April 26th COVID-19 Update

April 26, 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.

COVID cases and deaths are lower today, as they often are on Mondays.  However, hospitalizations are up again, taking us above the threshold that will likely send some counties back to Extreme Risk status.  We’ll find out more about that tomorrow.  In the meantime, you can see further down in the newsletter where the various counties appear to be headed.

Reported vaccinations are lower today, again likely the result of lower weekend vaccinations and delays in reporting.  We can expect to see higher numbers over the next day or so.

The big news on the political front is that our state will be getting an additional congressional seat, our sixth.  We’re one of six states that will be getting an additional seat—Oregon, Montana, Colorado, Florida, North Carolina, with Texas picking up 2.  Seven states are losing one each—New York, California, Michigan, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. This definitely raises the stakes for Redistricting.

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 630 new COVID cases today.  The cumulative number of cases in Oregon since the beginning of the pandemic is 181,321.
• 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.  
• Positive Test Results: OHA reported 791 positive tests today. The cumulative total of positive test results since the beginning of the pandemic is now 261,887.
• Total Tests: OHA reported an additional 10,632 tests today. Our cumulative total of reported tests is now 4,618,728.
• Positivity Rate: The test positivity ratio for Oregon today is 6.8%.
• Hospitalization Information:
  • Patients Currently with Confirmed COVID-19: 31 (18 more than yesterday)
  • ICU Patients Confirmed w COVID-19: 77 (11 more than yesterday).
  • Available ICU Beds: 164 (16 more than Friday)
  • Other Available Beds: 610 (67 more than Friday).
  • Confirmed COVID-19 Patients Currently on Ventilators: 32 (5 more than Friday).
  • Available Ventilators: 800 (2 more than Friday).
• Deaths: I’m sorry to report 1 additional COVID death today.  The total number of COVID deaths in Oregon is now 2,486.
• Vaccinations:
  • As of the end of yesterday, here are the latest numbers:
    • New Immunizations Reported Today: 27,077
      • 18,911 were conducted yesterday
      • 8,166 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 34,754 doses per day.
    • Total First and Second Doses Administered So Far: 2,826,206
      • 1,498,438 Pfizer doses
      • 1,234,441 Moderna doses
      • 92,141 Johnson & Johnson doses
    • Total Oregonians vaccinated so far: 1,738,540
      • 1,175,540 now fully vaccinated with two doses
    • To date, 3,400,415 doses of vaccine have been delivered to sites across Oregon. (That’s the same as was reported yesterday, for a total of 331,690 for last week.)
      • 83.1% of these doses have been administered so far. The national average is now 79.4%.
      • 42.6% of Oregonians have received at least one dose.
      • 28.8% 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:
  • With the new surge of daily cases and the sharp rise in COVID-19 related hospitalizations, the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) is recommending that unvaccinated persons who have been exposed to a person with COVID-19 should quarantine for 14 days. OHA is finalizing the new guidance now. I’ll provide it for you once it’s finalized.
  • It was a year ago that OSU started its Wastewater COVID analysis project. Much has been accomplished since then, as wastewater studies have been done all over the state. Here's an overview  of its accomplishments.
  • Here’s a detailed look by OPB’s Anna King at why Latinx residents and farmworkers are hesitant to take the COVID vaccine.
  • Here’s a story from the Associated Press on why Michigan is being hit so hard by COVID.
  • The House voted on nine policing-reform bills today, nearly all of them on unanimous bipartisan votes. Here’s a report from The Oregonian.

New County Metrics Set to Return Some Counties to Extreme Risk

This week’s OHA County Metrics Report has just been released.  Not surprisingly, it shows further deterioration in most counties.  The state as a whole is now at “Extreme Risk” status.

We’ll hear tomorrow where the different counties will land on Friday, but if the previous thresholds hold, you can see what is in store for each county, using the key metric of number of cases per 100,000 residents.  Here’s how risk is assigned:

Multnomah County and Clackamas County now find themselves at Extreme Risk level.  Washington County is close but not quite there yet.

You may recall that the Governor announced last month that counties wouldn’t move to Extreme Risk (which prohibits any indoor dining and indoor recreation) as long as hospitalizations remained relatively low—under 300 beds used for COVID patients.  Unfortunately, as you’ll see above, today we exceeded that level.

You can now follow how we’re doing on that metric on a daily basis via this new dashboard.

You can see the specific activities allowed for each risk level in this chart.

I’ll share the new risk levels after they’re announced tomorrow.

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 780.  Here is today’s breakdown by county:

Baker (2)

Benton (2)

Clackamas (94)

Clatsop (4)

Columbia (7)

Coos (5)

Crook (3)

Deschutes (43)

Douglas (4)

Grant (4)

Hood River (1)

Jackson (55)

Jefferson (2)

Josephine (8)

Lane (40)

Lincoln (2)

Linn (16)

Marion (81)

Morrow (2)

Multnomah (164)

Polk (10)

Tillamook (5)

Union (1)

Wasco (3)

Washington (66)

Yamhill (8)

And the Death:

Oregon’s 2,486th COVID-19 death is an 80-year-old woman from Douglas County who tested positive on April 23 and died on April 24 at Mercy 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:

• 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