June 6th COVID-19 Update

June 6, 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.

Not too much to report on this evening.  Reported case counts are down, as we would expect over the weekend. Hospitalizations and positivity rate remain low.

There are no vaccinations to report at all today—not because there haven’t been any, but because the reporting platform is down for maintenance today.  We’ll get updated numbers tomorrow.  We should be getting below the 100,000 mark for the number of Oregonians that need to receive their first vaccination for us to hit the 70% threshold for opening up the state completely.  We should hit that 100,000 mark either tomorrow or the next day. (We seem to be getting around 10,000 first doses per day for Oregonians age 18 and over, which is the focus for that metric.)

Hope you had a great weekend and enjoyed the return of some much-needed rain, at least in parts of the state.

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 258 new COVID cases today.  The cumulative number of cases in Oregon since the beginning of the pandemic is 203,252.
• 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.
• Positive Test Results: OHA reported 340 positive tests today. The cumulative total of positive test results since the beginning of the pandemic is now 294,653.
• Total Tests: OHA reported an additional 8,623 tests today. Our cumulative total of reported tests is now 5,206,332.
• Positivity Rate: The test positivity ratio for Oregon today is 3.6%.
• Hospitalization Information: OHA only reports on the first two bulleted items over the weekend.  I’ll provide updates for the others on Monday.
  • Patients Currently with Confirmed COVID-19: 198 (2 more than yesterday)
  • ICU Patients Confirmed w COVID-19: 58 (2 fewer than yesterday).
  • Available ICU Beds: 158 (12 more than yesterday)
  • Other Available Beds: 488 (30 more than yesterday).
  • Confirmed COVID-19 Patients Currently on Ventilators: 29 (1 fewer than yesterday).
  • Available Ventilators: 783 (19 more than yesterday).
• Deaths: I’m sorry to report 3 additional COVID deaths today.  The total number of COVID deaths in Oregon is now 2,694.
• Vaccinations: Just received this note from OHA: There is no update on vaccinations in Oregon today, due to maintenance of the ALERT IIS. Tomorrow’s update will include updated data from June 5 and June 6. You’ll find yesterday’s info below; I’ll update tomorrow.

• New Immunizations Reported Today: 25,237
  • 9,587 were conducted and reported yesterday
  • 15,650 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 17,551 doses per day.

• Total First and Second Doses Administered So Far: 4,021,545
  • 2,246,993 Pfizer doses
  • 1,625,361 Moderna doses
  • 147,284 Johnson & Johnson doses
• Total Oregonians vaccinated so far: 2,265,143
  • 1,893,574 now fully vaccinated with two doses
• To date, 5,289,645 doses of vaccine have been delivered to sites across Oregon. (This is 7,960 more than yesterday. The total number of doses coming in this week so far this week is 199,590.)
  • 76.0% of these doses have been administered so far. The national average is now 81.0%.
  • 55.4% of Oregonians have received at least one dose (63.0% of those 16 and older, 66.2% of those 18+, which is the CDC standard).
  • 46.2% of Oregonians are now fully vaccinated (54.0% of those 16 and older).
• 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
• Want to see how close each county is to hitting the 65% target for moving to lower risk? Here's an interactive map showing percentages for total population and for eligible population (residents age 16+).  It shows how close each county is to hitting the 65% target.

• Additional Brief Updates:
  • Here’s a deep dive on the question of COVID booster shots from the New York Times.
  • Oregon again makes the national news, this time around the latest video revelationthat Representative Mike Nearman laid the plans in advance for what would be an attempted break-in of the closed Oregon State Capitol during a special session in December.

The Week Ahead in Salem: It’s Ways and Means Time

We have a little under three weeks left to this session, and there’s still lots to be done. There are a number of policy and budget bills stacked up on the House and Senate floor awaiting votes this week.  So far, 57 bills are awaiting action on the House floor on Monday and Tuesday, while there are 28 bills awaiting action on the Senate side.  There are likely double that number still awaiting scheduling.  You can follow the scheduling on OLIS, the Oregon Legislative Information System.

The real action this week is going to be in Ways and Means and its various subcommittees.  Decisions are being finalized as to which policy bills can be funded and which cannot.  In some cases the appropriations will simply be added to agency budgets and the policy bills won’t need to advance; in other cases the policy changes are necessary with or without funding directly attached to them; in still other cases, they’re not going to be high enough on the priority list for either.  We expect a provisional list to be released tomorrow. 

As you’ll see by looking at OLIS (click on Committees, then Joint Committees, then scroll down to the various Ways and Means Subcommittees), bills are now starting to be referred to subcommittees for votes.  There will be many more added to these agendas as the week goes on, so keep looking.  Also, if there’s a particular bill that you’re interested in, you can search for it under BILLS, and sign up to be informed of any action related to it.  That will let you know automatically if and when it is referred to a subcommittee for a vote.

Once these bills (as well as the remaining agency budgets) are voted out of their subcommittees, they’ll go to a vote by the full Ways and Means Committee on Friday.  Then it’s onward to the House floor if it’s a House bill or the Senate floor if it’s a Senate bill.

I’ll let you know during the week how things are going.

Where Are Today’s  Cases?

If we put together the positive test results and new “presumptive cases” reported today, the overall number of new cases reported is 258. Here is today’s breakdown by county:

Baker (1)

Clackamas (41)

Columbia (2)

Coos (1)

Crook (5)

Deschutes (19)

Douglas (11)

Harney (1)

Jackson (7)

Jefferson (2)

Josephine (1)

Klamath (6)

Lane (18)

Linn (11)

Marion (35)

Multnomah (56)

Polk (7)

Sherman (1)

Union (1)

Wallowa (2)

Wasco (5)

Washington (20)

Yamhill (12)

And the Deaths:

Oregon’s 2692^nd death is an 84-year-old woman from Jackson county who tested positive on May 28 and died on June 5 at Providence Medford Medical Center.

Oregon’s 2693^rd death is a 57-year-old man from Multnomah county who tested positive on May 22 and died on June 4.

Oregon’s 2694^th death is a 22-year-old man from Washington county who tested positive on May 30 and died on May 31.

Note from OHA: After obtaining further information it was determined that Oregon’s 2688^th death died at her residence, not at the hospital. We regret the error.

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