May 1 COVID-19 Update

Click to edit this placeholder text.

May 1, 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.

First of all, I want to wish you a very Happy May Day.  In the rest of the world, May 1 is International Workers Day, a day to celebrate workers everywhere.  Ironically, it began as a commemoration of an American labor protest, the Chicago Haymarket Riot of 1886 and became the most valued holiday for trade unionists and socialists worldwide.  We, of course, celebrate Labor Day in September. (Oregon, by the way, was the first state in the nation to make Labor Day a public holiday, in 1887.)

This was presumably in order to separate the American celebration of labor from the more radical connotations of the international day.  In recent years, we have used this day to recognize the special contributions of America’s many immigrant workers, and I’ve been proud to march in many parades on this day.  I hope you’ll join me in giving our thanks to these workers who are doing exhausting, difficult, and generally ill-paid work to get food and other essential items onto our tables and into our homes.

Today’s COVID report is again mixed.  Case numbers are down a little, as are hospitalizations.  Our test positivity rate is again high, though.  Our state epidemiologist has said that this means we’re once again not testing enough—we need to be doing more routine screenings of people who are not showing symptoms in order to help contain the disease’s spread.

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 794 new COVID cases today.  The cumulative number of cases in Oregon since the beginning of the pandemic is 185,597.
• 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. 
• Positive Test Results: OHA reported 1,298 positive tests today. The cumulative total of positive test results since the beginning of the pandemic is now 267,731.
• Total Tests: OHA reported an additional 18,469 tests today. Our cumulative total of reported tests is now 4,707,395.
• Positivity Rate: The test positivity ratio for Oregon today is 7.0%.
• Hospitalization Information: OHA only reports on the first two bullets on the weekend. I’ll catch you up on the remaining metrics on Monday.
  • Patients Currently with Confirmed COVID-19: 331 (3 fewer than yesterday)
  • ICU Patients Confirmed w COVID-19: 71 (2 fewer than yesterday).
  • Available ICU Beds: 153 (4 more than yesterday)
  • Other Available Beds: 827* (340 more than yesterday).
    • *This seems unbelievably high. An error?
  • Confirmed COVID-19 Patients Currently on Ventilators: 33 (2 more than yesterday).
  • Available Ventilators: 806 (5 fewer than yesterday).
• Deaths: I’m sorry to report 3 additional COVID deaths today.  The total number of COVID deaths in Oregon is now 2,498.
• Vaccinations:
  • As of the end of yesterday, here are the latest numbers:
    • New Immunizations Reported Today: 40,318
      • 28,021 were conducted yesterday
      • 12,297 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 34,801 doses per day.
    • Total First and Second Doses Administered So Far: 3,023,578
      • 1,617,051 Pfizer doses
      • 1,309,662 Moderna doses
      • 95,599 Johnson & Johnson doses
    • Total Oregonians vaccinated so far: 1,838,412
      • 1,275,121 now fully vaccinated with two doses
    • To date, 3,744,945 doses of vaccine have been delivered to sites across Oregon. (That’s an additional 40,170 since yesterday, for a total of 344,530 coming in this week.)
      • 80.7% of these doses have been administered so far. The national average is now 77.9%.
      • 44.3% of Oregonians have received at least one dose.
      • 30.5% 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 Associated Press has a story on the growing national controversy around vaccination requirements and religious exceptions.
  • S. Representative Blumenauer reminds us that Monday is the opening day for applications for the new federal Restaurant Relief Program.  There is $28.6 billion available to help struggling restaurants across the nation.
  • For those of you interested in the science of vaccine-making, here’s a pictorial essay on how the Pfizer vaccine is made.
  • As we look forward to a potential return to “normal” (or more realistically a “new normal”) this summer, what does that mean for kids’ camps and summer programs? Here's some expert advice.

Coming Up:  Town Hall This Wednesday

Representatives Barbara Smith Warner (HD 45) and Khanh Pham (HD 46) and I will be holding another zoom town hall this Wednesday evening at 5:30.  We’ll be joined by House Ways and Means Co-Chair Dan Rayfield at the beginning to talk about the budget process and prognoses.

You can sign up for it here.

Hope to see you there!

Landlord Compensation Fund: Round 2

You may remember that the Legislature created the Landlord Compensation Fund to help out landlords with tenants who have been unable to keep up with their rental payments.  The fund covers 80% of past-due rent (beginning with rent due April 2020) for tenants with a signed declaration of financial hardship if a landlord agrees to forgive the other 20%.

The first round of the fund covered rental debt for approximately 12,000 tenants and helped more than 1,900 landlords.

The Round Two application period is now open.  This round will be open until May 17^th.  If you’re interested in applying in the second round, please see this check list. Visit the Landlord Compensation Fund website for more information.  

We’ve been advised that the Landlord Compensation Fund is not the only rental assistance program currently open. Renters can access assistance through regional community action agencies.

Additionally, Oregon Housing and Community Services will open the new federal Emergency Rental Assistance program next month. Be on the lookout for additional housing resources in the coming week—I’ll let you know when we hear 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 794.  Here is today’s breakdown by county:

Baker (4)

Benton (10)

Clackamas (96)

Clatsop (7)

Columbia (15)

Coos (4)

Crook (6)

Curry (2)

Deschutes (88)

Douglas (9)

Grant (2)

Harney (2)

Hood River (2)

Jackson (33)

Jefferson (5)

Josephine (9)

Klamath (55)

Lake (2)

Lane (66)

Lincoln (8)

Linn (38)

Malheur (5)

Marion (60)

Multnomah (115)

Polk (5)

Tillamook (1)

Umatilla (9)

Union (3)

Wallowa (3)

Wasco (4)

Washington (106)

Yamhill (22)

And the Deaths:

Oregon’s 2,496th death is a 70-year-old man from Jackson county who tested positive on April 25 and died on April 29 at Asante Rogue Regional Medical Center.

Oregon’s 2,497th death is a 43-year-old woman from Linn county who tested positive on March 29 and died on April 27 at Albany General Hospital.

Oregon’s 2,498th death is an 81-year-old woman from Malheur county who tested positive on Nov. 30 and died on March 6 at her residence.

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