Coronavirus update: Free face coverings for low-income residents; Pierce County risks losing Phase 2
This page includes coronavirus developments around Washington state for Thursday, June 25.
Updated at 5:05 p.m.
In order to comply with the furloughs ordered last week by Gov. Jay Inslee, the Department of Social and Health Services will close its offices across the state starting on June 29 and continue to do so each Monday through July 20.
During this time, those DSHS offices that are open, including those with only limited services, will be open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays. They will be closed on July 3 for the Fourth of July holiday. After July 20, the agency will furlough employees one day a month through at least November. Many services will not be available to the public and clients will not be able to get in touch with most DSHS employees during furlough days.
Several parts of the agency are exempt from the furloughs. Essential employees will still report to work at 24/7 facilities, including Eastern and Western State hospitals, the Special Commitment Center and residential habilitation centers and state operated living alternatives for the developmentally disabled.
Since they are largely federally funded, the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation and the Economic Service Administration’s Division of Disability Determination are also exempt from the furloughs.
In addition to the furlough days, a 3% raise set to take effect July 1 for agency directors, Exempt and Washington Management Service employees will be canceled. The governor’s office estimates that the canceled raises and furloughs, once enacted by all cabinet agencies, will save $55 million over the next year.
Pierce County reports 35 new cases
Updated at 2:50 p.m.
Pierce County reported 35 new confirmed COVID-19 cases on Thursday and one additional death.
The county has seen recent a spike in new cases. On Wednesday, the county reported 45 cases.
The new death reported Thursday involved a Southwest Pierce County man in his 80s with underlying health conditions.
The county’s totals are now at 2,390 cases and 85 deaths since the county’s first case was reported March 6, according to the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department.
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 has reported 312 cases in the past 14 days, according to the health department. The 14-day case rate per 100,000 is 34.6, and average cases per day over the past 14 days is 22.3.
As of Thursday, the county reported an estimated 482 active cases.
The health department’s director Dr. Anthony Chen this week warned residents that the county was slipping in efforts to slow the spread of COVID-19 and was not yet ready to apply for Phase 3.
Neighboring Thurston County moved into Phase 3 on Wednesday.
Also this week, Gov. Jay Inslee implemented a new rule mandating masks in indoor or outdoor public places, with some exceptions, to take effect statewide starting June 26.
The local health department has introduced a new Safe Start dashboard on its website that measures Pierce County’s progress with the metrics required for safe reopening.
According to the new dashboard, average number of daily tests run in the county are at 517, with 2.5 percent of the tests positive, compared with a target of less than 2 percent.
That percentage of positive tests differs from the state’s recorded tally of 6 percent positive for Pierce County on its dashboard.
The local health department has noted in the past that the state’s total for the county did not include those tests unassigned and negative tests from congregate care sites, and that Pierce County’s positive rate was likely lower. The health department has said previously that its own, new totals would include local reporting of overall negative tests and would not include serology (antibody) tests.
Testing is available at various sites in the county. For more information on local testing sites, go to www.tpchd.org/covidtest.
Thursday’s geographical case totals are listed below with previous day’s totals in parentheses:
▪ Bonney Lake: 51 (no change)
▪ Central Pierce County: 161 (160)
▪ East Pierce County: 62 (no change)
▪ Edgewood/Fife/Milton: 107 (no change)
▪ Frederickson: 79 (no change)
▪ Gig Harbor area: 65 (no change)
▪ Graham: 75 (74)
▪ JBLM: No longer reported
▪ Key Peninsula: 10 (9)
▪ Lake Tapps/Sumner area: 65 (63)
▪ Lakewood: 244 (239)
▪ Parkland: 138 (132)
▪ Puyallup: 167 (no change)
▪ South Hill: 121 (120)
▪ South Pierce County: 47 (46)
▪ Southwest Pierce County: 27 (25)
▪ Spanaway: 80 (77)
▪ Tacoma: 774 (767)
▪ University Place: 100 (no change)
▪ Unknown: 17 (14)
UrbanXchange clothing store to close
Updated at 12:50 p.m.
Clothing store UrbanXchange announced Tuesday in an Instagram post it would be closing after a 15-year run.
It felt like the right moment to close with “the combination of uncertain times due to the pandemic and our lease term expiring this year,” according to the post.
Located in downtown Tacoma, the store featuring vintage and modern thrift items is owned by the husband-wife duo Nick and Brooke Casanova.
“We’ve only known for sure this was the route we were going for the past week or so,” Brooke Casanova told The News Tribune.
The two came to the conclusion that staying open was only putting off the inevitable.
“If it didn’t happen now, it would have been the end of the year probably,” Brooke Casanova said. “In current circumstances of the pandemic, sooner than later was what we felt would be best for us.”
They had planned to get back up and running, but it wasn’t to be.
“We were going to try to bring back staff,” Brooke Casanova said. “It didn’t really seem like we could open fully, and they were concerned about working.
“It’s kind of like we started this business all over from scratch. It’s a tough thing to do and to rebuild that, especially in downtown Tacoma.”
Statewide order requires face coverings
Updated at 9 am.
Gov. Jay Inslee and Secretary Wiesman announced the new statewide order that requires the use of face coverings in most indoor or outdoor public settings. Today Wiesman signed and issued Order 20-03.
The order goes into effect on June 26 and applies to anyone inside of or in line to enter an indoor public space, waiting for or riding public transportation and anyone outdoors and unable to keep six feet away from others not in their households.
DOH guidance provides additional information, and the agency posted an article debunked some myths about face coverings.
Public health officials also want to continue reminding Washingtonians that staying homing is still safest. When you do go out, wear your face covering, stay 6 feet apart, wash your hands, and stay local.
State emergency officials distributing millions of free face coverings
Updated at 9 a.m.
State officials launched a launched a program earlier this month to ensure access to free, reusable cloth face coverings for all low-income Washingtonians.
The state’s Emergency Management Division in partnership with the Department of Enterprise Services purchased 3.6 million cloth facemasks with the goal of distributing two to every Washingtonian below 200% of the federal poverty level.
The state has distributed nearly 2.8 million masks and is working with local emergency management offices to distribute the rest.
People who would like to pick up a mask should contact their county’s local emergency manager.
Virus cases surge among the young, endangering older adults
Updated at 9 a.m.
Coronavirus cases are climbing rapidly among young adults in a number of states where bars, stores and restaurants have reopened — a disturbing generational shift that not only puts them in greater peril than many realize but poses an even bigger danger to older people who cross their paths.
In Oxford, Mississippi, summer fraternity parties sparked outbreaks. In Oklahoma City, church activities, fitness classes, weddings and funerals seeded infections among people in their 20s, 30s and 40s. In Iowa college towns, surges followed the reopening of bars. A cluster of hangouts near Louisiana State University led to at least 100 customers and employees testing positive. In East Lansing, Michigan, an outbreak tied to a brew pub spread to 34 people ages 18 to 23.
There and in states like Florida, Texas and Arizona, young people have started going out again, many without masks, in what health experts see as irresponsible behavior.
“The virus hasn’t changed. We have changed our behaviors,” said Ali Mokdad, professor of health metrics sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle. “Younger people are more likely to be out and taking a risk.”
In Florida, young people ages 15 to 34 now make up 31% of all cases, up from 25% in early June. Last week, more than 8,000 new cases were reported in that age group, compared with about 2,000 among people 55 to 64 years old. And experts say the phenomenon cannot be explained away as simply the result of more testing.
Elected officials such as Florida’s governor have argued against reimposing restrictions, saying many of the newly infected are young and otherwise healthy. But younger people, too, face the possibility of severe infection and death. In the past week, two 17-year-olds in Florida died of the virus.
And authorities worry that older, more vulnerable people are next.
“People between the ages 18 and 50 don’t live in some sort of a bubble,” Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt said. “They are the children and grandchildren of vulnerable people. They may be standing next to you at a wedding. They might be serving you a meal in a restaurant.”
The virus has taken a frightful toll on older people in the U.S., which leads the world in total deaths, at over 120,000, and confirmed infections, at more than 2.3 million. Eight out of 10 deaths in the U.S. have been in people 65 and older. In contrast, confirmed coronavirus deaths among 18- to 34-year-olds number in the hundreds, though disease trackers are clamoring for more accurate data.
‘Not ready for Phase 3, and Phase 2 is in danger,’ Pierce County health director warns
Updated at 9 a.m.
The head of the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department on Wednesday offered some tough advice for residents.
Tighten up your COVID-19 prevention or risk losing Phase 2 status in the state’s Safe Start plan.
In a blog post published Wednesday, Dr. Anthony Chen noted the county’s climbing case totals, which hit a peak Wednesday with 45 new cases.
That’s the most since June 19, when the county registered 33 new cases.
In the post, titled, “Our grip on Phase 2 is slipping,” Chen said there is no single cause for the latest spike.
“Well, Pierce County, it is all of us,” he wrote. “All. Of. Us.”
Chen added: “When we applied for Phase 2 two-and-a-half weeks ago, our total cases over two weeks was 16 per 100,000 residents. As of today’s case count, that has increased to 31.5 per 100,000.”
Average cases per day over the past 14 days is 20.3, according to the health department.
“COVID-19 continues to be widespread in Pierce County,” Chen wrote. “It affects every geographic area of our community, all age groups and all ethnic groups. In the last few weeks, we have seen more cases among those 40 and under. We have seen cases among businesses. Traffic and cellphone mobility are up. This tells us people are going out and about, getting exposed and exposing others.”
All of this puts Phase 3 out of Pierce County’s reach for now. Thurston County was allowed to move to Phase 3 on Wednesday.
“Right now, we are not in a position to apply for Phase 3,” Chen wrote. “We expected some increase in disease when we entered Phase 2. We are worried it has increased and is not leveling off. We strongly urge everyone to stay the course with precautions. The governor has not ordered a county to move backwards, but we do not want to become the first.”
This story was originally published June 25, 2020 at 9:23 AM.
