Coronavirus updates: 7 more counties approved for Phase 2; Pierce confirms 14 new cases
This page includes coronavirus developments around Washington state for Saturday, May 23.
WASHINGTON STATE REPORTING 19,585 CASES, 1,055 DEATHS
Updated 10:15 p.m.
The Washington State Department of Health reported 320 new COVID-19 cases and five deaths Saturday.
Statewide totals have reached 19,585 cases and 1,055 deaths, up from 19,265 cases and 1,050 deaths Friday.
The department’s COVID-19 data dashboard says total deaths are at 1,057, but two deaths “have data to still be completed.”
King County continues to be the hardest hit, with 7,741 total cases and 545 deaths, while Snohomish County has 2,889 cases and 135 deaths and Yakima County has 2,719 cases and 83 deaths.
Pierce County reported 14 new cases Saturday, bringing its totals to 1,851 cases and 73 deaths.
Garfield County remains the only county in the state without a confirmed case, while eight other counties are reporting 10 or fewer cases. There are 17 counties in the state that have confirmed more than 100 cases. There are 54 cases that have not been assigned to a county.
There have been 316,276 tests conducted in Washington, with positive results now at 6.2%.
Seven more counties in the state were given approval Saturday to move to the second phase of Gov. Jay Inslee’s reopening plan.
Washington State Secretary of Health John Wiesman approved variance applications for Cowlitz, Grant, Island, Jefferson, Mason, Pacific and San Juan counties to move forward, according to a release from the state Department of Health.
Of the state’s 39 counties, 21 — including the seven approved Saturday, and Adams, Asotin, Columbia, Ferry, Garfield, Grays Harbor, Lewis, Lincoln, Pend Orielle, Skamania, Spokane, Stevens, Wahkiakum and Whitman — have been approved to move to Phase 2.
Clallam, Kitsap and Thurston counties are eligible to apply for a variance, while applications from Kittitas and Clark are on pause pending discussion about outbreak investigations.
Counties must “have an average of less than 10 new cases per 100,000 residents over a 14-day period,” according to the state DOH.
Applications require support from the local health officer, local board of health, local hospitals and the county commission or council, and must include plans for testing, case investigations, contact tracing, isolation and quarantine procedures, and outbreak response procedures.
TACOMA-PIERCE COUNTY HABITAT FOR HUMANITY DELIVERS FIRST HOME SINCE PANDEMIC STARTED
Updated 6 p.m.
Angela Torres, her mother and her teenage nephew became the first family to move into a Tacoma-Pierce County Habitat for Humanity home since the COVID-19 pandemic hit last week.
Torres, 55, officially got the keys to the three-bedroom, two-bathroom house she purchased in Midland on May 15.
“I’ve worked hard for it,” Torres said of her new home. “This is the one thing I’ve always wanted. I always told myself … I’m going to own a house one day. To me, that was the goal.”
Days before settling into their new house Torres, her mother and nephew were staying with Torres’ niece, who has four children of her own, out of necessity.
About two years earlier, rent increases had displaced Torres and her family from the one-bedroom apartment they’d previously shared, so her niece took them in.
Now, Torres is turning the page. As part of the deal that made the affordable home purchase possible, she logged nearly 300 hours of volunteer work on the site.
But, during the past two months, Torres said there were times it seemed everything would fall apart. She is a forklift driver at Goodwill, but was temporarily laid off when the pandemic hit. When she filed for unemployment, she learned her identity had been stolen and there was a fraudulent claim filed for her benefits, which delayed payments. The lender that was supposed to finance her mortgage later backed out, though Banner Bank eventually stepped in.
“Honestly, I was ready to just give up. There were days when I was overwhelmed,” Torres said. “If not for Habitat, I don’t know what would have happened. I got a lot of support from them. They would not let me give up.”
There were nine other families like Torres’ preparing to move into homes when the crisis hit. The nonprofit’s work was considered essential under Gov. Jay Inslee’s stay-at-home order, but there were challenges when volunteer work declined in March.
Habitat for Humanity’s paid construction site managers, office staff and store employees collectively made up for more than 1,500 volunteer hours lost the past two months, Tacoma-Pierce County Habitat for Humanity CEO Maureen Fife said.
“It definitely turned our cart upside down, so to speak,” Fife said of the pandemic. “I could not be more proud of the way the Habitat team has pulled together.”
7 MORE COUNTIES APPROVED TO MOVE INTO PHASE 2
Updated 3:15 p.m.
Seven more counties in Washington were given approval Saturday to move to the second phase of the state’s reopening plan.
Washington State Secretary of Health John Wiesman approved variance applications for Cowlitz, Grant, Island, Jefferson, Mason, Pacific and San Juan counties to move forward, according to a release from the state Department of Health.
Of the state’s 39 counties, 21 — including the seven approved Saturday, and Adams, Asotin, Columbia, Ferry, Garfield, Grays Harbor, Lewis, Lincoln, Pend Orielle, Skamania, Spokane, Stevens, Wahkiakum and Whitman — have been approved to move to Phase 2.
Clallam, Kitsap and Thurston counties are eligible to apply for a variance, while applications from Kittitas and Clark are on pause pending discussion about outbreak investigations.
Counties must “have an average of less than 10 new cases per 100,000 residents over a 14-day period,” according to the state DOH.
Applications require support from the local health officer, local board of health, local hospitals and the county commission or council, and must include plans for testing, case investigations, contact tracing, isolation and quarantine procedures, and outbreak response procedures.
MOUNTAIN VIEW TO HOST MEMORIAL DAY CEREMONY VIRTUALLY
Updated 3 p.m.
Mountain View Memorial Park in Lakewood, in partnership with the Pierce County Veterans Advisory Council, will hold its annual Memorial Day ceremony virtually on Monday.
The ceremony begins at 2 p.m. and will be shown live on Zoom.
“While Covid-19 has altered the way we live our everyday lives we feel strongly that our Memorial Day celebration honoring all veterans should continue on,” Mountain View wrote on its website. “To adhere to social distancing guidelines, this year we will be presenting our Memorial Day program virtually with no guests in attendance.”
The Memorial Park and mausoleums will be open all weekend long, the site says, and free flags will be available at the main entrance.
PIERCE COUNTY REPORTS 14 NEW COVID-19 CASES
Updated 2:30 p.m.
Pierce County reported 14 new COVID-19 cases Saturday. No additional deaths were reported.
The county’s totals are now at 1,851 cases and 73 deaths since the outbreak began, up from 1,840 cases Friday.
Daily case totals can change as the county receives new information about cases, finds duplicate data or is assigned cases originally attributed to other counties.
The county’s data estimates 1,308 of the confirmed cases have recovered, while 543 are still assumed active.
There have been 22,969 tests conducted in the county as of May 21 with positive results at 7.5%, according to the state Department of Health.
That total does not include negative tests from long-term care facilities or the 76,000 tests not yet assigned to a county.
Saturday’s geographical case totals are listed below with Friday’s totals in parentheses:
▪ Bonney Lake: 47 (46)
▪ Central Pierce County: 134 (133)
▪ East Pierce County: 51 (no change)
▪ Edgewood/Fife/Milton: 86 (87)
▪ Frederickson: 64 (no change)
▪ Gig Harbor area: 52 (no change)
▪ Graham: 54 (no change)
▪ JBLM: No longer reported
▪ Key Peninsula: 7 (no change)
▪ Lake Tapps/Sumner area: 46 (no change)
▪ Lakewood: 192 (191)
▪ Parkland: 102 (no change)
▪ Puyallup: 132 (131)
▪ South Hill: 102 (100)
▪ South Pierce County: 38 (no change)
▪ Southwest Pierce County: 21 (no change)
▪ Spanaway: 64 (63)
▪ Tacoma: 591 (586)
▪ University Place: 60 (no change)
▪ Unknown: 8 (no change)
Daily reports include cases received by 11:59 p.m. the previous day.
Pierce County may still be ineligible to move into Phase 2 of the state’s reopening plan by June 1, when the current stay-at-home order is set to expire.
Per the state Department of Health, counties must “have an average of less than 10 new cases per 100,000 residents over a 14-day period,” among other criteria, to be considered eligible to move into the second phase. Counties must also install plans for testing, investigations if further outbreaks occur and isolating and quarantine practices to move on.
The second phase of the four-phase plan includes allowing outdoor recreational contact, and small social and spiritual gatherings with people from other households, allows hair and nail salons to reopen, restaurants to operate at 50% capacity and retail outlets to resume some in-store purchases, among other business reopenings.
“We are making good progress as we continue to open Washington in segments,” Gov. Jay Inslee said in a statement Friday. “Currently, one-third of our state is now eligible to move into Phase 2. We are hard at work to determine next steps as we move closer to the May 31 expiration of my current order. As I have repeatedly said before, these are decisions that are driven by public health data and science, not the calendar.”
Inslee wrote Friday on Twitter he wanted to make it clear that “not every county will be ready to move to Phase 2 on June 1,” citing high infection rates.
Pierce County currently falls short of the qualifications, and daily case count trends suggest it will not meet the qualifications by the end of May.
A blog post published Friday by the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department noted the progress the county has made in slowing the spread of COVID-19 — the daily case count is steadily decreasing — but the department’s Director of Communicable Disease Nigel Turner wrote the county “would need to have fewer than 90 cases over a 14-day period to qualify” to move into Phase 2, given its population.
“That means an average of about six new cases a day,” he wrote.
During the most recent 14-day period, the county has confirmed 196 new cases — or 14 cases per day.
WASHINGTON RESIDENTS HAVE RECEIVED MORE THAN 3.4 MILLION STIMULUS PAYMENTS, TOTALING MORE THAN $5.8 BILLION
Updated 1:30 p.m.
The United States Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service released updated data Friday detailing state-by-state figures for Economic Impact Payments made during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In Washington state, 3,453,810 payments have been made totaling $5,876,091,642.
“Economic Impact Payments have continued going out at a rapid rate to Americans across the country,” IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig said in a release. “We remind people to visit IRS.gov for the latest information, including answers to the most common questions we see surrounding the payments. We also continue to urge those who don’t normally have a filing requirement, including those with little or no income, that they can quickly register for the payments on IRS.gov.”
While the stimulus payments are automatic for people who filed a tax return in 2018 or 2019, receive Social Security, survivor or disability benefits, Railroad Retirement benefits, and Supplemental Security Income and Veterans Affairs beneficiaries, millions more who do not normally file a return are also eligible.
“For those who don’t receive federal benefits and didn’t have a filing obligation in 2018 or 2019, the IRS continues to encourage them to visit the Non-Filer tool at IRS.gov so they can quickly register for Economic Impact Payments,” the release says. “People can continue to receive their payment throughout the year.”
SEA-TAC REPORTS PASSENGER NUMBERS IN APRIL WERE LOWEST SINCE 1967
Updated 12:30 p.m.
The Port of Seattle reported Thursday in a post on its website that the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport had a 53-year low in passenger volume in April.
“Most passengers continue to follow guidance to avoid non-essential travel, actions that help us maintain the health and safety of those performing essential tasks,” the post says.
About 260,000 passengers traveled through Sea-Tac in April, the post says, which is a 93.6% decrease from the same month in 2019. The last time April passenger volumes were this low was in 1967.
The airport expects a slight increase in May after screening as many as 8,000 departing passengers on the busiest days of the month.
Sea-Tac has built a public dashboard to report its operational statistics that is updated weekly.
“The airport economy provides jobs, sales, and tax revenue for our whole region,” Sea-Tac Managing Director Lance Lyttle said in the post. “Publishing key data on a weekly dashboard gives local governments and industries valuable, real-time activity indicators to help track the recovery. I am heartened that our passenger numbers are gradually increasing.”
STATE DEPARTMENT OF CHILDREN, YOUTH AND FAMILIES HOSTING INFORMATIONAL WEBINAR
Updated 11 a.m.
The state Department of Children, Youth and Families will host an informational webinar Tuesday to share updates about the COVID-19 pandemic with child care providers.
“We are hosting a webinar to share updates from DCYF staff related to child care and the agency’s COVID-19 response, including a Child Care COVID-19 Grant application update, re-opening guidance, and planning underway for this summer and fall,” the department wrote in a bulletin on its website Friday. “This will also be an opportunity to discuss questions you may have regarding COVID-19. We look forward to continuing to provide a space and opportunity for our providers and community partners to ask questions and receive guidance.”
The webinar will begin at noon Tuesday.
“Please note, the webinar system can only hold 950 participants,” the bulletin says. “Once that number is reached the webinar will be locked.
“Once the webinar has finished, we will post the presentation along with the Q&A from the webinar to our COVID-19 Early Learning and Child Care webpage on the right-hand side under ‘Child Care COVID-19 Webinars.’ We appreciate your continued partnership as we all navigate the challenges presented by COVID-19.”
Information about how to join the webinar is available on the department’s website.
TUMWATER CANCELS FOURTH OF JULY EVENTS
Updated 11 a.m.
The City of Tumwater announced Friday its Fourth of July parade, fireworks and other festivities have been canceled.
“The city will be with you in spirit on the Fourth of July as we remember our Independence Day,” the city wrote in a release.
Events on the holiday usually include the Independence Day Parade, Fairways and Fireworks Fore on the 4th Fun Run, Tumwater Artesian Family Festival, and Thunder Valley Fireworks Show.
The decision is in line with the cancellations of many other community events in Thurston County, including the Harbor Days festival and tugboat races usually held in Olympia on Labor Day weekend, and the Olympia Downtown Association’s Music in the Park concert series.
PUYALLUP GYM HALTS PROTEST, STATE WON’T SEEK FINES
Updated 9 a.m.
Northwest Fitness Co., a Puyallup gym sued by the state to stop its protest of Gov. Jay Inslee’s stay-at-home order, has announced it will temporarily suspend its protest.
When filing the lawsuit, Attorney General Bob Ferguson said he would not seek financial penalties if the gym closed within 24 hours of the complaint.
The complaint had asked a court to impose penalties of up to $6,000 for allegedly violating the governor’s order for non-essential businesses to closed while the state tries to slow the spread of COVID-19 and the Consumer Protection Act.
A review hearing has been scheduled for September.
The gym has stated on its front doors and its Facebook page that it has temporarily suspended the protest. Members had been allowed by the gym to work out out as a “sit-in.”
“The AG Ferguson and supreme leader Inslee have filed the type of lawsuit that is used to bankrupt a business and that prevents the business from ever reopening,” the statement posted on the gym’s door says.
The gym initially reopened its doors May 5 to protest the idea of essential versus non-essential businesses. Owners Mike Baker and Shane Cowhig have insisted the gym was not open, but a setting for their “Exercise Your Rights” protest. The gym offered three “protest specials” for those who joined during the protest.
The gym was later warned by Puyallup Police that it was violating the governor’s orders, and the department eventually sent the state a report calling for action.
The lawsuit against the gym was filed after the gym was served a “cease and desist” letter to close within 48 hours by a state investigator, but the gym continued its protest.
WILL PIERCE COUNTY BE ELIGIBLE FOR PHASE 2 ON JUNE 1?
Updated 8 a.m.
Washington state has approved 14 of its 39 counties to move on to the second phase of Gov. Jay Inslee’s reopening plan, adding another four counties to that list Friday.
There are 11 more counties in the state that are currently eligible to apply for the same variance.
But, Pierce County is not in either of these categories, and state and local officials suggest the county may still be ineligible to move into Phase 2 by June 1, when the current stay-at-home order is set to expire.
Per the state Department of Health, counties must “have an average of less than 10 new cases per 100,000 residents over a 14-day period,” among other criteria, to be considered eligible to move into the second phase. Counties must also install plans for testing, investigations if further outbreaks occur and isolating and quarantine practices to move on.
The second phase of the four-phase plan includes allowing outdoor recreational contact, and small social and spiritual gatherings with people from other households, allows hair and nail salons to reopen, restaurants to operate at 50% capacity and retail outlets to resume some in-store purchases, among other business reopenings.
“We are making good progress as we continue to open Washington in segments,” Inslee said in a statement Friday. “Currently, one-third of our state is now eligible to move into Phase 2. We are hard at work to determine next steps as we move closer to the May 31 expiration of my current order. As I have repeatedly said before, these are decisions that are driven by public health data and science, not the calendar.”
Inslee wrote Friday on Twitter he wanted to make it clear that “not every county will be ready to move to Phase 2 on June 1,” citing high infection rates.
Pierce County currently falls short of the qualifications, and daily case count trends suggest it will not meet the qualifications by the end of May.
A blog post published Friday by the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department noted the progress the county has made in slowing the spread of COVID-19 — the daily case count is steadily decreasing — but the department’s Director of Communicable Disease Nigel Turner wrote the county “would need to have fewer than 90 cases over a 14-day period to qualify” to move into Phase 2, given its population.
“That means an average of about six new cases a day,” he wrote.
During the most recent 14-day period, the county has confirmed 216 new cases — or about 15.4 cases per day. The daily numbers have varied. At the beginning of this period, on May 8, the county confirmed 33 cases, but no daily count has exceeded 25 since.
“We continue to see encouraging signs,” Turner wrote. “We had 10 or fewer cases 6 times during that period.”
The county confirmed new daily cases in single digits four times, including three times in the past week. Thursday the county reported four new cases, and Friday it reported nine.
County Executive Bruce Dammeier said during a conference call with local businesses Friday that daily spikes — such as the May 18 spike of 20 new cases, which he attributed to more aggressive testing at long-term health care facilities, where the virus can spread rapidly — could mean the county would have to string together days with zero new cases to become eligible for the second phase.
For now, “that’s not realistically possible,” he said.
“We all want to get back to normal as soon as we can,” Turner wrote. “And it will take all of us working together to get there.”
THURSTON COUNTY BOARD OF HEALTH APPROVES APPLICATION FOR PHASE 2
Updated 8 a.m.
The Thurston County Board of Health voted unanimously Friday to move forward with the county’s application to move into the second phase of Washington state’s reopening plan.
The vote concurred with a recommendation made in a letter by Dr. Diana Yu, the county’s acting health officer, earlier this week that suggested the county should submit a request for a variance, citing Thurston County’s low case count, testing capacity and ability to meet state criteria for moving on.
“I believe we can safely enter into Phase 2, continuing to encourage citizens to socially distance, wear cloth face coverings when unable to social distance and continue to follow proper hand hygiene,” Yu wrote.
The Board of Health’s approval vote marks another step in the county’s progress toward submitting a application to the state.
“There’s still concerns, and we still need to be wise, but it’s a momentous day, nonetheless,” County Commissioner John Hutchings said Friday.
According to Gov. Jay Inslee’s office, local hospitals must submit letters certifying information about capacity and personal protective equipment supply. A Thurston County Public Health and Social Services spokesperson told The Olympian via email Friday the county has received letters from both local hospitals.
An extensive document must also be submitted proving testing capacity, resources available for case investigations and contact tracing, information about available isolation and quarantine facilities, among other qualifying standards.
County spokesperson Meghan Porter said the focus this weekend is on completing the application to the extent possible. The Board of County Commissioners plans to review the full application Tuesday.
After the application is submitted, the state Secretary of Health will review it, and can approve, deny or approve with modifications. A state Department of Health spokesperson told The Olympian via email the state aims to review applications within 1-3 days of receipt.
The state has not yet rejected any variance applications from eligible counties, the spokesperson said, and 14 counties have been approved to move into Phase 2 as of Friday.
Another 11, including Thurston, which became eligible Tuesday, qualify for application.
Thurston County has not reported a new COVID-19 case since May 16. It’s total case count is 127 with one reported death.
Should the county be approved to move to Phase 2, it will be the northernmost county on the I-5 corridor to enter the second phase. Lewis County has already entered Phase 2, while Cowlitz and Clark counties are also eligible for a variance.
Pierce, King, Snohomish, Skagit and Whatcom counties are not yet eligible to apply.
WASHINGTON REPORTS 148 NEW COVID-19 CASES, 6 DEATHS
Updated 8 a.m.
The Washington State Department of Health reported 148 new COVID-19 cases and six deaths Friday.
Statewide totals have reached 19,265 cases and 1,050 deaths, up from 19,117 cases and 1,044 deaths Thursday.
Pierce County reported nine new cases and one death Friday, bringing its totals to 1,840 cases and 73 deaths.
King County continues to be the hardest hit, with 7,669 total cases and 542 deaths, while Snohomish County has 2,863 cases and 135 deaths and Yakima County has 2,594 cases and 83 deaths.
Garfield County remains the only county in the state without a confirmed case, while seven other counties are reporting fewer than 10 cases.
There are 59 cases that have not been assigned to a county.
The state has conducted 308,358 COVID-19 tests, with 6.2% coming back positive.
Since the outbreak began, state data shows there have been 3,230 people hospitalized with a positive case, though complete data is only available through May 14, when 19 people were admitted. The highest one-day hospitalization total to date was March 23, when 88 people were admitted statewide.
There are 58 hospitalizations that don’t have an admission date available, state data says, and 16% of cases have unknown hospitalization status.
This story was originally published May 23, 2020 at 8:00 AM.
