Coronavirus updates: School districts back off in-person learning for fall, Inslee tightens Safe Start rules
This page includes coronavirus developments around Washington state for Friday, July 24.
STATE REPORTS 762 NEW COVID-19 CASES, 14 DEATHS
The Washington State Department of Health on Thursday reported 762 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 14 deaths.
Pierce County reported 117 new cases Thursday and no new deaths. Pierce County had a total of 104 deaths likely caused by COVID-19 as of Thursday, according to the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department.
Statewide totals from the illness caused by the coronavirus are at 50,009 cases and 1,482 deaths, up from 49,247 cases and 1,468 deaths on Wednesday.
Thirty-three people with confirmed COVID-19 cases were admitted to Washington state hospitals on Wednesday, July 15, 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 870,763 coronavirus tests. On July 15, the most recent date for which data is complete, 16,483 specimens were collected statewide, with 5.4% testing positive. That compares with 11,117 specimens and a 4.7% positive rate on June 15; 5,558 specimens and a 4.7% positive rate on May 15; and 4,045 specimens and an 8.2% positive rate on April 15.
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 13,835 cases and 638 deaths. Yakima County has the second-highest numbers, with 9,367 cases and 194 deaths.
All counties in Washington are now reporting cases. Four of them have case counts of less than 10.
On Thursday, Washington had a 653 per 100,000 people case rate, up from 644 on Wednesday. The national rate is 1,205, up from 1,184 on Wednesday.
Tacoma, other school districts set to start fall with full-time distance learning as COVID surges
Many schools were looking to open this fall with at least partial in-person learning, leaning toward a hybrid model of learning that would combine some social-distance approved in-person learning with online instruction.
But with COVID-19 cases on the rise throughout the state once again, school districts are backing off, with many announcing Thursday a move toward exclusively online-learning in the fall to open the 2020-21 school year.
The announcements flooded in Thursday evening after the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department warned that opening schools for in-person learning this fall was unsafe at this time.
“Based on the COVID-19 disease activity in Pierce County and our region, I do not feel it is safe to open schools in September for traditional classroom learning,” Dr. Anthony Chen, the department’s director of health, said in a statement to superintendents.
The following Pierce County school districts announced the change to full-time distance learning on Thursday:
- Tacoma
- Puyallup
- Bethel
- Franklin-Pierce
- Sumner-Bonney Lake
- Orting
- Steilacoom
- University Place
- White River
- Eatonville
The Tacoma school board was poised to approve a hybrid model Thursday night when Superintendent Carla Santorno read the health department’s new recommendations.
“We will begin school in full remote (learning), unless the guidance changes over the next six weeks,” Santorno said.
Gov. Inslee tightens Safe Start rules for bars, restaurants, gyms, weddings, others
Gov. Jay Inslee announced new restrictions under the state’s Safe Start plan Thursday that affect restaurants, bars, gyms, weddings and funerals, movie theaters and other services.
He also announced an extension of the statewide eviction moratorium, and said he expects to further extend the pause on counties advancing phases under the Safe Start plan.
Also Thursday Secretary of Health John Wiesman announced an expansion of the statewide mask mandate, to include common spaces beyond those in public.
“At the moment, the only effective tool against this pandemic is to change some of our practices, and we need to do that,” Inslee said at a virtual press conference. “Unfortunately we know this, the rate of transmission has been increasing around the state. Our suppression of this virus is not at the level it needs to be to continue to allow us to continue to allow more activity.”
The changes to the Safe Start plan that affect businesses take effect July 30. Those that affect weddings and funerals take effect Aug. 6.
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 occupancy, and group classes will be limited to 10 people, 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. That applies to indoor facilities, he said. It doesn’t apply to outdoor batting cages, for example.
Indoor card rooms are also prohibited from opening until phase 4.
Movie theaters will be limited to 25 percent occupancy in phase 3.
The statewide eviction moratorium will be extended through Oct. 15, Inslee said.
Reeling bars and restaurants brace for new WA COVID restrictions
There will be no alcohol after 10 p.m., no indoor drinking at bars or breweries and no dinner with friends unless outside, according to Gov. Jay Inslee’s adjustments to Washington’s Safe Start plan announced Thursday.
Full-service restaurants must cut alcohol service at 10 p.m., and only up to five members of the same household will be permitted to dine indoors. Otherwise, guests must sit outside.
Businesses with a tavern license (meaning they sell only beer and wine but not food), as well as breweries, wineries and distilleries, will not be permitted to seat guests indoors. Restaurants can continue to seat indoors with existing social distancing and mask requirements.
The changes for indoor seating at bars will be particularly hard for businesses to swallow.
A brewery taproom, for instance, that does not offer outdoor seating must now return to sales of packaged beer to be consumed off-premise.
Ken Thoburn, co-owner of Tacoma’s Wingman Brewers, expressed dismay at the rollback directed less at the governor and more at customers and businesses not taking the existing rules seriously.
“The result is that the whole industry and community as a whole is suffering because of a few people (who) just don’t get it,” he told The News Tribune in a text message.
Staff writers Craig Sailor, Allison Needles, Alexis Krell and Kristine Sherred contributed to this report.
This story was originally published July 24, 2020 at 9:36 AM.
