May 9th COVID-19 Update

Michael Dembrow

May 9, 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.

It’s Sunday (hope you had a great Mother’s Day if you were in a position to celebrate it), and that means lower COVID numbers.  We’ll know in the coming days if this is another weekend phenomenon or something more longer-term.  

Case numbers, hospitalizations, and COVID deaths are all down.  Vaccinations are down from their leap yesterday but still at a good place for a Sunday.  We’ll see what tomorrow brings.

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 610 new COVID cases today.  The cumulative number of cases in Oregon since the beginning of the pandemic is 191,405.
  • Variant COVID Cases: The reported variant case numbers remain unchanged from the most recent update.  They remain 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 669 positive tests today. The cumulative total of positive test results since the beginning of the pandemic is now 275,324.
  • Total Tests: OHA reported an additional 11,307 tests today. Our cumulative total of reported tests is now 4,829,417.
  • Positivity Rate: The test positivity ratio for Oregon today is 5.9%.
  • Hospitalization Information: OHA only reports on the first two bulleted items below over the weekend. I’ll catch you up on the other metrics on Monday.
    • Patients Currently with Confirmed COVID-19: 318 (11 fewer than yesterday)
    • ICU Patients Confirmed w COVID-19: 76 (8 fewer than yesterday).
    • Available ICU Beds: 148 (14 more than yesterday)
    • Other Available Beds: 512 (22 more than yesterday).
    • Confirmed COVID-19 Patients Currently on Ventilators: 37 (3 fewer than yesterday).
    • Available Ventilators: 787 (4 fewer than yesterday).
  • Deaths: I’m sorry to report 2 additional COVID deaths today.  The total number of COVID deaths in Oregon is now 2,530.
  • Vaccinations:
    • As of the end of yesterday, here are the latest numbers:
      • New Immunizations Reported Today: 37,726
        • 13,606 were conducted yesterday
        • 24,120 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 33,133 doses per day.
      • Total First and Second Doses Administered So Far: 3,315,443
        • 1,812,146 Pfizer doses
        • 1,393,974 Moderna doses
        • 107,869 Johnson & Johnson doses
      • Total Oregonians vaccinated so far: 1,968,955
        • 1,448,194 now fully vaccinated with two doses
      • To date, 4,035,095 doses of vaccine have been delivered to sites across Oregon. (That’s the same as yesterday, so the total for this week remains at 290,609, a little lower than it has been.)
  • Additional Brief Updates:
    • Here’s what I consider to be a very astute analysis by CNN’s Harry Enten of what we learn from the most recent polling from the Kaiser Family Foundation’s most recent survey of public attitudes about the COVID vaccines. Enten observes that most of those who are currently unlikely to seek a vaccine are not politically engaged on e way or the other; in fact, they were disengaged from the 2020 presidential election. Getting them engaged in vaccination will be a special challenge.
    • Even though most schools across the nation are now open to in-person learning, many students are still opting to stay home.  Here’s more on that.

 

The Week Ahead in the Legislature

The big news this last week was the passage of SB 554, the gun-safety bill that combined safe-storage provisions that were the priority for the House and the public-building provisions that were the Senate’s priorities.  It is now in the Governor’s hands, awaiting her signature.  We expect her to sign it. 

Now that guns will be completely prohibited from the Capitol (aside from the state police who are assigned to the building), I assume it will be just a matter of time before we have metal detectors installed at entry points.  These checkpoints are normal in most state capitols and federal buildings, but here in Oregon we’ve always valued the openness of the building and our offices to the public.  Sadly, the attempted storming of the Capitol in December and the attempted insurrection at the U.S. Capitol in January were proof that we are in a new era now.  If our Capitol weren’t closed for COVID-safety reasons, I believe we would have seen metal detectors already. 

We don’t yet have the full schedule of floor sessions for the Senate and House this week.  Almost without exception, the Senate will be voting on House bills now, and the House will be voting on Senate bills.  What that means is, unless the bills have been amended, upon passage their legislative trajectory is over, and they go to the Governor’s desk for her signature.  If they were amended in some way, they will need a concurrence vote in their first chamber.  That’s what happened last week with SB 554.  If the original committee chair is OK with the changes, concurrence is quite straight-forward.  If not, a conference committee may need to be set up in order to reconcile the differences.  We haven’t seen the latter happen yet this year, but we certainly will a few times before the session is over.

The Senate is still under the bill-reading requirement.  Perhaps that will change now that no counties are in Extreme Risk status any longer. (The Governor’s handling of COVID restrictions, requiring counties that had exceeded the triggering COVID thresholds, was presumably the reason for the requirement in the first place.)  But we have to assume that it will continue for now at least.  So far, the Senate President’s office has been able to schedule bills so that we’re able to get through our agendas in the allotted time.  The magic number seems to be around 40 pages of bills per day to stay within schedule.  I know it will strike you as odd that bills are being scheduled for votes based on their length, and all I can say is that I find it odd as well . . .

It really makes you realize just how little of the language in any particular bill is actually new language.  Generally speaking, a bill largely consists of the entire section of existing statute, with any additions or deletions noted.  For example, I’m hearing a bill in my committee next week that’s 32 pages long.  Only six lines are new, but the entire 32 pages will need to be read aloud when it gets to the floor.  It’s not at all a controversial bill, but it makes a timely and necessary change.  Still, it won’t be able to come to the floor anytime soon because of its length.  

My understanding is that an initiative petition is being developed for the 2022 election to modify this requirement from the Constitution. I believe that our experience this session sadly will provide lots of real-world reasons that this archaic requirement should go.  

Here’s what we’re looking at for now for floor votes this week:

Monday: 9 bills in the Senate, 6 in the House.

Tuesday: None posted yet in the Senate, 16 in the House.

On the Committee front, the end of this week marks another one of those deadlines that govern the work of the Legislature.  By the end of Friday, any second-chamber bill that has been assigned to a committee (other than Rules or Revenue) must be scheduled for a work session (i.e., a vote) before the end of the month.  If it is not scheduled for a work session, that means the Chair has decided not to allow it to move forward this year.  That can occur for all sorts of reasons, especially as the session enters its final weeks.

A week from this Wednesday is another very important date:  the release of the final revenue forecast for the next biennium.  This will be the forecast that is used to finalize the budgeted expenditures and appropriations for 2021-23.  Once it’s out, the various agency budgets will begin to be finalized one after the other.  Most likely, the first big budget to be released will be the K-12 Education budget.

Let us know if you have any questions about any of these items or anything else going on in the Legislature.


 

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 610.  Here is today’s breakdown by county:

Benton (13)

Clackamas (78)

Columbia (10)

Coos (3)

Crook (8)

Curry (1)

Deschutes (35)

Douglas (5)

Gilliam (4)

Harney (1)

Hood River (2)

Jackson (16)

Jefferson (3)

Josephine (6)

Klamath (22)

Lane (40)

Lincoln (1)

Linn (31)

Malheur (6)

Marion (76)

Morrow (1)

Multnomah (144)

Polk (10)

Tillamook (4)

Washington (81)

Wheeler (2)

Yamhill (13)

 

And the Deaths:

Oregon’s 2,529th death is a 80-year-old woman from Deschutes county who tested positive on April 24 and died on May 3 at St Charles Bend Hospital.

Oregon’s 2530th death is a 83-year-old woman from Multnomah county who tested positive on April 27 and died on May 7 at Legacy Emanuel Medical Center.

 

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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,

dembrow signature

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