Coronavirus updates: Inslee shares update on unemployment backlog progress
The Washington State Department of Health on Thursday reported 818 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 and nine new deaths.
Pierce County reported 112 new cases Thursday and two new deaths. Pierce County had a total of 115 deaths likely caused by COVID-19 as of Thursday, according to the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department.
Statewide totals from illness caused by the coronavirus are at 55,803 cases and 1,564 deaths, up from 54,985 cases and 1,555 deaths on Wednesday.
Forty-eight people with confirmed COVID-19 cases were admitted to Washington state hospitals on July 22, the most recent date with complete data. Late March had two days with 88 people admitted, the highest numbers to date during the pandemic.
Washington state has conducted 973,654 coronavirus tests. On July 22, the most recent date for which data is complete, 15,389 specimens were collected statewide, with 6% testing positive. The average positive test rate for the seven days prior was 5.5%.
Inslee talks about unemployment backlog progress, vulnerable workers, contact tracing
Gov. Jay Inslee spoke Thursday about progress in clearing the state’s unemployment backlog, an extension of protections for vulnerable workers, and a new proclamation that exempts personal information collected by contact tracers from public disclosure.
Inslee said at a virtual press conference that by the end of Friday the Employment Security Department intends to finish clearing the backlog of claims filed between March and June.
“These are folks whose claims have been in adjudication,” Inslee said. “That means there had to be something cleared up to allow them to be adjudicated as either valid or not valid.”
The governor also mentioned that he has extended a proclamation about rights and protections for high-risk employees.
“Basically our provision prohibits employers from failing to accommodate these workers who would be more highly vulnerable to the virus,” he said.
Inslee spoke about the importance of contact tracing, and said a new proclamation will exempt from public disclosure the names, birth dates, phone numbers and addresses collected by those investigators.
“Our ability to fight this disease depends on people’s willingness to help the contact tracers stop this chain of transmission,” he said.
He noted the indefinite extension of the pause on counties advancing phases under the state’s Safe Start plan that he announced earlier this week.
“It’s just too early to allow significantly more activities to open up,” he said.
The governor said he expects to have more to say about schools soon.
“I know that there are some individual districts making decisions on a daily basis,” he said. “... Unfortunately many districts are recognizing that the rate of transmission is not where we would hope it to be to allow full-scale on-site instruction. We appreciate everybody continuing to work on this, and like I said we’ll have more to say about that in a few days.”
Tribal Council’s review of EQC casino says allegations in OSHA complaint ‘not supported’
Operators of the Tacoma Emerald Queen Casino on Thursday released a statement about their investigation into allegations of COVID-19 safety issues at the popular newly built destination gaming site.
The Puyallup Tribe of Indians operates the Tacoma casino and another in Fife.
Last week, details of a complaint filed July 15 with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration listed allegations of various health safety issues at the Tacoma casino.
The Tribal Council posted its official response to the complaint on its website, saying,“The broad allegations set forth in the OSHA letter were not supported” by its internal investigation.
“Upon receipt of the letter, EQC promptly started and completed an investigation and sent the results to OSHA,” according to the post.
OSHA may seek more information, conduct an on-site inspection or simply close the complaint, the council added.
The statement noted while the council doesn’t normally comment on internal investigations, “given the public concern about COVID-19, the Tribal Council took the opportunity to take a deep look at what was working at the EQC, what could be improved and to see how well our practices measured up to the policies we put into place.”
“As OSHA stated, the letter was not a citation or proposed penalty, but a requirement for EQC to investigate the alleged hazards, report the findings and take corrective measures where necessary,” the statement said.
Top among the list of issues in the OSHA complaint were allegations of overcrowding in the High Limit section of the casino, “60 to 100 people on busy nights in approximately 100 square feet of space.”
Other allegations included patrons and some employees, including cooks, not wearing masks, “numerous sick players” in attendance, a shortage and/or nonusage of hand sanitizer and numerous workers infected with coronavirus, including at least one employee working through a shift with visible symptoms of illness. A breach of worker health confidentiality involving a COVID alert also was listed.
The council statement said that the “investigation included close review of security camera footage, review of logs and employee interviews.”
The statement did not address the specific allegations individually but offered general details of its findings.
“Overall, the investigation found that our EQC employees have gone above and beyond to keep the guests and themselves safe. Yet, certain areas needed immediate improvement and policy reinforcement, including making sure masks are being properly worn at all times by guests and employees in all areas of the casino in strict adherence to the COVID policy,” according to the statement.
“This action was taken straightaway.
“EQC managers also looked for ways to further improve safety measures, including the creation of one point of contact for all EQC COVID-related issues and the adoption of improved employee contact tracing protocols. As more is learned about the virus, EQC is committed to adapt, as we all must, in dealing with this novel and changing pandemic.”
When will we get COVID-19 vaccine? Fauci ‘cautiously optimistic’ about this timeline
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious diseases expert, testified before a House subcommittee on Friday, saying he was “cautiously optimistic” that we could have a vaccine by late fall or early winter.
“We hope at the time we get into the late fall and early winter, we will have in fact a vaccine that we can say will be safe and effective. One can never guarantee the safety and effectiveness unless you do the trial but we are cautiously optimistic,” Fauci said.
Biotech company Moderna launched a Phase III trial for its COVID-19 vaccine on July 21 and is planning to enroll 30,000 volunteers without coronavirus.
Fauci told CNN that the volunteers will be a “diverse group” and “representative of our society and for those at risk.” Nineteen or 20 percent of the participants are African American and around the same percentage are Latinx, Fauci said.
“You want representation in the trial of those who are most at risk for adverse consequences of getting infected,” Fauci said.
Parking lot beer gets official at 7 Seas community beer garden
Don’t mess with breweries.
That seems to be the message 7 Seas Brewing has stuck to Gov. Inslee’s July 23 changes to Safe Start guidelines, which required alcohol-only establishments to shutter indoor seating — again. These changes, they learned just three days ago, would stick until Washington state enters Phase 4 of its coronavirus recovery — whenever that might be.
Along with their winemaking and distilling counterparts, breweries across Washington state spent the past week reconfiguring their 2020 plans for a rollback to curbside pickup and delivery of packaged beer.
Like many such manufacturers, 7 Seas does not have an outdoor seating area, but given the do-or-die reality under COVID-19 restrictions, the brewery has figured out a way to make it work.
Starting today, 7 Seas and restaurant partner 3uilt, which operates inside the Tacoma taproom at 2101 Jefferson Ave., will open a “community beer garden” in the loading dock off 23rd Street.
In addition to house brews, the new outdoor space will host guest taps from other local breweries and cideries. 3uilt will continue to serve its stellar sandwiches and Puget Sound oysters in the “secret beer garden,” as it referred to the forthcoming space in an Instagram post.
Alexis Krell, Craig Sailor, Debbie Cockrell, Kristine Sherred and Summer Lin contributed to this story.
This story was originally published July 31, 2020 at 9:44 AM.
