Coronavirus Update: Phase 3 gatherings shrink; JBLM shares cases amid Pierce County record

This page includes coronavirus developments around Washington state for Friday, July 17.

Updated 5:20 p.m.

The Washington State Department of Health on Friday reported 754 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 and seven deaths.

Statewide totals from the illness caused by the coronavirus have exceeded 45,000. As of July 17, the health department has confirmed 45,067 cases and 1,434 deaths, up from 44,313 cases and 1,427 deaths on Thursday.

The department has enlisted the research assistance of the Institute for Disease Modeling, Microsoft and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center to analyze COVID-19 data. In a report released last week and updated July 16, researchers called this uptick “an explosive situation,” urging “concrete steps” to quell the spread.

“Washington state is in the early stages of an exponential statewide outbreak that has zero chance of being reversed without changes to our collective behavior and policies to support that change,” the report said.

The most current data indicates that 34 people with confirmed COVID-19 cases were admitted to state hospitals on Thursday, July 9. March 23 saw 89 people admitted, the highest number to date during the pandemic.

Washington state has conducted 767,657 coronavirus tests. On July 9, the most recent date for which data is complete, 10,103 specimens were collected statewide, with 7% testing positive. That compares with 2,499 specimens and a 4.4% positive rate on June 9; 2,102 specimens and a 6.1% positive rate on May 9; and 4,221 specimens and an 8.6% positive rate on April 9.

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.

King County continues to have the highest numbers in Washington, with 12,766 cases and 631 deaths. Yakima County has the second-highest numbers, with 8,939 cases and 191 deaths.

Updated 1:50 p.m.

Pierce County reported no deaths but 77 new cases of COVID-19 Friday, pushing the total number of positive cases above 3,500 to 3,556.

The Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department said it has confirmed 856 cases in the past 14 days, a case rate of 94.9 per 100,000 — a record since the pandemic began. The average daily number of confirmed cases since the Fourth of July is 61.1.

Both of these metrics far exceed the targets set by the Washington state health department. Per 100,000 over 14 days, the target is less than 25 new cases, and the average case count over that same time period should be less than 16.

Active confirmed cases currently hover around 1,320, according to county health data, by far the highest number yet recorded. After weeks of decreasing from a previous high of 1,030 on April 21, this metric exceeded 1,000 on July 10 after weeks of steady decline.

Pierce County has reported 101 deaths caused by COVID-19 since the pandemic took hold in March.

Geographical case totals as of Friday are listed below with previous day’s totals in parentheses:

▪ Bonney Lake: 88 (85)

▪ Central Pierce County: 234 (226)

▪ East Pierce County: 95 (92)

▪ Edgewood/Fife/Milton: 150 (148)

▪ Frederickson: 128 (126)

▪ Gig Harbor area: 95 (no change)

▪ Graham: 101 (no change)

▪ JBLM: No longer reported

▪ Key Peninsula: 18 (no change)

▪ Lake Tapps/Sumner area: 119 (117)

▪ Lakewood: 356 (346)

▪ Parkland: 207 (203)

▪ Puyallup: 225 (no change)

▪ South Hill: 177 (173)

▪ South Pierce County: 72 (68)

▪ Southwest Pierce County: 41 (40)

▪ Spanaway: 124 (118)

▪ Tacoma: 1,132 (1,112)

▪ University Place: 162 (160)

▪ Unknown: 32 (no change)

Updated 11:00 a.m.

Positive cases of COVID-19 surged Thursday to a single-day record and Joint-Base Lewis McChord revealed that its numbers have also reached their highest levels yet.

To address this upward trajectory, Gov. Inslee revised Phase 3 guidance to shrink gatherings to no more than 10 people, save for religious events, weddings and funerals.

The decision comes as statewide cases exceeded 44,000. Death rates have slowed as the virus continues to affect younger residents, with the state now reporting 1,427 deaths as of July 16.

JBLM shares jump in COVID-19 cases

Joint-Base Lewis-McChord, which stopped reporting cases per a Department of Defense order issued in April, shared Thursday that they have seen a record number of COVID-19 cases in a one-month period. They expect the end of July count to far exceed the number of cases already reported, said Lt. Col. Luke Mease, chief of preventive medicine at Madigan Army Medical Center.

More than 27,000 military personnel and others had been diagnosed with COVID-19 as of July 15.

When a service member living on base is diagnosed with COVID-19, the case is reported to the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department. Service members living off base who test positive are reported to their home counties. None of these numbers are included in the publicly available data.

In a Facebook Live Town Hall, Mease said about one-third of the cases diagnosed in July were from people who had been traveling or were in contact with people who traveled within the continental United States. Other cases were related to off-duty gatherings of family and friends, Mease said.

He added that many of the people diagnosed showed only mild symptoms at first.

Col. George Leonard, Madigan’s chief medical officer, said if service members completely complied with preventive measures, such as wearing face coverings and socially distancing, they could significantly reduce the spread of the disease.

Leonard added that more testing is only accounting for a small percentage of the increase in cases and said it’s more significant that JBLM’s positivity rating is going up.

Contact tracing up along with cases

Pierce County reported 89 new COVID-19 cases Thursday and no new deaths on the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department’s website.

The latest report was the highest single-day reporting of new cases since the start of the pandemic, breaking Saturday’s previous record of 81.

The county has reported 3,485 cases (1,277 active) and 101 deaths since the first case in the pandemic was recorded March 6.

A total of 13 outbreaks were recorded in the county the week of July 4, up from seven the week prior, according to county health data.

Outbreaks consist of at least two cases tied to the same location. The health department told The News Tribune this week that outbreaks are happening across a full spectrum of sites. The state’s largest psychiatric hospital is also dealing with an outbreak of four workers and one patient.

Health department director Dr. Anthony Chen told the Board of Health at its Wednesday study session that the department on Tuesday had reached out to 722 people in contact tracing investigations.

“This is unprecedented amounts of contact,” Chen said.

The county has reported 850 cases in the past 14 days, an average of 60.7 cases per day. The 14-day case rate per 100,000 people is 94.2.

The age group with the biggest percentage of cases is 20-29, representing 22 percent of the county’s cases but just under 14 percent of the population.

Teachers wary of returning to school

Primary education instructors in the South Sound are not yet confident in districts’ abilities to safely reopen schools.

The News Tribune’s Matt Driscoll reported this week that union representatives in Tacoma and Puyallup believe Pierce County is headed in the wrong direction.

According to Shannon Ergun, the new president of the Tacoma Education Association, the priority in any school reopening plan must be keeping students and staff safe. With this in mind, unless the situation in Pierce County improves in the coming weeks, in-person learning looks like a long shot at best, she said.

Like Ergun, Karen McNamara, president of the Puyallup Education Association, said teachers in Puyallup will ultimately look to the science, the public health experts and the state for guidance on whether it’s safe to return to in-person learning this fall.

McNamara also said she’s “concerned” about returning to face-to-face instruction, given Pierce County’s current spike in COVID-19 cases.

The two union presidents are just the latest to voice concern about returning to in-person instruction this fall, even as the Trump administration has pressured districts to reopen.

Both districts have been discussing the options for months, and have developed hybrid plans combining in-person instruction with distance learning.

In the weeks ahead, they will now need to hammer out an agreement with teachers.

“As long as I’m seeing increasing and not decreasing (COVID-19 case) numbers, I don’t think it’s safe to put our students and staff back into buildings,” Ergun said.

Only groups of 10 allowed in Phase 3

Gov. Jay Inslee announced revisions Thursday to gathering sizes for counties in Phase 3. He also banned live entertainment and said another stay-home order is possible if COVID-19 numbers continue to rise.

“Too many individual citizens, regardless of their age or their ethnicity, are simply not exercising the caution that is necessary if we are going to arrest this very, very dangerous rise of this pandemic,” he said at a virtual press conference Thursday.

Live, in-person entertainment that has already been banned in restaurants and bars will now be prohibited more broadly indoors and outdoors, including drive-in concerts.

Gatherings in Phase 3 counties will be limited to 10 people, with the exception of spiritual services, weddings and funerals.

The restrictions take effect Monday.

Inslee also emphasized that gatherings in Phase 2 and modified Phase 1 counties under the state’s Safe Start plan remain limited to five people, and that masks and social distancing remain imperative.

“Today’s rollbacks may be a forerunner to additional rollbacks, and we cannot rule out the potential for another stay-home order this year, and perhaps not in the too distant future,” he said.

Quarantine hotel costs county $1.6m

The temporary care site at a Tacoma Holiday Inn for COVID-19 patients unable to safely isolate has cost Pierce County at least $1.68 million but served only 65 people, The News Tribune’s Debbie Cockrell and Josephine Peterson reported Thursday.

As of June 30, the county had allocated $1.68 million of its $15 million in FEMA emergency funds, Communications Director Libby Catalinich said.

In the three months since it opened, the isolation and quarantine facility at South 84th and Hosmer streets in South Tacoma has served 60 to 65 people, according to July 16 figures posted on the health department’s website.

The health department has not said how many are currently staying at the temporary care facility, which serves people exposed to or confirmed to have COVID-19 but who are unable to safely isolate for 14 days.

A healthcare provider’s referral is needed for admittance.

The county had rented the entire hotel, or 124 beds, in April but then reduced that number to 60 beds. As of this week, only 40 beds are reserved, said Catalinich.

The News Tribune’s Craig Sailor, Debbie Cockrell, Matt Driscoll, Alexis Krell, Josephine Peterson and Abbie Shull contributed to this report.

This story was originally published July 17, 2020 at 11:00 AM.