April 29th COVID=19 Update

MApril 29, 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.

With COVID cases continuing at a high level (today’s count is the highest of the week) and hospitalizations continuing to rise, the Governor had no choice but to extend the COVID State of Emergency for what she hopes will be the last time.  You can read more about that below.

Needless to say, this decision is receiving substantial pushback from Republicans.  Democratic legislators are being asked to pass legislation that will curb her emergency powers and end COVID restrictions immediately.  I understand the frustration, but that just doesn’t seem very wise right now.  I don’t see that happening until the COVID rates start declining again.

As a result, senators experienced our second day of bills being read aloud on the Senate floor.  Fortunately, today’s bills were for the most part relatively short, and we were able to get through today’s entire agenda.  We’ll be back on the floor all five days next week.  At this point, the word from the Republican caucus is still a refusal to work after 5 p.m.

Vaccinations are fortunately back up today.  Nearly half of all eligible Oregonians have now received their first doses.  More than a third of eligible Oregonians are now fully vaccinated.  That will definitely help

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 928 new COVID cases today.  The cumulative number of cases in Oregon since the beginning of the pandemic is 183,830.
• 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 this week: 168 (up from 112) cases of the B.1.1.7 (UK) variant, 13 cases (up from 7) of the P.1 (Brazilian) variant, and 18 (up from 10) cases of the B.1.351 (South African) variant.  In addition, we are now seeing 159 (up from 140) cases of the B.1.427 variant, and 519 (up from 479) of the B.1.429 variant.  These reported numbers remain the same as yesterday.
• Positive Test Results: OHA reported 1,257 positive tests today. The cumulative total of positive test results since the beginning of the pandemic is now 265,258.
• Total Tests: OHA reported an additional 19,339 tests today. Our cumulative total of reported tests is now 4,670,151.
• Positivity Rate: The test positivity ratio for Oregon today is 6.5%.
• Hospitalization Information:
  • Patients Currently with Confirmed COVID-19: 339 (13 more than yesterday)
  • ICU Patients Confirmed w COVID-19: 71 (7 more than yesterday).
  • Available ICU Beds: 149 (same as yesterday)
  • Other Available Beds: 487 (2 more than yesterday).
  • Confirmed COVID-19 Patients Currently on Ventilators: 31 (1 fewer than yesterday).
  • Available Ventilators: 811 (6 more than yesterday).
• Deaths: I’m sorry to report 1 additional COVID death today.  The total number of COVID deaths in Oregon is now 2,491.
• Vaccinations:
  • As of the end of yesterday, here are the latest numbers:
    • New Immunizations Reported Today: 39,560
      • 26,858 were conducted yesterday
      • 12,702 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 35,429 doses per day.
    • Total First and Second Doses Administered So Far: 2,934,377
      • 1,564,699 Pfizer doses
      • 1,274,712 Moderna doses
      • 93,722 Johnson & Johnson doses
    • Total Oregonians vaccinated so far: 1,794,112
      • 1,229,497 now fully vaccinated with two doses
    • To date, 3,674,195 doses of vaccine have been delivered to sites across Oregon. (That’s an additional 30,230 since yesterday, for a total of 273,780 coming in so far this week.)
      • 79.9% of these doses have been administered so far. The national average is now 77.7%.
      • 43.8% of Oregonians have received at least one dose.
      • 30.0% 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:
  • The Governor has extended the COVID State of Emergency extended the COVID State of Emergency for what she hopes will be the last time.
  • The Governor will be holding a press conference on Friday at 11 am, joined by her medical advisors. A livestream—with an American Sign Language simulcast—will be available for the public on  A Spanish language simulcast will be available on OHA's Facebook page.
  • For those of you who haven’t gotten to experience the big vaccination site at the Oregon Convention Center, Here's an excellent look inside from the Willamette Week’s Sophie Peel and Rachel Monahan.
  • What will it take to get a sufficient number of Americans vaccinated in order to put this pandemic to an end? An increased sense of civic responsibility? Concern for those whose medical conditions preclude vaccinations?  An increased understanding of just how safe these vaccines are?    But how about free beer, money, or cannabis? Maybe these incentives are the answer!
  • After many hours on the floor today, the House has at last passed substantial gun safety legislation (safe storage and gun-free public buildings). Here's a story from The Oregonian. The bill will come back to the Senate for a concurrence vote on Monday or Tuesday.

May Day! May Day! Constituent Coffee Coming!

May Day this year is this Saturday, May 1.  And that of course means my monthly constituent coffee from 9 a.m. to 10:30ish.  This is your chance to zoom in, let me know what your concerns are, hear what’s going on at the Capitol and behind the scenes, and get a prognosis of what’s before us in the coming weeks.

To register for this one, click on this link.

Hope to see you there!

New Signup Options for OHSU Appointments

For those of you still looking to book your first vaccination appointment, I just received this from OHSU regarding their vaccination appointments at the PDX drive-through site:

Senator Dembrow, 

On behalf of OHSU, I am writing to let you know that the public can now book vaccination appointments on our website at any time during the week, until all available appointments are full. While OHSU continues to release new appointments at 9 a.m. most weekdays, the public doesn’t have to rush to book an appointment in the morning.

Our scheduling website isn’t experiencing a rush of visitors on weekday mornings this week, as was the case in weeks past, and we suspect this might be due to an expanding number of vaccination options statewide. But we want to be sure anyone who is newly vaccine-eligible, but hasn’t yet tried to schedule an appointment, knows OHSU is available to help.

To be clear, OHSU is still booking thousands of new vaccination appointments every day. The only thing that’s changed is that newly released appointments aren’t being booked within an hour of being released as they were before, and we want to encourage more people to sign up.

In your ongoing COVID-19 updates in your newsletters, please consider reminding your constituents that they can book vaccination appointments through OHSU’s COVID-19 Vaccines website.

Thank you

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 928.  Here is today’s breakdown by county:

Baker (4)

Benton (8)

Clackamas (93)

Clatsop (13)

Columbia (9)

Coos (3)

Crook (10)

Curry (3)

Deschutes (125)

Douglas (17)

Harney (2)

Hood River (5)

Jackson (32)

Jefferson (15)

Josephine (23)

Klamath (24)

Lake (4)

Lane (60)

Lincoln (2)

Linn (44)

Malheur (3)

Marion (81)

Morrow (2)

Multnomah (177)

Polk (14)

Tillamook (5)

Umatilla (10)

Union (5)

Wallowa (3)

Wasco (6)

Washington (109)

Yamhill (17)

And the Death:

Oregon’s 2,491st death is an 88-year-old man from Josephine County who tested positive on April 9 and died on April 27 at Asante Three Rivers 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

• 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