Inslee discusses unmet unemployment claims, COVID-19 surge and student visa changes
Gov. Jay Inslee talked about unemployment claims and the continued need for precautions to control the increase in COVID-19 across the state, among other topics at a press conference Tuesday.
Unemployment compensation update
Inslee said the frustration of people who have not been able to have their claims fully processed is “real and sincere and deep, and is something I share.”
There were 81,000 people in the queue waiting for processing of their claims June 15, and that was down to 37,000 as of Monday, Inslee said.
About 866,000 people have received $6.7 billion in unemployment benefits since March 8, and the Employment Security Department team is “working as hard as humanly possible” to process the claims as quickly as possible, the governor said.
He also said the department has resolved identification issues for more than 200,000 claims “as part of our efforts to combat fraud” with the help from the National Guard.
Masks, contact tracers, testing
Inslee noted the two-week pause he announced last week on allowing counties to advance in phases of the state’s Safe Start plan due to increased coronavirus activity.
“If these trends continue, we would have to be prepared to go back to where we were in March,” he said.
Face coverings, which are mandatory in public places with some exceptions, are key, he said. He said social distancing, hand washing, limiting contacts with others, and staying relatively close to home are also important.
“I want to reopen our economy,” Inslee said. “I want to reopen our businesses. I want people to be able to go back to work.”
He urged people to cooperate with contact tracers. “If you are contacted by one of the contract tracers, please give them a hand,” he said.
It’s important to isolate for 14 days after having contact with someone who tested positive, the governor noted, including while waiting for test results.
“This is a long fight and we’re sort of in the bottom of the third inning,” he said. “... We simply are not done.”
Asked about waits for test results, the governor said the federal government has “never really provided the test kits that are necessary in adequate numbers,” and that “even where we have had the test kits, the labs have been slower.”
Governors in some states listened to the president, reopened too quickly, and saw “massive surges,” that put “pressure on analytical labs to get all the testing done,” Inslee said.
‘Dramatic increase’ in cases explained
The governor said the percentage of positive tests in the state was about 3.8 percent in mid June, 5 percent in the last week of June, and higher in the past week.
The World Health Organization says a country shouldn’t lift restrictions if the rate of positivity is higher than that, he noted.
He also said he’s concerned about a surge in young people getting infected.
“Young people can die,” he said. “... We really need them to step up to the plate” and take precautions such as social distancing.
The state’s chief health officer, Dr. Kathy Lofy, joined Inslee on the call.
She said a part of the “dramatic increase in the number of cases” is due to an increase in the number of tests being done, but she noted the data signals something else. Lofy said there’s also a rise in the percentage of positive tests, and in the number of people admitted to hospitals each week.
“People are coming into contact more frequently than we all did back in March,” she said.
The increased COVID activity is statewide, Lofy said, and “no longer contained to a few hotspots.”
It’s spreading in different settings. Transmission is happening in long-term care facilities, food processing plants, retail businesses, restaurants and childcare environments, among other places, she said.
It’s critical, she said, that people with COVID-19 and their contacts stay home.
“People are most contagious to others at the start of their illness,” she said.
Someone who feels mildly ill and goes about their business as usual, then decides to get tested a few days later, may have already infected others, Lofy said.
Student visa news
The governor commented on the Trump administration’s announcement that international students will not be able to stay in the United States on their visas if their colleges only have online classes this fall.
Inslee called the move a “typically xenophobic and reckless act by the administration,” and “another attempt by Donald Trump to distract us” from the pandemic.
The governor also said it created “perverse incentives” for schools to have in-person classes, even if they decide that’s not healthy, and he accused the administration of “trying to use young students as pawns.”
“We are actively planning for safe and healthy ways to hold in-person classes,” Inslee said, but it’s “certainly not a guarantee.”
‘Deeply disappointed’ by relative’s social media post
Before the press conference, Inslee said in a tweet: “I’m deeply disappointed and totally reject the language of my cousin Mike Brown who made inflammatory comments about recent protests. The language is unacceptable and just flat wrong, particularly from a law enforcement officer, as we try to heal the divisions of our community.”
The Seattle Times reported that a Facebook post under King County sheriff’s deputy Brown’s name, shown in screenshots on social media, had a graphic of a vehicle running people over and read: “All lives splatter” and “Keep your (expletive) off the road.”
Brown is on administrative leave, the Times reported.
Answering a reporter’s question about his response, Inslee said: “We are in a moment where we have both a challenge of reducing racial inequity and a challenge of reducing police violence. ... It certainly was deeply disappointing to me that a relative of mine or a non relative of mine would put words on the internet that could fan the flames. That language is just simply unacceptable.”
This story was originally published July 7, 2020 at 7:19 PM.
