Coronavirus updates: New claims for unemployment benefits increase
This page includes coronavirus developments around Washington state for Monday, May 4.
Updated at 5:10 p.m.
The Washington State Department of Health on Monday reported 277 new confirmed COVID-19 cases and seven additional deaths.
Statewide totals are now at 15,462 cases and 841 deaths, up from 15,185 cases and 834 deaths on Sunday.
King County continues to be the hardest hit with 6,545 cases and 463 deaths. Snohomish County has 2,537 cases and 111 deaths while Pierce County is reporting 1,531 cases and 52 deaths. Garfield County remains the only county without a confirmed case.
There are 52 cases that haven’t been assigned a county.
The state has now conducted 216,320 tests with 7.1% coming back positive. Of the total confirmed cases, 5.4% 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 available.
The DOH is also offers 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, which can be found here. Simple data summary tables are also available here.
Pierce County reports 23 new cases
Updated at 2:45 p.m.
Pierce County on Monday reported 32 new COVID-19 cases and reassigned one case to another county. There were no new deaths, according to the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department.
The county now has a total of 1,531 cases and 52 deaths. Tacoma has more than 500 cases, Lakewood has 150 and Central Pierce County is at 117 since the coronavirus pandemic began.
Daily case totals can change as the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department receives new information. Adjustments can include correcting duplicate data, assigning a case to another county or learning a test was a false positive.
Monday’s geographical totals are listed below with Sunday’s numbers in parentheses:
▪ Bonney Lake: 37 (36)
▪ Central Pierce County: 117 (113)
▪ East Pierce County: 43 (42)
▪ Edgewood/Fife/Milton: 79 (78)
▪ Frederickson: 52 (50)
▪ Gig Harbor area: 50 (no change)
▪ Graham: 49 (48)
▪ JBLM: No longer reported
▪ Key Peninsula: 7 (no change)
▪ Lake Tapps/Sumner area: 38 (39)
▪ Lakewood: 150 (146)
▪ Parkland: 79 (no change)
▪ Puyallup: 81 (77)
▪ South Hill: 83 (no change)
▪ South Pierce County: 33 (no change)
▪ Southwest Pierce County: 18 (17)
▪ Spanaway: 52 (50)
▪ Tacoma: 507 (498)
▪ University Place: 48 (no change)
▪ Unknown: 8 (6)
Daily reports include cases received by 11:59 p.m. the previous day.
Nursing homes opening COVID-19 units
Updated at 1:35 p.m.
Three nursing homes in the Puget Sound region will open COVID-19 units in the coming weeks to house residents recovering from the coronavirus and to prevent its spread to other long-term care facility residents.
A total of 135 beds will be available at Avamere Transitional Care of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Richmond Beach Rehab in Shoreline and Avamere Bellingham Health Care and Rehab in Bellingham.
All three nursing homes are owned by Oregon-based Avamere Family of Companies.
“Long-term care facilities across Washington have made incredible strides in a short period of time to combat COVID-19 by practicing proper infection control, limiting visitors and quarantining COVID-positive residents,” said DSHS’ Aging and Long-Term Support Administration Assistant Secretary Bill Moss.
“The creation of COVID-19 units is the next step we need to take to ensure we are protecting Washingtonians who are most at risk for getting the virus.”
The COVID-only wings will be cordoned off from the rest of the facilities and have their own entrances and dedicated staff. COVID-positive residents will be moved there after discharging from the hospital or transferring from another long-term care facility.
Once a resident has recovered and has two negative COVID-19 tests over a period of at least two weeks, they will return to their original long-term care facility or other residential setting of their choice.
Inslee signs new COVID-19 order for phased re-opening of Washington’s economy
Updated at 1:35 p.m.
Some businesses could re-open as early as this week under the new COVID-19 order signed by Gov. Jay Inslee on Monday. The state’s “Safe Start” plan is a phased approach to re-opening Washington’s economy.
Under the plan, smaller counties can apply for a variance from the order which would allow them to open even more businesses than allowed statewide.
Safe Start sets a careful approach to emerging from the pandemic. It allows for modifications of business closures and physical distancing measures while minimizing the health impacts of COVID-19.
While Stay Home, Stay Healthy is being extended to the end of May, the governor announced his Safe Start plan which amends some components of the original order and allow for a start to re-open the state.
Through the Washington “Safe Start” plan, more businesses and activities would re-open in phases with adequate social distancing measures and health standards in place. Each phase will be at least three weeks. Data and metrics will determine when the state can move from one phase to another.
New claims unemployment benefits increase
Updated at 8:40 a.m.
During the week of April 19-25, there were 1,455,908 total claims for unemployment benefits filed by Washingtonians, according to the Employment Security Department.
Initial claims for regular unemployment benefits increased by 67%, and total initial claims increased by 453.3% over the previous week.
While this is an increase of almost 10,000% over the same week last year, an average of 1.5 initial claims were filed per person for UI, PUA and PEUC. This was the first week that initial PUA claims could be filed by individuals such as self-employed workers and independent contractors, and initial PUEC claims for extended benefits were able to be filed.
In addition, during the week of April 19-25, ESD paid out over $988 million (an increase of $811.2 million from the previous week) to a total of 504,407 claims (an increase of 151,498 from the previous week). An individual can file more than one claim, so the number of claims does not equate to individuals.
Since the week ending March 7 when COVID-19 job losses began:
▪ A total of 787,533 distinct individuals have filed for unemployment insurance
▪ ESD has paid out nearly $1.5 billion in benefits to Washingtonians
▪ 504,284 individuals who have filed an initial claim since the pandemic began have been paid
Washington tribe traces new outbreak to children playing
Updated at 8:40 a.m.
A Washington state American Indian tribe has seen a spate of new coronavirus infections that health officials traced to children playing together.
Sixteen new cases were announced between Wednesday and Friday by the Lummi Nation health department — the tribe’s first new infections in weeks.
Tribal officials said it was apparent from the outbreak that families and children were not following orders to limit their interactions and practice social distancing.
The Lummi Indian Business Council extended its stay-at-home order through May 31 and added a curfew from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. for residents of the reservation about 90 miles north of Seattle.
After several weeks without new cases, people had become complacent, said Dr. Dakotah Lane, the Lummi Nation’s health director, told The Seattle Times. Lane said the outbreak was traced to some kids playing together, but it couldn’t be determined where the initial infection came from.
“You feel things are going well, and then, boom, this happens,” Lane said.
The Lummi were among the first to enact a strict stay-home order, on March 22, to slow the virus’s spread. The tribe also took early steps to obtain testing supplies and educate its roughly 5,300 members about keeping apart.
Coronavirus pandemic shutters Puyallup bike shop
Updated at 8:40 a.m.
After five years of steady growth, a downtown Puyallup bike shop is closing permanently and moving to Eastern Washington.
Aaron Todd, owner of Downtown Bike, told customers in a Facebook video on Thursday, April 30, that his landlord sold the building. Moving to a new Puyallup location was not feasible, Todd said.
The store will close May 16.
“Despite our success and growth, the current situation and what’s going on around us, our landlord had to make a tough decision and chose to sell the building we are in,” Todd said.
The shop is the only full service bike store east of I-5 in Pierce County, he said. His customers came as far as Eatonville and Spanaway to tune up their bikes.
The store is moving to Cashmere, where Todd has already invested in a location downtown before news from his landlord and the coronavirus pandemic.
The pandemic has been good for business, Todd said. Bike stores were named essential businesses in Gov. Jay Inslee’s orders. More people have pulled old bikes from attics and sheds and taken them into his store for repairs.
“We’re actually thriving,” he said. “But there are so many businesses with challenges, and our hearts go out to them. “
Todd, his wife and their two kids consider Eastern Washington their “playground” and have been interested in moving in recent years. He had intended to open a second shop and commute between the two storefronts throughout the week. His plans fell through after his Puyallup lease was up and the building was sold.
Todd works the store alone but usually takes in about three seasonal employees during the summer months.
He opened the shop in 2015 in his garage and quickly outgrew the space. Moving into the back of an antique shop, business quickly followed, and he moved again to his current location on 109 E. Stewart Ave.
The hardest part of Todd’s new chapter is leaving behind the community support he has received.
“It’s heartbreaking because our community made us who we are,” he said. “Every day, when someone walked through our doors, we were grateful for them, because they made it possible for us to do this.”
Washington state reports 182 new COVID-19 cases, 4 deaths
Updated at 8:40 a.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.
Many Washington parks to re-open, but not beaches, gorge
Updated at 8:40 a.m.
More than 100 state parks, trails and boating sites across Washington state will re-open Tuesday as some coronavirus restrictions are eased, but many popular sites remain closed indefinitely, according to officials.
Parks that open will be limited to daytime use only and the number of parking spaces will be reduced at some urban parks to discourage crowding. Public lands managed by the Department of Natural Resources and Department of Fish and Wildlife also will reopen Tuesday.
All ocean beach parks and parks along the Columbia River Gorge on the Washington-Oregon border will remain closed to reduce impacts on rural communities and prevent crowds, according to Washington State Parks.
Discussions on when those sites could open are ongoing and involve park administrators, local community leaders and Oregon officials, state parks officials said.
The parks have been closed more than a month and are being re-opened under the first phase of the Gov. Jay Inslee’s plan to ease rules imposed to prevent the spread of the virus. Beaches and campgrounds would re-open under the second phase of the plan, although large gatherings would still be banned.
State officials plan to wait at least three weeks between each phase to see how the changes affect infection rates.
The Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission posted a list of which parks will be open and which remain closed on its website.
This story was originally published May 4, 2020 at 8:45 AM.
