Coronavirus updates: Property manager to pay tenants nearly $300K; state reaches 20,406 cases
This page includes coronavirus developments around Washington state for Thursday, May 28.
Updated at 5:15 p.m.
Pierce County on Thursday reported 16 new COVID-19 cases with one new death.
The new death was a Tacoma man in his 70s with underlying health conditions.
The county’s totals now stand at 1,907 cases and 73 deaths, according to the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department.
Late Wednesday, the health department revised its earlier total number of deaths in the county from 76 to 72, with four previously listed deaths on hold pending review.
“We updated our death information May 27 to set aside 4 deaths that we need to further assess to determine if COVID-19 was the cause of death, or if they should be removed from Pierce County’s total COVID-19 deaths,” the department wrote on its website Wednesday.
The move follows an earlier review launched this month by the state health department of its statewide totals.
The local changes were also cited in a blog post published Wednesday.
The health department’s website notes daily case and death totals can change as the county receives new information about cases, finds duplicate data or is assigned cases originally attributed to other counties.
Another new feature introduced this week on the health department’s COVID-19 tracking page is a listing of how close Pierce County is to moving to Phase 2 in the governor’s Safe Start plan for reopenings.
So far, a total of 26 counties have been approved to move to Phase 2.
Under the program, a county must have fewer than 10 new cases per 100,000 residents over a 14-day period to apply to move to Phase 2. That benchmark is also listed in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s reopening guidance issued for the nation.
For Pierce County, this means fewer than 90 new cases over a 14-day period, or an average of about six new cases per day, according to the health department.
“In the last 14 days we had 167 new cases, an average of about 12 new cases per day. We’ll report this number with our case data each day,” according to the website on Thursday.
The health department estimates that the number of still-active confirmed cases at 478, with 1,429 estimated as assumed recovered.
There have been 24,558 coronavirus tests run on Pierce County residents with 7.6 percent of them positive as of May 26, according to state department of health data. That total does not include negative tests from long-term care facilities or tests not yet assigned to a county, according to the county health department.
Thursday’s geographical case totals are listed below with previous day’s totals in parentheses:
▪ Bonney Lake: 47 (no change)
▪ Central Pierce County: 140 (138)
▪ East Pierce County: 53 (52)
▪ Edgewood/Fife/Milton: 88 (no change)
▪ Frederickson: 65 (no change)
▪ Gig Harbor area: 53 (no change)
▪ Graham: 55 (no change)
▪ JBLM: No longer reported
▪ Key Peninsula: 7 (no change)
▪ Lake Tapps/Sumner area: 48 (47)
▪ Lakewood: 197 (196)
▪ Parkland: 107 (105)
▪ Puyallup: 138 (136)
▪ South Hill: 103 (no change)
▪ South Pierce County: 37 (38)
▪ Southwest Pierce County: 21 (no change)
▪ Spanaway: 65 (no change)
▪ Tacoma: 613 (607)
▪ University Place: 62 (no change)
▪ Unknown: 8 (no change)
Goodwill of the Olympics and Rainier Region to reopen
Updated at 11:20 a.m.
Goodwill of the Olympics and Rainier Region will reopen donation centers and retail stores the first week of June, in counties that have been approved for Phase 2 of Washington’s Safe Start plan. Donation centers will open on June 1 followed by retail stores on June 3
▪ Longview (1030 15th Ave)
▪ Centralia (519 Harrison Ave)
▪ Lacey (1145 Galaxy Drive NE)
▪ Aberdeen (1103 E Wishkah St)
▪ Shelton (E Wallace Kneeland Blvd)
▪ South Lacey (4800 Yelm Highway SE)
▪ Port Townsend (602 Rainier St)
▪ Olympia (400 Cooper Point Rd)
▪ Yelm (906 E Yelm Ave)
▪ Ellensburg (400 W. Washington Ave)
▪ Olympia Outlet (4014 Martin Way E)
▪ Olympia Blue Boutique (532 Capitol Way S) *Opening June 8
All operations will strictly follow the COVID-19 safety and health requirements for retail operations, as communicated by Governor Jay Inslee.
Store traffic will be limited to 30% or less of the building occupancy and customers will be required to use cloth face coverings while in the stores and to practice appropriate social distancing during their shopping experience. Signage to help customers follow protocols will be displayed prominently throughout the stores.
Goodwill stores provide a great option for people looking to stretch their dollars during this challenging time.
“Family budgets are tight now,” said Lori Forte Harnick, President and CEO of Goodwill of the Olympics and Rainier Region. “In addition to welcoming back all our loyal customers, we hope people who have never shopped our stores will visit for the amazing selection of items at a value price.”
The donation centers will operate a no-contact donation process. Donors will be asked to unload items from their vehicles and place them in bins provided by a Goodwill attendant. Due to social distancing practices, furniture and other large items will not be accepted at this time. All new donations will be put in quarantine for a minimum of 72 hours in accordance with guidelines provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Tacoma Art Museum to make exhibit available online
Updated at 10:20 a.m.
The Tacoma Art Museum (TAM), which has been closed since March 16, soon will make available online a six-part exhibit called “Forgotten Stories.”
The exhibit, available June 10, spotlights the Great Depression era of the 1930s when the economic crisis was met with the government commissioning artists to create art as a means of getting financial support during the downturn.
Margaret Bullock, chief curator at TAM, worked on the exhibit for 18 years. It features paintings and other works.
“It’s really about rediscovering work that’s been forgotten,” Bullock said in an interview with The News Tribune. “To have to close the doors on it again during another huge national crisis is ironic and also apropos.”
As reported by KNKX, the in-person exhibit opened Feb. 22 but was closed shortly after.
The online display and a book on the project will ensure the work still can be seen, even if it wasn’t as originally intended.
Plans for the exhibit to travel from TAM to Oregon though are on hold. That means the exhibit will stay in Tacoma for now.
“We’re still hopeful the exhibition will travel to Oregon as planned, so fingers crossed that it works out,” Bullock said.
David Setford, executive director at TAM, praised how the online exhibit came together.
“It is dynamite. It is well worth waiting for,” Setford said.
Property manager to pay tenants nearly $300K to resolve lawsuit
Updated at 8:40 a.m.
Attorney General Bob Ferguson announced that Nevada-based JRK Residential Group Inc. will pay nearly $350,000 — including almost $300,000 directly to tenants in the form of refunds, payments and rent forgiveness — to resolve a lawsuit Ferguson filed in April over the company’s violations of the state’s emergency eviction moratorium.
Ferguson’s lawsuit was the first filed to enforce one of Gov. Jay Inslee’s emergency proclamations.
The governor issued a March 18 proclamation establishing a temporary moratorium on evictions for the inability to pay rent. The proclamation specifically prohibits landlords from issuing Notices to Pay or Vacate during the proclamation’s effective period.
“Residential landlords are prohibited from serving a notice of unlawful detainer for default payment of rent related to such property under RCW 59.12.030(3),” the proclamation reads.
JRK Residential, a for-profit real estate investment firm and property management company, manages property in 20 states and boasts that its portfolio represents “approximately $6 billion of investment capital.”
Ferguson’s lawsuit, filed on April 20, asserted that JRK Residential violated the proclamation by issuing Notices to Pay or Vacate in April to at least 14 tenants of The Boulders at Puget Sound, a multi-building Tacoma apartment complex containing over 700 units. The lawsuit also asserted that JRK sent unfair, deceptive and harassing communications to approximately 1,400 Washington state tenants.
JRK knew about the Governor’s proclamation. In fact, the cover letter accompanying the Notices to Pay or Vacate acknowledged that JRK was “aware of the ‘no-evictions’ law.”
As part of the consent decree, filed late yesterday in Pierce County Superior Court, JRK will be required to:
▪ Forgive April 2020 rent, or offer refunds to those who paid, for 14 tenants at The Boulders at Puget Sound complex who received 14-day Notices to Pay or Vacate in violation of the governor’s proclamation;
▪ Once the consent decree is approved by the court, JRK will also be required to pay $246,900 to 1,441 tenants who received unfair, deceptive or harassing communications from JRK;
▪ Waive or refund fees for tenants who need or choose to move out before their lease is up while the governor’s proclamation is in effect.
The company will also be prohibited from issuing 14-day Notices to Pay or Vacate beyond the expiration of the governor’s current proclamation, through at least July 31. In addition to the payments to tenants, JRK Residential will pay $50,000 in costs and attorney fees to the Attorney General’s Office.
Fruit plant CEO: Company could have done more amid outbreak
Updated at 8:40 a.m.
The CEO of a Vancouver, Washington, fruit processor connected to 85 coronavirus cases says his company could have done more to protect employees.
Firestone Pacific Foods CEO Josh Hinerfeld said Wednesday the company began implementing new safety policies and educating employees about the disease in March, but that it struggled to implement and enforce physical distancing measures on the production line and in a break room, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported.
“We could have done better,” Hinerfeld said. “Through this process, we learned that we didn’t do enough. I sure hope through our experience, which obviously has been very painful for many, that others will learn from it.”
Firestone suspended production and closed its office May 18 due to the outbreak. Washington state health officials have also suspended Clark County’s application to move to phase two of its reopening.
Hinerfeld said that the company implemented daily health screenings for employees starting March 20 and required employees to wear masks on April 29. But, he said, some employees were still working in close proximity on the production line and it was difficult to enforce mask rule when employees went on break. The company set up a canopy outside in May to give workers more space during breaks.
“I say with great humility, we thought we had a good plan in place here to keep people safe,” Hinerfeld said.
Since the outbreak, Clark County’s public health department and Washington’s Department of Labor and Industries have been working with Firestone to help develop measures to safely resume operations. Hinerfeld said the company now has a 50-point plan in place.
Fourth child in Washington has coronavirus-related illness
Updated at 8:40 a.m.
A child in the Pasco, Washington, area has been diagnosed with a multi-system inflammatory syndrome in children, an illness associated with COVID-19, said the Benton Franklin Health District.
The Tri-City Herald reports it’s one of four cases of the syndrome identified in Washington state and the first in the Tri-Cities area.
The child is under 10 and is hospitalized.
No additional information has been released to protect the family’s privacy.
Children diagnosed with the illness are healthy before developing symptoms similar to Kawasaki disease.
Parents are advised to watch for symptoms such as fever or headache, abdominal pain with or without diarrhea, fatigue and respiratory symptoms such as shortness of breath, said Dr. John McGuire, chief of the Division of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine at Seattle Children’s Hospital.
Washington state reports 225 new COVID-19 cases and 17 deaths Wednesday
Updated at 8:40 a.m.
The Washington State Department of Health on Wednesday reported 225 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 17 deaths.
Pierce County reported 16 new cases and one new death Wednesday. Pierce County had a total of 72 deaths as of Wednesday.
Statewide totals from the illness caused by the coronavirus are at 20,406 cases and 1,095 deaths, up from 20,181 cases and 1,078 deaths on Tuesday.
Twenty-two people with confirmed COVID-19 cases were admitted to Washington state hospitals on May 18, the most recent date with complete data. March 23 saw 88 admittances, the highest number to date during the pandemic.
The total number of people who have been hospitalized in Washington state with a confirmed case of COVID-19 stood at 3,338 on Wednesday.
Washington state has conducted 332,791 coronavirus tests, with 6.1 percent coming back positive. The test numbers reflect only polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests, which are given to patients while the virus is presumably still active in the body.
There have been more than 1.6 million confirmed COVID-19 cases and 100,047 deaths from the virus in the United States as of Wednesday, according to Johns Hopkins University. More than 353,000 people have died from the disease worldwide.
King County continues to have the highest numbers in Washington, with 7,863 cases and 559 deaths. Snohomish County has 2,927 cases and 145 deaths.
Washington’s least populous county, Garfield, remains the only one in the state without a case. Seven other counties are reporting fewer than 10 cases each.
Capital Lakefair has been canceled, after attempt to postpone the event
Updated at 8:40 a.m.
The 63rd year of Capital Lakefair has been canceled, the organization’s president confirmed Wednesday, after an attempt to merely postpone a scaled-down version to August fell through.
“We wanted to do something for the community,” President Bryan McNamara said about the modified version of the fair the organization had considered.
The organization decided late Tuesday to cancel it, he said, after taking the weekend to consider its options.
Capital Lakefair organizers announced on social media Friday that they would postpone the festival to August from the typical mid-July dates. At that time, the group was prepared to move forward with a fair that would feature a carnival, arts and crafts vendors, and possibly a fireworks show.
The parade, food row on Water Street, and Senior Day were not going to happen, the organization had decided.
McNamara said Wednesday the carnival operator was unhappy with the changes, and wanted “Lakefair, not a modified Lakefair.”
He said Capital Lakefair wants to bring back the fair in summer 2021, but with no fair this year and no revenue, he acknowledged that the “budget is going to be very, very tight.”
Gov. Inslee details how Washington state‘s religious congregations can begin to meet
Updated at 8:40 a.m.
Washington state’s places of worship can start to hold services again with restrictions that are laid out in new coronavirus safety guidelines, Gov. Jay Inslee announced Wednesday, May 27, at a statewide briefing.
For the 11 counties that remain in Phase 1 of the state’s phased approach to reopening and easing restrictions, in-person outdoor religious services can be held on an organization’s property or immediately next to it, with up to 100 people. Services can be held multiple times a day, Inslee said.
Attendees are required to follow physical distancing guidelines and wear face masks.
For the 24 counties that are in or have been approved to move into Phase 2, indoor religious services can be held at 25% capacity, or with up to 50 people, whichever is less, Inslee announced. These services can happen multiple times a day, Inslee said.
The churches and houses of faith are expected to have members follow social distancing guidelines inside when attending services, have members wear face masks, clean and sanitize areas frequently, provide personal protective equipment to staff and provide employee education on how to self-screen for symptoms.
In-home faith services or counseling at a person’s home can be held with five people or fewer, excluding religious staff. If people are not from the same household, masks are encouraged, Inslee’s guidelines state.
All worship services, religious study classes, religious ceremonies, religious holiday celebrations and religious weddings and funerals can also resume services following Inslee’s safety guidelines. There is no limit on the number of these events that can be held throughout a single day, Inslee said.
“We know that in many Washingtonians, their way is the way of the spirit. We know that people treasure religious gatherings, so this has been a difficult issue about how we simultaneously defeat this virus and maintain our congregations,” Inslee said. “As I’ve said before, this crisis may affect our physical connections, but we should not allow it to stop our emotional connections.”
Singing in choirs is also allowed, but participants are required to wear face masks. Inslee said science has shown that as people project their voices louder, the virus can travel farther.
Inslee said he is also encouraging congregations to maintain a voluntary log of attendees for several weeks. That way if an outbreak occurs, such as the one that happened at the Skagit County choir practice, people who have been exposed can protect themselves and their families as soon as possible from the coronavirus, Inslee said.
“I think it’s common to the texts of all faiths that we have an obligation to care for one another,” he said.
Craig Sailor, Rolf Boone, Denver Pratt and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
This story was originally published May 28, 2020 at 8:51 AM.
