Washington reports 367 new COVID-19 cases, 9 deaths
The Washington State Department of Health reported 367 new COVID-19 cases and nine deaths Saturday.
Statewide totals have reached 25,538 cases and 1,213 deaths, up from 25,171 cases and 1,204 deaths Friday.
King County remains the hardest hit with 8,694 cases and 591 deaths, while Yakima County has 5,265 cases and 117 deaths and Snohomish County has 3,129 cases and 156 deaths.
Pierce County reported 14 new cases Saturday, bringing its totals to 2,106 cases and 83 deaths.
Benton County is the fifth in the state to report more than 1,000 cases with 1,106 as of Saturday.
Eighteen of the state’s 39 counties have reported more than 100 cases, and 11 counties have reported at least 10 virus-related deaths.
Garfield, the state’s least populous county, remains the only county without a reported case. Six other counties are reporting fewer than 10 cases each.
There are 33 cases that have not been assigned to a county.
There were 24 people with confirmed cases of COVID-19 admitted to state hospitals on June 5, the most recent date with complete data. The total number of people who have been hospitalized in the state stood at 3,845 on Saturday.
There have been 450,146 tests conducted in the state with 5.7% 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.
The state DOH also released its latest statewide situation report Saturday, which details increased spread of COVID-19 in some areas, particularly on the eastern side of the state.
“The situation in eastern Washington is of greatest concern, particularly in Benton, Franklin, Spokane and Yakima counties,” a release from the department said. “The report estimates cases and deaths in these counties will soon increase substantially if COVID-19 continues to spread at current levels. By population, these counties are in a comparable position to King County at its peak in March.”
Gov. Jay Inslee responded to the new report Saturday afternoon with a series of tweets.
“Washingtonians have done the hard work to flatten the curve on COVID-19 and we know this has been tremendously difficult for families, businesses and communities over the past few months,” he wrote. “But today’s report estimates cases and deaths will soon increase (and) we can’t let that happen.”
In his thread, Inslee called to increase testing, urged people to continue wearing masks and maintain physical distancing, as well as maintain hospital capacity and target interventions for high-risk groups.
“This is not the time to give up on efforts to protect ourselves, our families and our communities,” he wrote. “We are still in the middle of a pandemic that is continuing to infect and kill Washingtonians. This fight is not over.”
This story was originally published June 13, 2020 at 4:03 PM with the headline "Washington reports 367 new COVID-19 cases, 9 deaths."
