Coronavirus updates: Pause in phases may continue; progress in Yakima County
This page includes coronavirus developments around Washington state for Thursday, July 23.
Updated at 3:30 p.m.
Gov. Jay Inslee announced changes to the state’s Safe Start plan Thursday that affect restaurants, bars, gyms, weddings and funerals, movie theaters and other services.
Indoor service at bars will be closed, he said. Taverns, breweries, wineries and distilleries are defined as bars, even if they serve food.
Restaurants will not be able to serve alcohol after 10 p.m. Indoor dining will be restricted to members of the same household. To dine with someone outside your household, you’ll need to sit outside. Game areas of restaurants, such as pool tables, darts and video games, will be closed until phase 4. The size of tables in phase 3 will be limited to 5 and the occupancy will be limited to 50 percent inside.
Ceremonies for weddings and funerals will be allowed, but receptions will be prohibited, the governor said. The maximum capacity for those indoor events will be 20 percent or 30 people, he said, whichever is smaller. That’s as long as social distancing of six feet can be maintained between members of different households. Weddings and funerals scheduled to happen in the next two weeks will be allowed to go forward under the previous guidance, he said.
In phase 2, 5 people are allowed at a time for indoor fitness services, not including staff. That counts for gyms, fitness studios, indoor pools, ice rinks, volleyball courts and tennis facilities. Those services are limited to private training or small group instruction. Fitness centers in phase 3 counties will be limited to 25 percent, and group classes will be limited to 10, not including an instructor.
Entertainment and recreation facilities such as mini golf, bowling alleys and arcades are prohibited from opening until phase 4, Inslee said.
Indoor card rooms are also prohibited from opening until phase 4.
Movie theaters will be limited to 25 percent occupancy in phase 3.
Inslee also said state Secretary of Health John Wiesman would talk about an expansion of the statewide mask order, and that the statewide eviction moratorium will be extended, with more details to come.
Pierce County reports 117 new cases
Updated at 3:30 p.m.
Pierce County on Thursday reported 117 new COVID-19 cases and no new deaths.
County totals are now 4,117 cases and 104 deaths since the first case in the pandemic was recorded March 6.
The Tacoma Pierce-County Health Department has reported 1,124 cases in the past 14 days. The 14-day case rate per 100,000 people is 124.6. The average cases per day over the last 14 days is 80.3.
The county estimates 1,719 still-active cases as of July 22.
Pierce County has experienced record case numbers in recent days.
Daily totals for cases and deaths can change as the county receives new information, finds duplicate data or is assigned cases originally attributed to other counties.
Testing is available at various sites in the county. For more information on other 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: 104 (98)
▪ Central Pierce County: 280 (264)
▪ East Pierce County: 106 (105)
▪ Edgewood/Fife/Milton: 167 (164)
▪ Frederickson: 149 (145)
▪ Gig Harbor area: 110 (107)
▪ Graham: 121 (117)
▪ JBLM: No longer reported
▪ Key Peninsula: 22 (no change)
▪ Lake Tapps/Sumner area: 132 (129)
▪ Lakewood: 395 (390)
▪ Parkland: 231 (227)
▪ Puyallup: 270 (265)
▪ South Hill: 220 (211)
▪ South Pierce County: 82 (81)
▪ Southwest Pierce County: 46 (44)
▪ Spanaway: 155 (150)
▪ Tacoma: 1,300 (1,262)
▪ University Place: 187 (185)
▪ Unknown: 40 (38)
Pause in reopening phases ‘may continuee to extend’
Updated at 8:45 a.m.
State Secretary of Health John Wiesman said the rate of new COVID-19 cases continues to increase, and that it is nearly double the peak in March.
He said no decision has been made, but that the state “may continue to extend,” a pause in counties advancing phases under the state’s Safe Start plan.
“What we’re trying to do at the moment is prevent runaway growth of COVID-19 in our state,” Wiesman said at a weekly briefing Wednesday held by state officials about Washington’s response to the pandemic.
Having fewer, shorter and safer interactions with others “is absolutely critical,” he said. “... staying home is still the safest.”
When going out is necessary, Wiesman said: “Keep it quick, keep your distance from others, and wear your face coverings.”
Asked about a potential extension of the pause on phases, which goes until July 28, he noted: “We really lost the momentum from the very early days where we were able to bend that curve down. ... I think anybody who is looking at these numbers will understand we need to be cautious.”
The state reported totals of 49,247 cases and 1,468 deaths Wednesday. Tuesday those totals were 48,575 cases and 1,465 deaths.
Wiesman said we need to see “rates coming way down,” and that: “Decisions haven’t been made yet, but I think if you carefully look at the data you can probably draw those conclusions that holding at the moment and again considering how we continue to reduce risky interactions needs to be our focus right now.”
He has returned pending applications counties had submitted to advance phases before the pause started. They’ll be four weeks old at the end of the month, he said, and will need to be updated when the pause is lifted.
2 grocers report positive COVID cases at local stores. Health department silent on details
Updated at 8:45 a.m.
Two local grocery stores have reported new cases of COVID-19 among workers.
Safeway reported Wednesday that one worker at its store at 1112 S. M St. in Tacoma has a confirmed case of COVID-19. The Fred Meyer store at 1201 Valley Ave. E. in Sumner also has at least one employee with a positive case, company officials said.
The two grocers joined a growing list of Pierce County businesses dealing with the coronavirus.
Dr. Anthony Chen, director of the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department, said Wednesday during a COVID-19 business resources call that the department worked with around 20 businesses over the weekend.
“It is just spreading everywhere. Every day I see how many businesses that we’re helping with their investigations. ... Restaurants, coffee shops, hardware stores, shipping companies, warehouses, doctor’s offices. You name a business, and we’ve been working with them,” Chen said during the call.
Getting information on specific business outbreaks can be difficult because the health department does not disclose the names of businesses with outbreaks unless the business has 30 or more employees and 10 or more positive cases.
That follows similar guidelines the department uses in reporting and naming long-term care sites involved in outbreaks (sites with 30 or more beds and 10 or more cases).
On Wednesday, the department would not share details with The News Tribune on the Fred Meyer and Safeway cases.
Those cases “don’t meet the standard we use to release information about a specific business,” said Dale Phelps, who leads communications for the department’s COVID-19 response team.
The News Tribune first received notification about the grocery store cases from anonymous tips, later confirmed by representatives for the grocers.
Seattle superintendent urges no in-person schooling for fall
Updated at 8:45 a.m.
Seattle’s school district superintendent has decided against having students return to the classroom in the new year school, saying the prospect of in-person learning is impossible amid rising coronavirus infection rates.
Seattle Public Schools Superintendent Denise Juneau announced Wednesday that she’s recommending a fully remote learning model when school resumes in the fall. The school board is expected to vote on how to proceed during the pandemic at its next regularly scheduled board meeting on August 12.
“The current trajectory of infection in King County and the most recent data and information from public health makes it clear that resuming school in-person this fall is impossible,” Juneau said in a news release.
The Washington state Department of Health said Wednesday that the latest numbers bring the state up to 49,247 cases and at least 1,468 deaths. Officials said since the pandemic began, 855,152 tests for the coronavirus have been done in the state with about 5.8% of those coming back positive. Over the past week, about 5.5% of tests in Washington have been positive. The World Health Organization recommends the rate be 5% or less.
Juneau’s latest recommendation has been endorsed by both the principals labor union and the teachers union. The district is also currently at the bargaining table with the Seattle Education Association for a new teachers contract.
Washington state’s largest school system, which has about 50,000 students, had previously assumed it would operate on a hybrid model of partial in-class learning after weeks of vetting its options.
DOH: Yakima provides glimmer of hope
Updated at 8:45 a.m.
The Yakima Health Department reported recently that 95% of people in Yakima are wearing a face covering in public.
Yakima County is the only place in the state where each person who gets COVID-19 on average spreads it to less than one other person. Everywhere else in Washington is on the path to runaway transmission rates of COVID-19.
Currently, the Washington State Department of Health is reporting that the number of people getting COVID-19 every day in the state is higher than it has ever been.
Hospitalization rates are rising and the increase in the number of young adults getting COVIDD-19 is leading to an increase in the number of children and teens who are getting COVID-19. The cases are now threatening to spread to younger and older age groups.
The good news, according to a DOH blog post, comes from Yakima County. The county has seen a turnaround in the spread of COVID-19 now that wearing cloth face coverings and practicing physical distancing is nearly universal.
Washington state reports 672 new cases on Wednesday
Updated at 8:45 a.m.
The Washington State Department of Health on Wednesday reported 672 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 and three deaths.
Pierce County reported 94 new cases Wednesday and no new deaths. Pierce County had a total of 104 deaths likely caused by COVID-19 as of Wednesday, according to the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department.
Statewide totals from the illness caused by the coronavirus are at 49,247 cases and 1,468 deaths, up from 48,575 cases and 1,465 deaths on Tuesday.
Forty-six people with confirmed COVID-19 cases were admitted to Washington state hospitals on Tuesday, July 14, the most recent date with complete data. March 23 saw 89 people admitted, the highest number to date during the pandemic.
Washington state has conducted 855,152 coronavirus tests. On July 14, the most recent date for which data is complete, 17,741 specimens were collected statewide, with 5% testing positive. That compares with 3,938 specimens and a 3.4% positive rate on June 14; 5,098 specimens and a 5.4% positive rate on May 14; and 4,200 specimens and an 7.2% positive rate on April 14.
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 13,627 cases and 638 deaths. Yakima County has the second-highest numbers, with 9,312 cases and 194 deaths.
All counties in Washington are now reporting cases. Four of them have case counts of less than 10.
Currently, Washington has a 644 per 100,000 people case rate. The national rate is 1,184.
There had been more than 3.9 million confirmed coronavirus cases and 142,942 deaths from the virus in the United States as of Wednesday, according to Johns Hopkins University. More than 620,000 people have died from the disease worldwide.
This story was originally published July 23, 2020 at 8:46 AM.
