Coronavirus updates: Programs for Washington small businesses; ICE considers releases
This page includes coronavirus developments around Washington state for Wednesday, April 8.
Updated at 3:45 p.m.
His most famous shot for the Huskies is the only thing cold-blooded about Isaiah Thomas.
The Tacoma native, Curtis High School basketball standout, University of Washington star and two-time NBA All-Star is halfway through two donated pizza deliveries to the UW Medical Center campuses hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic.
On Tuesday, Thomas had Seattle’s Pagliacci pizza feed more than 500 doctors, nurses and cleaning staff members at three hospitals: Harborview Medical and Trauma Center, the UW Medical Center’s main hospital on the university’s flagship campus and Northwest Medical Center just north of downtown Seattle.
He will send pizzas to feed 500 more of the hospitals’ workers next Tuesday, April 14.
That’s more than 1,000 thank-yous to those on the front lines of our region’s fight against the COVID-19 outbreak.
“I want to thank all the doctors, nurses and cleaning staff at U-Dub Medicine for all that you do to try to help (us with) this virus,” Thomas said in a video he sent to UW Medical Center staff members. “My family and I appreciate you, and want you to know that we couldn’t get through this without you.
Port Temporarily suspends ongoing construction
Updated at 3:45 p.m.
The Port of Seattle will temporarily suspend approximately 20 current construction projects from Thursday, April 9 to Monday, April 13 to complete reviews and updates of contractors’ jobsite safety plans, an action necessary to protect workers and slow the spread of the COVID-19 virus.
The temporary suspension does not apply to Northwest Seaport Alliance projects.
The Port required all contractors to submit updated safety plans by March 27 to demonstrate how jobsites would implement public health recommendations to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and protect workers.
In response to the latest recommendations by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the latest policy enforcement guidance from Washington State Division of Occupational Health and Safety, Labor & Industries, the Port opted to suspend ongoing construction projects until it completes its review.
Contractors have already implemented many public health recommendations including social distancing on worksites, additional sanitization, and urging high-risk employees, or anyone not feeling well, to stay home.
Pierce County adds 44 cases
Updated at 3:45 p.m.
Pierce County added 44 cases to its daily coronavirus case total, and two more deaths, according to numbers posted Tuesday by the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department.
Pierce County’s total cases of COVID-19 are 760, with 14 deaths since the health department started posting numbers in the outbreak. While Monday’s total cases were originally listed as 717, the health department said Tuesday’s new total corrects “a duplicate case previously reported.”
The two deaths reported Tuesday include a man in his 40s from Spanaway and a woman in her 70s from Tacoma with underlying health conditions, according to the health department.
No new testing numbers were released by the county. Tests have been run on 8,870 Pierce County residents by private and public labs, according to the state Department of Heath. The state health department is still facing a delay in reporting coronavirus test numbers.
New models this week from the University of Washington indicate that the state is now heading into the downward slope of its total case curve, with peak resource use at hospitals reached on April 2.
Daily reports include cases received by 11:59 p.m. the previous day. Monday geographical totals are listed below with Sunday’s numbers in parentheses:
▪ Bonney Lake: 22 (20)
▪ Central Pierce County: 46 (42)
▪ East Pierce County: 21 (no change)
▪ Edgwood/Fife/Milton: 35 (33)
▪ Frederickson: 19 (18)
▪ Gig Harbor area: 41 (no change)
▪ Graham: 26 (23)
▪ JBLM: No longer reported
▪ Key Peninsula: 6 (5)
▪ Lake Tapps/Sumner area: 17 (no change)
▪ Parkland: 33 (32)▪ Lakewood: 62 (59)
▪ Puyallup: 36 (35)
▪ South Hill: 45 (41)
▪ South Pierce County: 14 (11)
▪ Southwest Pierce County: 6 (7)
▪ Spanaway: 24 (23)
▪ Tacoma: 283 (266)
▪ University Place: 24 (23)
Washington state speech and debate tournaments canceled
Updated at 2:15 p.m.
Following a lengthy postponement and attempt to reschedule, the Washington state speech and debate tournaments were both officially canceled Wednesday.
The tournaments had been scheduled to take place at the University of Puget Sound on March 14 and March 20-21. The official tournament website still says that the tournament is attempting to reschedule.
Sam Normington, president of the Washington State Forensics Association, sent an email announcing the cancellation.
“It is with heavy hearts that we announce the cancellation of the State Speech and Debate Tournaments,” Normington said. “We held out hope that we would be able to hold the tournaments sometime in May, but that is no longer feasible with all schools closed for the remainder of the academic year.”
Other alternatives were unfeasible, he added.
“We considered hosting an online tournament, but along with many other organizations, both state and national, we ultimately feel there are too many hurdles for that to be a viable option,” Normington said. “Many of our competitors do not have reliable access to the technology necessary to compete in an online tournament, whether that be hardware or reliable high-speed internet. Now seems like the exact wrong time to ask anybody to invest in upgrading their tech.”
Second positive test at Tacoma Rescue Mission
Updated at 1:30 p.m.
A guest at the Tacoma Rescue Mission’s South Tacoma Way location tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday. When the test result was confirmed, the affected guest was located and transferred to a secure location off Mission property. They are being monitored by the Health Department.
This is the second Mission guest confirmed to have contracted COVID-19. The first was given a clean bill of health by the Health Department and was released from quarantine two weeks ago.
All individuals who slept near the guest with the positive test result have been identified. To limit further potential spread of the virus, those guests have been given masks and moved to a separate sleeping area where they will be jointly monitored by Mission staff and the Health Department.
Additionally, impacted areas were sanitized, using Health Department guidelines. Expedited testing has been offered – in partnership with Community Health Care – to any guests or staff with flu-like symptoms.
ICE reviewing cases at detention facilities
Updated at 9:10 a.m.
On Tuesday, BuzzFeed reported U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement notified Congress it had identified 600 detainees who are at higher risk from the coronavirus and is considering them for possible release.
“The agency has instructed its field offices to further assess and consider for release certain individuals deemed to be at greater risk of exposure, consistent with CDC guidelines, reviewing cases of individuals 60 years old and older, as well as those who are pregnant,” according to the agency’s notice to Congress.
ICE officials told The News Tribune cases at all its detention facilities are being reviewed.
The Northwest Detention Center on the Tacoma Tideflats contains 1,575 beds and is privately owned and operated by the GEO Group. ICE declined to comment on how many detainees at the Tacoma facility are included in the 600 being considered for release.
More than 160 of those identified as at-risk already have been released from ICE custody, including two in Tacoma, according to Q13.
In a statement, ICE said “due to the unprecedented nature of COVID-19, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is reviewing cases of individuals in detention who may be vulnerable to the virus. Utilizing CDC guidance along with the advice of medical professionals, ICE may place individuals in a number of alternatives to detention options. Decisions to release individuals in ICE custody occur every day on a case-by-case basis.”
This statement comes after reports of alleged hunger strikes taking place aimed at raising awareness of COVID-19 concerns inside immigrant detention centers.
Department of Social and Health Services offers new resources
Updated at 9 a.m.
The Department of Social and Health Services is offering new resources during the COVID-19 response for people with loved ones within in a DSHS owned, operated or community facility. These resources help provide information or guidance about famiy members.
“The COVID-19 outbreak in Washington has disproportionately affected older adults and residents of long-term care facilities,” said Bill Moss, assistant secretary of the Aging and Long-Term Support Administration. “We know that friends and family members are worried about their loved ones in long-term care facilities. These new resources will provide them with quick, reliable facility information.”
DSHS has partnered with the Department of Health and Washington 2-1-1 to add an option for callers to the COVID-19 Call Center that allows loved ones of someone in DSHS’ care to learn what is happening at various facilities around the state.
This new option provides operators at the call center the ability to field general COVID-19 questions. The call center, which can be accessed toll-free by dialing 888-856-5691, will also have updated visitation restrictions and recommended guidelines they can share with callers. When necessary, operators can also connect callers with facilities to gather additional information.
A new DSHS FamHelp webpage also provides facility information and visitation status to friends and families of long-term care facility residents. It offers a searchable database with visitor policies and contact information for all nursing homes, assisted living facilities and adult family homes in Washington and contains links to resources and up-to-date information on the COVID-19 outbreak.
The FamHelp webpage is available at www.dshs.wa.gov/altsa/famhelp. DSHS also has a webpage dedicated to updates and impacts to services related to the virus.
Inslee announces steps to help small businesses
Updated at 8:30 a.m.
Gov. Jay Inslee on Tuesday announced three short-term steps to help small businesses damaged by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The first is $5 million in state grants that will provide up to $10,000 for businesses with under 10 employees.
“We’ve targeted small businesses as the people who are having the most difficulty weathering financial storms, and we look forward to these small businesses continuing,” Inslee said at a press briefing.
The governor announced that the state Department of Commerce is providing a business resilience assistance program that will work with several local groups, including the Tacoma Urban League and the Tri-Cities Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.
Those groups will handle a variety of tasks, including translation services to help businesses get access to financial help.
“We’re particularly glad about this because we saw a lot of Asian-American restaurants hit hard because people mistakenly thought that ethnicity played some role in this,” said Inslee. “It was just simply wrong. I’m glad we’re helping these businesses, particularly restaurants, if there’s a way to keep going.”
Inslee also said the state wants to help businesses access federal assistance programs.
Small businesses, nonprofit groups, independent contractors and self-employed individuals may be eligible for a “forgivable” loan from the U.S. Small Business Administration, the governor said.
Washington has enough ventilators, but needs more test kits
Updated at 8:30 a.m.
Washington state has returned 400 ventilators and 300 hospital beds to the federal Strategic National Stockpile to help other states, but Gov. Jay Inslee said Tuesday that the state needs more test kits for COVID-19 and an expanded ability to analyze them.
“We have hundreds of people that we would like to test today — including some in our long-term care facilities that have had people infected in their facility — that cannot get tested and the reason is that there simply are not enough test kits,” Inslee said at a press briefing.
The governor said he spoke with a company Tuesday morning that makes swabs needed to run the tests and was hopeful the state could acquire them.
Noting that there’s a “world shortage” of test kits, Inslee repeated his request for President Donald Trump to invoke the Defense Production Act for a national effort to manufacture personal protective equipment.
“The kits are not the only issue. We also have to dramatically increase the ability to analyze these samples, meaning the analytic capacity has to increase several-fold. This is something I don’t believe yet the federal government has come to terms with how much we have to increase testing capability.
“We are going to have to increase it dramatically as we come through this epidemic to allow people to safely return to work,” Inslee added.
Dr. Kathy Lofy, the state health officer and chief science officer, said the state over the past several days has struggled to acquire test kit material.
“We have been very short of swabs. It has been difficult to acquire swabs and we’ve had some difficulty with the viral transport media that the swab goes into,” she said.
In a sign of how quickly the state’s response to COVID-19 changes, Lofy said the state on Tuesday had obtained “tens of thousands” of test kits.
“We are going to be deploying a lot of these test kits to our local health jurisdictions to help with a lot of the testing that needs to happen within congregate care settings,” she said.
Lofy made her comment 90 minutes after Inslee’s press conference. A spokesperson for the Joint Information Center, which is coordinating the state’s COVID-19 response, did not immediately return a call seeking more details on Lofy’s statement.
Pandemic deals blow to plastic bag bans, plastic reduction
Updated at 8:30 a.m.
Just weeks ago, cities and even states across the U.S. were busy banning straws, limiting takeout containers and mandating that shoppers bring reusable bags or pay a small fee as the movement to eliminate single-use plastics took hold in mainstream America.
What a difference a pandemic makes.
In a matter of days, hard-won bans to reduce the use of plastics — and particularly plastic shopping sacks — across the U.S. have come under fire amid worries about the virus clinging to reusable bags, cups and straws.
Governors in Massachusetts and Illinois have banned or strongly discouraged the use of reusable grocery bags. Oregon suspended its brand-new ban on plastic bags this week, and cities from Bellingham, Washington, to Albuquerque, New Mexico, have announced a hiatus on plastic bag bans as the coronavirus rages.
Add to that a rise in takeout and a ban on reusable cups and straws at the few coffee stores that remain open, and environmentalists worry COVID-19 could set back their efforts to tackle plastic pollution for years.
“People are scared for their lives, their livelihood, the economy, feeding their loved ones, so the environment is taking a back seat,” said Glen Quadros, owner of the Great American Diner & Bar in Seattle.
Quadros has laid off 15 employees and seen a 60% decline in business since Seattle all but shut down to slow the pandemic. For now, he’s using biodegradable containers for takeout and delivery, but those products cost up to three times more than plastic — and they’re getting hard to find because of the surge in takeout, he said.
“The problem is, we don’t know what’s in store,” Quadros said. “Everyone is in the same situation.”
The plastics industry has seized the moment and is lobbying hard to overturn bans on single-use plastics by arguing disposable plastics are the safest option amid the crisis. California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, New York, Oregon and Vermont have statewide bans on plastic bags, and Oregon and California have laws limiting the use of plastic straws.
New York’s statewide plastic bag ban is on hold because of a lawsuit.
Murdock Trust announces latest round of emergency support grants
Updated at 8:30 a.m.
The M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust — a private, nonprofit foundation based in Vancouver, Wa. — announced its most recent round of grants providing emergency support related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Trustees approved $5,016,000 through 38 grants to nonprofits serving the Pacific Northwest. This includes $1.85 million in Washington state.
This round of grants focuses on three primary areas:
▪ Basic Human Need Serving Organizations ($4,075,000)
▪ Cultural Influencers & Faith?Based Organizations ($241,000)
▪ Community Foundations ($700,000)
To date, the Trust has awarded $10,516,000 through 86 grants. This includes $4.775 million in Washington State. Previous grant awards included:
▪ Medical Research. ($1.4 Million)
▪ Front Line Healthcare Needs. ($2.7 Million)
▪ Community Impact Funds/Community Foundations. ($1.4 Million)
Washington state reports nearly 300 new coronavirus cases
Updated at 8:30 a.m.
Washington state on Tuesday added 298 cases and 22 deaths to its coronavirus case totals.
The Washington state Department of Health reported 8,682 coronavirus cases and 394 deaths, up from 8,384 cases and 372 deaths reported Monday.
The state totals have been lagging for days as the reporting system struggles to process the volume of test results.
As of Tuesday, the state’s testing totals were showing a total from April 3. Pierce County’s totals on the state website are much lower than reported locally but show an additional death than what the county reported Tuesday.
Pierce County on Tuesday listed 760 cases and 14 deaths.
King County is still far and away the county with the most cases, with 3,486 cases and 230 deaths from COVID-19 listed on the county’s website.
Snohomish County has the second-most reported cases, with 1,659 cases and 61 deaths according to its website.
This story was originally published April 8, 2020 at 8:30 AM.
