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June 3, 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.
Today’s COVID numbers are reassuring. The case count is the lowest it’s been mid-week since well before the recent surge began. Positivity rate and hospitalizations remain low. Vaccinations are up somewhat, though still much lower than they have been. We’ll see how much of that is due to slow reporting.
In the Senate today we again had a day without bill reading. That has now been true for the last week. A promising sign. The Senate is in great shape in terms of moving through the bills in the queue promptly. The House is proceeding more slowly; they’re quite backed up. Neither chamber is now scheduled to meet on Friday.
As I mentioned yesterday, policy bills in Ways and Means are starting to be referred to subcommittees at last. For the most part, they will not be receiving public hearings this year. Once the decision has been made from legislative leadership to fund the new programs, they go straight to an explanation and a vote in a work session. (They’ve already had public hearings in their policy committee before being referred to Ways and Means for budget consideration.)
Although there’s nothing hard and fast in this, I’d say that all the remaining policy bills will need to move out of Ways and Means in the next two weeks if they are to make it (or some other way to get their funding appropriated).
If you can make it to Saturday’s constituent coffee (see below), I’m sure I’ll be speaking to and answering questions about all this.
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
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New COVID Cases: OHA reports 267 new COVID cases today. The cumulative number of cases in Oregon since the beginning of the pandemic is 202,247.
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Variant COVID Cases: Here are the cumulative case counts for the COVID variants in Oregon: 1,152 (up from 983) cases of the B.1.1.7 (UK) variant, 176 cases (up from 142) of the P.1 (Brazilian) variant, and 86 (up from 80) cases of the B.1.351 (South African) variant. In addition, we are now seeing 277 (up from 257) cases of the B.1.427 variant, and 700 (up from 688) of the B.1.429 variant. OHA is now producing a Variant Dashboard, providing current variant case numbers for the state as a whole and for various parts of the state. It’s updated each Wednesday.
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Positive Test Results: OHA reported 471 positive tests today. The cumulative total of positive test results since the beginning of the pandemic is now 293,417.
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Total Tests: OHA reported an additional 14,446 tests today. Our cumulative total of reported tests is now 5,171,718.
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Positivity Rate: The test positivity ratio for Oregon today is 4.2%.
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Hospitalization Information:
- Patients Currently with Confirmed COVID-19: 228 (1 more than yesterday)
- ICU Patients Confirmed w COVID-19: 63 (4 fewer than yesterday).
- Available ICU Beds: 146 (6 more than yesterday)
- Other Available Beds: 458 (13 fewer than yesterday).
- Confirmed COVID-19 Patients Currently on Ventilators: 30 (6 fewer than yesterday).
- Available Ventilators: 764 (same as yesterday).
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Deaths: I’m sorry to report 7 additional COVID deaths today. The total number of COVID deaths in Oregon is now 2,683.
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Vaccinations:
- As of the end of yesterday, here are the latest numbers:
- New Immunizations Reported Today: 20,401
- 8,812 were conducted and reported yesterday
- 11,589 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 20,109 doses per day.
- Total First and Second Doses Administered So Far: 3,996,364
- 2,232,796 Pfizer doses
- 1,615,839 Moderna doses
- 145,843 Johnson & Johnson doses
- Total Oregonians vaccinated so far: 2,255,274
- 1,877,344 now fully vaccinated with two doses
- To date, 5,281,685 doses of vaccine have been delivered to sites across Oregon. (This is 6,390 more than yesterday. The total number of doses coming in this week so far this week is 191,630.)
- 75.7% of these doses have been administered so far. The national average is now 80.8%.
- 55.2% of Oregonians have received at least one dose (62.7% of those 16 and7 older, 66.1% of those 18+, which is the CDC standard).
- 45.9% of Oregonians are now fully vaccinated (53.6% of those 16 and older).
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Additional Brief Updates:
- A number of Dr. Fauci’s emails from the beginning of the pandemic were recently made public through a public records request. Conservatives have used them to increase their attacks on him. Here's more.
- Is this Socialism? Annhauser-Busch announces that it will give all adult Americans free beer (or non-alcoholic beverages) if the U.S. as a whole hits President Biden’s 70% vaccination target by July 4. Here are the details.
- Here’s another investigation into why vaccination rates are going down. VOX gives us six reasons.
- And here's another perspective on .that same question from The New Yorker.
- Nearly every state, including Oregon, is planning to have a full reopening of its schools in the fall. BUT, Dr. Fauci warns us, if case rates are very high in communities in the fall, children may have to wear masks.
- Despite the widespread availability of the vaccine, some nursing homes are still struggling with outbreaks. Why? Unvaccinated staff members.
- The New Yorker has a piece about ”"The Age of Reopening Anxiety."
It's Constituent Coffee Time!!!
Saturday is the first Saturday of the month, so this Saturday morning, 9:00-10:30, will be our next zoom coffee.
This will be our last coffee of the session, so a great chance to hear just what’s happening in these turbulent final days and your last chance to remind me of your priorities!
Hope tosee you there. You can register here.
Latest “Breakthrough” Case Report Released Today
OHA releases updated information on the cumulative numbers of “breakthrough” COVID cases (cases in people who are fully vaccinated) the first Thursday of each month. The current report for June 2021 can be found here.
As you look at the report, you’ll see the great extent of protection afforded by the vaccines.
In May alone, there were 16,097 cases of COVID-19 and 98 percent of these cases were among people who were NOT vaccinated. More than 9 in 10 of the 126 COVID-19 associated deaths in May were among people who were not vaccinated.
Cumulatively through May 31, Oregon Health Authority has identified just 1,009 COVID-19 vaccine breakthrough cases. That’s just .05% of the nearly 2 million people who’ve been fully vaccinated. Of that tiny number, fewer than 10% of breakthrough cases resulted in hospitalizations (95 in all), and fewer than 2% died (20 in all). Of those who died, the median age was 75 (the youngest being 58 and the oldest 98).
Vaccinations clearly make a huge difference. For more information, see the report.
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: 503-281-0608
mail: 900 Court St NE, S-407, Salem, OR, 97301
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