again, we don’t know the person’s identity, but we do know that it’s once again someone who was last on the House floor on April 15. It appears most likely that this person was a staff member, as opposed to last week, which was a member. We’re most likely looking at two House members and two staffers who have tested positive so far.
The House continues to be in recess until Monday, though committees continue to do their work remotely. One of those, House Rules, is dealing with a couple of controversial gun bills right now. More on that below.
Please stay safe, and let me know if you have any questions about information in today’s newsletter.
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TODAY’S CORONAVIRUS AND CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE UPDATE
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New COVID Cases: OHA reports 989 new COVID cases today. That number includes some cases that should have been reported yesterday; the two-day average is 785 cases. The cumulative number of cases in Oregon since the beginning of the pandemic is 177,134.
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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. The reported numbers have increased: 112 (up from 69) cases of the B.1.1.7 (UK) variant, 7 cases (up from 4) of the P.1 (Brazilian) variant, and 10 (up from 8) cases of the B.1.351 (South African) variant. In addition, we are now seeing 140 (up from124) cases of the B.1.427 variant, and 479 (up from 474) of the B.1.429 variant.
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Positive Test Results: OHA reported 2,098 positive tests today (again, this is the result of under counts yesterday). The cumulative total of positive test results since the beginning of the pandemic is now 256,404.
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Total Tests: OHA reported an additional 32,838 tests today. Our cumulative total of reported tests is now 4,526,448.
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Positivity Rate: The test positivity ratio for Oregon today is 6.4%.
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Hospitalization Information:
- Patients Currently with Confirmed COVID-19: 272 (17 more than yesterday)
- ICU Patients Confirmed w COVID-19: 65 (7 more than yesterday).
- Available ICU Beds: 144 (10 more than yesterday)
- Other Available Beds: 462 (52 fewer than yesterday).
- Confirmed COVID-19 Patients Currently on Ventilators: 28 (4 more than yesterday).
- Available Ventilators: 809 (6 fewer than yesterday).
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Deaths: I’m sorry to report 6 additional COVID deaths today. The total number of COVID deaths in Oregon is now 2,466.
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Vaccinations:
- As of the end of yesterday, here are the latest numbers:
- New Immunizations Reported Today: 39,882
- 26,407 were conducted yesterday
- 13,475 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 33,933 doses per day.
- Total First and Second Doses Administered So Far: 2,614,398
- 1,369,371Pfizer doses
- 1,1153,611 Moderna doses
- 90,301 Johnson & Johnson doses
- Total Oregonians vaccinated so far: 1,635,625
- 1,065,266 now fully vaccinated with two doses
- To date, 3,310,245 doses of vaccine have been delivered to sites across Oregon. (That’s 88,640 more than was reported yesterday, for a total of 241,520 for the week so far.)
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Additional Brief Updates:
OHA Releases the Latest Weekly COVID Data and Outbreak Reports: Nearly All Metrics Increasing for the Fourth Week in a Row
The Oregon Health Authority’s COVID-19 Weekly Report, released today, shows a fourth consecutive week of surging daily cases and higher hospitalizations than the previous week.
- OHA reported 4,742 new daily cases of COVID-19 during the week of Monday, April 12 through Sunday, April 18. That represents a 27% increase from the previous week and marks the fourth consecutive week in which daily cases have increased by at least 20%.
- New COVID-19 related hospitalizations rose to 171, up from 156 last week.
- There were 19 reported COVID-19 related deaths, down dramatically from the previous week’s 47. (But remember that last week’s high number was inflated as a result of a one-day dump of late-reports.)
- There were 113,817 tests for COVID-19 for the week of April 11 through April 17, nearly 10,000 more than the previous week.
- The percentage of positive COVID tests has gone up by nearly one full percentage point to 5.3%.
Today’s COVID-19 Weekly Outbreak Report shows 24 active COVID-19 outbreaks in senior living communities and congregate living settings, the same as last week.
12/9/20 191 facilities
1/13/21 202 facilities
2/10/21 116 facilities
3/10/21 44 facilities
3/17/21 37 facilities
3/24/21 31 facilities
3/31/21 24 facilities
4/7/21 21 facilities
4/14/21 24 facilities
The Outbreak Report also includes the latest data on COVID in workplaces, childcare centers, and public and private K-12 schools.
Gun Safety Bills On Track to Merge
Gun bills are among the most polarizing and contentious of all the bills that come to the Legislature. Sadly, instances of senseless gun violence are in the news all the time. Even though polls show that most Oregonians support reasonable gun safety measures, and support for reasonable gun safety measures has helped Democrats win supermajorities in both chambers, those who oppose any requirements or restrictions are extremely active and vocal, especially in those districts represented by Republicans.
Oregon has been among the leading states in terms of passing gun-safety legislation, but even so the politics have made it difficult for us to pass more than one or two pieces of legislation in a long session.
It was a suite of gun safety bills that triggered the first Republican walkout of recent years, the Senate walkout in May of 2019. For the recent Senate floor vote on SB 454, the bill allowing firearms to be prohibited from public buildings, half of the Republican senators walked and half showed up to debate and vote no, following a five-hour debate. But those who did show up generated the ire of the more extreme elements in their districts, even to the point of threats of recalls from the right.
By the time this current session began, it seemed likely that the focus would be on one Senate bill (SB 454) and one House bill (HB 2510), requiring safe storage of firearms in the home). The Senate passed SB 454 in March, and it’s been sitting in the House ever since. HB 2510 was set to be voted on this past Monday but was pulled back and the vote postponed for a week.
Why did that happen? There is strong bipartisan interest in combining the two bills, so that members would only have to endure one extended floor debate in each chamber. The way to do that would be to amend the Safe Storage bill (HB 2510) into SB 454 (no weapons in public buildings), debate and vote on it in the House, then send it back over to the Senate for a straight, simple “concurrence” vote.
As part of that process, there was a public hearing on SB 454 this afternoon in House Rules. You can watch it here. There will be another hearing tomorrow., and a potential committee vote on Friday. If it passes on Friday, the new SB 454, augmented by the provisions of HB 2510, will likely have its debate and vote on the House floor sometime next week.
I support this strategy for multiple reasons. However, there is a risk that one or both of the current bills will be watered down in the new iteration. We can see that in the amendments to SB 454 introduced today. There are many. Included are amendments from Senate President Peter Courtney that would reduce the penalty for bringing a firearm into a prohibited public building from a felony to a misdemeanor. I can support this.
But those amendments also remove the ability of cities and counties to prohibit firearms from their public buildings. And the only state building where firearms would be prohibited is the Capitol. For me, these changes are not acceptable. We’ve heard that the Association of Oregon Counties is opposed to SB 454, even though the bill leaves the decision to prohibit up to each individual county. I know that Multnomah County and several others are very much in support of having this right. Commissioner Jessica Vega Pedersen testified to that effect this afternoon. The League of Oregon Cities has also taken a position in support of leaving it up to the cities.
We’ll see how things evolve over the next day or two. I respect the notion of compromise in the spirit of comity and in an effort to build broader support, as long as core values and goals aren’t sacrificed in the process. We need to make sure that doesn’t happen. I’ll let you know more.
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 989. Here is today’s breakdown by county:
Benton (24)
Clackamas (61)
Clatsop (7)
Columbia (7)
Coos (2)
Crook (4)
Curry (5)
Deschutes (99)
Douglas (7)
Grant (10)
Harney (2)
Hood River (5)
Jackson (93)
Jefferson (3)
Josephine (23)
Klamath (34)
Lake (3)
Lane (82)
Linn (33)
Malheur (3)
Marion (114)
Morrow (3)
Multnomah (167)
Polk (20)
Tillamook (5)
Umatilla (16)
Wallowa (1)
Wasco (3)
Washington (134)
Yamhill (13)
And the Deaths:
Oregon’s 2,461st COVID-19 death is an 82-year-old man from Douglas County who tested positive on April 16 and died on April 13 at PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center.
Oregon’s 2,462nd COVID-19 death is a 90-year-old man from Benton County who tested positive on April 16 and died on April 19 at his residence.
Oregon’s 2,463rd COVID-19 death is a 67-year-old man from Jackson County who tested positive on March 29 and died on April 18 at Asante Ashland Community Hospital.
Oregon’s 2,464th COVID-19 death is a 42-year-old man from Jackson County who tested positive on March 25 and died on April 18 at Asante Rogue Valley Medical Center.
Oregon’s 2,465th COVID-19 death is a 48-year-old man from Multnomah County who tested positive on March 28 and died on April 16 at Legacy Mount Hood Medical Center.
Oregon’s 2,466th COVID-19 death is a 56-year-old man from Multnomah County who tested positive on April 1 and died on April 16 at Legacy Emanuel 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
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