|
May 5, 2021
Dear Neighbors and Friends,
Happy Cinco de Mayo!
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 counts are a little higher today, but hospitalizations are down, and so are COVID deaths and percentage of positive tests. Moreover, the newly-released weekly report shows a decline in nearly all COVID metrics for the last week, the first time in five weeks. It may be that this fourth (and final?) surge is reaching its limit here in Oregon.
If so, that would be good news indeed.
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 808 new COVID cases today. The cumulative number of cases in Oregon since the beginning of the pandemic is 188,417.
-
Variant COVID Cases: The reported variant case numbers have just been updated and they show further increases: 311 (up from 168) cases of the B.1.1.7 (UK) variant, 18 cases (up from 13) of the P.1 (Brazilian) variant, and 28 (up from 18) cases of the B.1.351 (South African) variant. In addition, we are now seeing 159 (up from 177) cases of the B.1.427 variant, and 566 (up from 519) of the B.1.429 variant. 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.
-
Positive Test Results: OHA reported 987 positive tests today. The cumulative total of positive test results since the beginning of the pandemic is now 271,305.
-
Total Tests: OHA reported an additional 157,021 tests today. Our cumulative total of reported tests is now 4,760,552.
-
Positivity Rate: The test positivity ratio for Oregon today is 5.8%.
-
Hospitalization Information:
- Patients Currently with Confirmed COVID-19: 345 (15 fewer than yesterday)
- ICU Patients Confirmed w COVID-19: 83 (4 more than yesterday).
- Available ICU Beds: 138 (15 fewer than yesterday)
- Other Available Beds: 487 (31 fewer than yesterday).
- Confirmed COVID-19 Patients Currently on Ventilators: 40 (5 more than yesterday).
- Available Ventilators: 790 (9 fewer than yesterday).
-
Deaths: I’m sorry to report 1 additional COVID death today. The total number of COVID deaths in Oregon is now 2,509.
-
Vaccinations:
- As of the end of yesterday, here are the latest numbers:
- New Immunizations Reported Today: 30,994
- 21,621 were conducted yesterday
- 9,373 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 31,644 doses per day.
- Total First and Second Doses Administered So Far: 3,123,136
- 1,687,446 Pfizer doses
- 1,334,560 Moderna doses
- 99,792 Johnson & Johnson doses
- Total Oregonians vaccinated so far: 1,885,466
- 1,331,526 now fully vaccinated with two doses
- To date, 3,984,825 doses of vaccine have been delivered to sites across Oregon. (That’s 53,299 more than yesterday, for a total of 240,339 so far this week.)
Additional Brief Updates:
- In her press release yesterday, the Governor informed us that she has requested additional vaccine doses for Oregon as part of a new program to reallocate vaccines that other states didn’t want or need. Here's more information about that.
- Here’s more on the Pfizer request for emergency authorization to ffer the vaccine to 12-16 year olds.
- And here’s an Associated Press story about the excitement many parents are feeling about the prospect oftheir children having access to the vaccine.
- As we’re seeing in other states, in Oregon it’s becoming much easier to get a vaccination appointment, and that may be related to a reduction in desire for the vaccine. Here’s a story about both. from the Oregonian’s Fedor Zarkhin.
- New studies published in the New England Journal of Medicine and The Lancet show a high degree of success for the Pfizer vaccine against COVID variants. Here's more
- Portland State University joins Oregon State University in. requiring on-campus students and employees to be vaccinated by the start of fall term.
- In an interesting bit of news, two of my Republican Senate colleagues have filed a bill that would prohibit legislators from also serving as party officials. It’s clearly focused on two other colleagues, Senators Dallas Heard and Dennis Linthicum. You can read more about it here. l Let me say for the record that I agree with this position for both parties. Party leaders and legislators play complementary roles, but there are definitely differences. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.
Weekly COVID Data And Outbreak Reports Released: A Downturn Begins
The Oregon Health Authority’s COVID-19 Weekly Report, released today, shows decreases in daily cases, hospitalizations and deaths from the previous week.
- OHA reported 5,557 new daily cases of COVID-19 during the week of Monday, April 26 through Sunday, May 2. That represents a 3% decrease from the previous week.
- New COVID-19 related hospitalizations fell to 272, down from 333 last week.
- Reported COVID-19 related deaths fell to 16, down from 26 last week.
- There were 110,134 tests for COVID-19 for the week of April 25 through May 1 — an 18% decrease from last week.
- However, the percentage of positive tests rose from 6.0% to 6.8%, a sign that we need to be doing more asymptomatic testing.
Today’s COVID-19 Weekly Outbreak Report shows 42 active COVID-19 outbreaks in senior living communities and congregate living settings. This returns us to where we were early in March.
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
4/21/21 24 facilities
4/28/21 34 facilities
5/5/21 42 facilities
The Outbreak Report also includes the latest data on COVID in workplaces, childcare centers, and public and private K-12 schools.
A Tale of Two Bills: Today in the Legislature
Today in the Senate we experienced the final passage of what will likely be the major piece of gun-safety legislation this session. SB 554, which brings together two concepts that have long been the focus of legislature effort (and personal priorities of mine). It required us to give up parts of the version of SB 554 that passed the Senate and went over to the House (removing the ability of local governments to prohibit firearms from their buildings, while maintaining that authority for the Capitol, colleges, universities, school districts, and Portland International Airport.
It was obviously a difficult vote for Senate Republicans, and six of the twelve stayed away for the day (technically four Republicans and two now-independents but who remain Republicans in terms of their votes on most issues). I have to commend those who chose to stay and respect the process, even as they voted no and spoke strongly against the bill.
I will say that one of the strongest statements came from the Republican leader, who spoke critically of an unnamed organization—unnamed, but presumably the Oregon Firearms Federation—whose tactics involved initiating recall efforts against any Republicans who showed up to vote.
Though I’m of course pleased with the outcome, and looking forward to colleges and universities once again being able to prohibit guns in their classrooms, it was a difficult morning.
That vote, however, was followed by another priority of mine, SB 574, a bill that will allow motorcycle “lane-filtering” to be used on Oregon highways. Lane filtering applies when traffic has stopped or nearly stopped, and it allows motorcyclists to move between lanes of traffic in order to avoid potentially being plowed into from behind. It’s an effort that I became interested in as a result of outreach from a former student of mine, who explained the problem, solution, and science on the subject, and it made sense to me. Needless to say, it has generated enormous support from motorcyclists from all over the state, embodying a range of political beliefs.
If you look at the sponsorship of the bill, you’ll see that Democrats and Replublicans, rural and urban, joined in this effort. If you look at today’s floor vote, you’ll see that a number of Democrats were in opposition—including the Senate President—and a number of Republicans were in support. It passed relatively narrowly, with eighteen votes. I have to admit that I was worried, as several of the votes I was counting on came from those Rs that had chosen to stay away today. But in the end, the bill passed in a strange moment of bipartisanship, all the more odd given the way the day had to start (with the concurrence vote on SB 554).
And perhaps odder still: despite the bipartisan end-result, even the Lane Filtering Bill had to first be read aloud in its entirety by our computer reader (AKA Rita or Reada).
Each day is an adventure.
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 808. Here is today’s breakdown by county:
Baker (4)
Benton (17)
Clackamas (119)
Clatsop (2)
Columbia (6)
Crook (16)
Curry (1)
Deschutes (81)
Douglas (12)
Grant (2)
Hood River (5)
Jackson (40)
Jefferson (3)
Josephine (18)
Klamath (37)
Lake (3)
Lane (43)
Lincoln (1)
Linn (36)
Malheur (7)
Marion (59)
Morrow (2)
Multnomah (164)
Polk (15)
Tillamook (2)
Umatilla (8)
Union (1)
Wallowa (2)
Wasco (2)
Washington (84)
Yamhill (17)
And the Death:
Oregon’s 2,509th COVID-19 death is a 41-year-old man from Lane County who tested positive on Nov. 18, 2020 and died on Jan. 1, 2021 at his 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
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: 503-768-1723
mail: 900 Court St NE, S-407, Salem, OR, 97301
|
