Coronavirus updates: Emergency order to health insurers extended
This page includes coronavirus developments around Washington state for Sunday, May 3.
Updated at 6:30 p.m.
The Washington State Department of Health on Sunday reported 182 new confirmed COVID-19 cases and four additional deaths.
Statewide totals are now at 15,185 cases and 834 deaths, up fro 15,003 cases and 830 death on Saturday.
King County continues to be the hardest hit with 6,449 cases and 459 deaths. Snohomish County has 2,509 cases and 109 deaths while Pierce County is reporting 1,500 cases and 52 deaths.
Garfield County remains the only county without a confirmed case. There are 63 cases that haven’t been assigned a county.
The state has now conducted 212,005 tests with 7.2% coming back positive. Of the total confirmed cases, 5.5% have resulted in death.
Preliminary data on total hospitalizations for confirmed cases — broken down by admission date, date of illness onset, age, sex and race and ethnicity — are also now available.
The DOH is also now reporting downloadable datasets that break down cases and deaths by week, county and age. These datasets are updated each Sunday.
The Department of Health and Microsoft’s AI for Health team have partnered to create interactive data dashboards. Simple data summary tables are also available.
Pierce County reports 16 new cases
Updated at 3:40 p.m.
Pierce County reported 16 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 and no new deaths on Sunday.
The county has now reported 1,500 total cases and 52 deaths.
Tacoma has reported the most cases and deaths in the county with 498 and 16, respectively. There are six cases that haven’t been assigned a geographic location.
Daily case totals can change as the county receives new information about cases, finds duplicate data or is assigned cases that were originally attributed to other counties. The health department has released a statement on delays in data posting.
Sunday’s geographical totals are listed below with Saturday’s numbers in parenthesis:
▪ Bonney Lake: 36 (no change)
▪ Central Pierce County: 113 (112)
▪ East Pierce County: 42 (no change)
▪ Edgewood/Fife/Milton: 78 (no change)
▪ Frederickson: 50 (no change)
▪ Gig Harbor area: 50 (no change)
▪ Graham: 48 (no change)
▪ JBLM: No longer reported
▪ Key Peninsula: 7 (no change)
▪ Lake Tapps/Sumner area: 39 (38)
▪ Lakewood: 146 (no change)
▪ Parkland: 79 (78)
▪ Puyallup: 77 (74)
▪ South Hill: 83 (76)
▪ South Pierce County: 33 (no change)
▪ Southwest Pierce County: 17 (no change)
▪ Spanaway: 50 (49)
▪ Tacoma: 498 (496)
▪ University Place: 48 (no change)
▪ Unknown: 6 (no change)
Daily reports include cases received by 11:59 p.m. the previous day.
Emergency order to health insurers extended
Updated at 8:45 a.m.
Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler has extended his emergency order — which requires Washington state health insurers to waive copays and deductibles for any consumer requiring testing for COVID-19 — for 30 days.
Insurers also must continue:
▪ Allowing a one-time early refill for prescription drugs.
▪ Suspending any prior authorization requirement for treatment or testing of COVID-19.
In addition, if an insurer does not have enough medical providers in its network to provide testing or treatment for COVID-19, it must allow enrollees to be treated by another provider within a reasonable distance at no additional cost.
The extension is effective immediately and applies to all state-regulated health insurance plans and short-term limited duration medical plans until June 3, 2020.
Vashon Relief Fund supports island pandemic response and recovery
Updated at 8:45 a.m.
Vashon Island’s VashonBePrepared volunteer emergency response group has launched a major fundraising effort to expand relief to rural Vashon Island residents and businesses.
The Vashon COVID Relief Fund distributed $25,000 in late April to pay for groceries, meals and rent relief for islanders facing economic hardships from the pandemic. Payments to five island agencies were the first allocations from the Relief Fund, originally started to cover the costs of an ongoing COVID-19 testing project. Details on the fund are at VashonBePrepared.org/Donate and VashonBePrepared.org/DonateFAQ.
“We estimate that more than 1,000 Vashon residents have lost their jobs. Four out of 10 Vashon businesses have shut down and some may never reopen,” said VashonBePrepared President Vicky de Monterey Richoux. “We have been struck by a silent, devastating earthquake. We are taking action now to protect our neighbors and save the Vashon we love.”
The first $25,000 of funding purchased 260 bags of groceries from the Vashon Maury Community Food Bank and 100 packets of Vashon Island Growers Association’s Farm Bucks. Funding to Interfaith Council for Prevention of Homelessness helped support eight families with rent relief who were in danger of losing their homes.
Funds also paid for 2,490 meals provided by the Vashon School District nutrition program, Vashon Senior Center lunch program and Interfaith Council to Prevent Homelessness community meals program.
VashonBePrepared’s first public fundraising effort will expand the island’s existing relief capacity and provide help for the 10,000 people living on rural Vashon Island. In recent weeks, the fund began with three major donations totaling $163,000, allowing the VashonBePrepared Board to expand support beyond testing.
In the first week of fundraising more than 40 donors added $11,000. The campaign hopes to raise another $250,000 to meet the $425,000 Vashon COVID Relief Fund goal.
The board has focused spending on goods and services for health, food, shelter and economic recovery rather than cash grants. Relief Fund efforts will go for urgent near term needs and to address long-term economic recovery and impacts from the behavioral and spiritual difficulties of pandemic stress.
COVID-19 threatens ‘meager progress’ on state’s early childhood education
Updated at 8:45 a.m.
The new coronavirus pandemic is threatening the slow progress that Washington state has made in pre-kindergarten education for children in poverty and those with disabilities, a new report says.
Washington ranks 38th in the percentage of 4-year-olds in state-funded pre-K, according to a report by the National Institute for Early Education Research.
Budget cuts triggered by COVID-19 could prevent Washington from expanding the program and could roll back its “meager progress” in recent years, said Steven Barnett, senior co-director and founder of the institute, which is part of Rutgers University in New Jersey.
Barnett said Washington spent more this year on pre-K and enrolled more children, but spending per child did not keep pace with inflation. As a result, Washington likely is far from reaching all children in poverty, much less reaching children in middle-income families, he said.
Washington served 5 percent of 3-year-olds in state-funded pre-K, and 9 percent of 4-year-olds. However, the state ranked fourth nationally in state spending per child.
Created in 1985, the program is designed to increase social-emotional, physical and pre-academic skills; ensure each child receives medical and dental screenings so he or she can fully focus on learning; and help families move toward self-sufficiency.
The state in 2010 established the Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program as an entitlement for all eligible children by the 2018-2019 school year if they are not served by Head Start. That deadline recently was extended to 2022-2023.
Children are eligible for Washington’s state-funded pre-K program if they are in special education or from families at or below a percentage of the federal poverty level. For a family of four, that is $26,200 or below.
The eligibility covers children in foster care and from families eligible for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), the federal program of cash assistance for the poor.
The state provides funding to serve about 14,000 children at 385 sites across the state.
Because of COVID-19, most sites are sending educational information and materials to families at their homes and distributing meal or food vouchers, according to the Department of Children, Youth and Families.
Governor extends Washington state stay-at-home order through May 31
Updated at 8:45 a.m.
Gov. Jay Inslee on Monday will extend the stay-at-home order through May 31 to continue the social distancing strategy against the new coronavirus pandemic.
Inslee said Washington businesses will reopen in four phases — each one separated by at least three weeks. The governor said smaller counties not hit hard by COVID-19 will be able to apply to the state Department of Health for a variance from his order “that will allow for more quickly moving to each next phase.”
The phases still will require social distancing — being at least 6 feet apart from other people unless they are household members — and the “use of personal protective equipment in a number of industries,” he said.
The first phase begins May 5, said Inslee spokeswoman Tara Lee.
The four phases are:
1. By mid-May, the state will allow retail curbside pickup; automobile sales; and car washes with social distancing restrictions. This phase also would allow drive-in spiritual services with one household per vehicle, Inslee said.
2. Additional expansions of outdoor recreation activities, including camping. Small gatherings of five people or less would be allowed, as well as new construction and in-store retail purchases with health restrictions. Barber shops and salons could reopen. Restaurants could reopen with 50 percent capacity and table size no larger than 5. Some professional services and offices could open up as well, even though teleworking would remain strongly encouraged. Pet care services including grooming could resume.
3. Gatherings up to 50 people or less, including sports activities, would be allowed and non-essential travel would resume. Restaurants could move up to 75 percent capacity and bars at 25 percent capacity; gyms and movie theaters could reopen at 50 percent capacity; retail, libraries, museums and government buildings could reopen. Recreational facilities such as pools could open at 50 percent capacity. Nightclubs and entertainment venues would still not be able to reopen.
4. The majority of public interactions would resume. Gatherings of more than 50 people would be allowed, but still while practicing social distancing. Nightclubs and entertainment venues would be able to reopen.
Tacoma libraries could remain closed into summer as temporary layoffs gut workforce
Updated at 8:45 a.m
Tacoma Public Library (TPL) will temporarily lay off 65 percent of its workforce due to shutdowns related to the COVID-19 pandemic, the library system announced.
TPL employs 127 people across eight branches and will lay off 85 effective May 4 through July 25.
All library branches have been closed to the public since March 14.
The large number of layoffs will impede TPL’s ability to swiftly re-open when Gov. Jay Inslee’s stay-home order is lifted, according to library director Kate Larsen.
“We do hope that we can move to some, likely limited, version of service before the end of summer,” Larsen said in an email to The News Tribune on Wednesday.
TPL was just beginning to recover and rebuild service programs lost after the 2011 recession when the coronavirus hit.
“These temporary layoffs are especially gut-wrenching knowing that Tacoma’s library services, and our organization’s ability to recover from COVID-19 related closures, will be significantly hampered as a result,” Larsen said in a press release.
In addition to the layoffs, most non-represented staff at the library, including Larsen, are taking a voluntary 11 percent pay cut. TPL employees with health care coverage will not lose it during the temporary layoff.
Remaining TPL staff will continue to provide essential services through online and streaming platforms. TPL is also offering storytimes and other services on YouTube and Facebook Live.
To address a growing need for access to computers and internet, TPL is using funds from its online fundraiser, Library Giving Day, to purchase Wi-Fi hotspots and Chromebooks that can be loaned out.
Yakima County has highest rate of COVID-19 cases on West Coast
Updated at 8:45 a.m.
The highest rate of coronavirus cases of any county on the U.S. West Coast is in Washington state’s Yakima County.
Health experts point to a large number of essential workers, a large number of cases in long-term care facilities and a large agricultural workforce living and working in close quarters as the causes. The county has about 250,000 residents.
“We just haven’t been as much down as the rest of the state because our workforce is going to work,″ said Lilian Bravo, a spokeswoman for the Yakima Health District. “Physically going to work every day is going to put you at a higher risk than others.″
As of Friday, Yakima County had 1,203 positive cases, a rate of 455 cases per 100,000 residents, the highest in the state. Second was Franklin County at 326 cases per 100,000. The statewide average was 185 cases per 100,000 residents.
Yakima County also had a relatively high number of deaths from coronavirus with 47. Bravo said people in long-term care facilities account for about a third of cases and most of the deaths from COVID-19 in the county.
Bravo said the health district is involved with testing staff and residents at long-term care facilities.
State health officer Dr. Kathy Lofy said Washington Department of Health officials were sent to Yakima to help the long-term care facilities deal with the outbreaks.
James Drew, Allison Needles and Nicholas K. Geranios of the Associated Press contributed to this report.
This story was originally published May 3, 2020 at 8:53 AM.
