Coronavirus updates: State reaches 63,072 cases; Seahawks have first case
This page includes coronavirus developments around Washington state for Monday, August 10.
Updated at 2:30 p.m.
Pierce County on Monday reported 58 new COVID-19 cases and no additional deaths.
County totals are now 5,668 cases and 126 deaths since the first case in the coronavirus pandemic was recorded March 6.
The Tacoma Pierce-County Health Department has reported 1,176 cases in the past 14 days. The 14-day case rate per 100,000 people is 130.4. The average cases per day over the last 14 days is 84.
There are 2,390 active cases in the county as of Aug. 9, according to the health department.
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.
Monday’s geographical case totals are listed below with previous day’s totals in parentheses:
▪ Bonney Lake: 129 (no change)
▪ Central Pierce County: 372 (373)
▪ East Pierce County: 162 (158)
▪ Edgewood/Fife/Milton: 217 (216)
▪ Frederickson: 212 (209)
▪ Gig Harbor area: 145 (144)
▪ Graham: 193 (192)
▪ JBLM: No longer reported
▪ Key Peninsula: 38 (34)
▪ Lake Tapps/Sumner area: 176 (171)
▪ Lakewood: 515 (507)
▪ Parkland: 315 (no change)
▪ Puyallup: 341 (no change)
▪ South Hill: 292 (289)
▪ South Pierce County: 128 (124)
▪ Southwest Pierce County: 58 (57)
▪ Spanaway: 261 (254)
▪ Tacoma: 1,814 (1,801)
▪ University Place: 237 (239)
▪ Unknown: 63 (57)
Washington state reports 549 new cases Sunday
Updated at 9 a.m.
The Washington State Department of Health on Sunday reported 549 new cases of COVID-19 and no additional deaths.
Pierce County reported 79 new cases and no additional deaths on Sunday. Pierce County now has 5,610 total cases and 126 deaths.
Statewide totals from the illness caused by the coronavirus are at 63,072 cases and 1,688, up from 62,523 cases and 1,688 deaths Saturday.
DOH has been unable to report new negative test results since Aug. 1. Death counts from Saturday and Sunday remained the same due to classification changes that take place daily. Two previously reported deaths were removed on Sunday.
Forty-four people with confirmed COVID-19 cases were admitted to Washington state hospitals on July 30, the most recent date with complete data. Late March had two days with 88 people admitted, the highest numbers to date during the pandemic.
King County continues to have the highest numbers in Washington, with 16,570 cases and 675 deaths. Yakima County is second, with 10,325 cases and 211 deaths.
All counties in Washington have cases. Garfield and Wahkiakum have case counts of fewer than 10.
There had been more than 5.0 million confirmed coronavirus cases and 162,919 deaths from the virus in the United States as of Saturday, according to Johns Hopkins University. More than 729,000 people have died from the disease worldwide.
Can kids be COVID-19 ‘long haulers?’ Some fear yes as nearly 100,000 test positive
Updated at 9 a.m.
Parents of children who have been dealing with coronavirus symptoms months after getting sick fear that kids can be “long haulers” of the virus after nearly 100,000 in the United States tested positive in the last two weeks of July.
Between July 16 and July 30, 97,078 U.S. children tested positive for COVID-19 — a 40 percent increase in cases in children, according to a new report from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association. The report used public data from 49 U.S. states, Washington D.C., Guam, and Puerto Rico.
Since the pandemic started, around 339,000 children have tested positive, representing 8.8 percent of all cases of the coronavirus in the U.S. In 25 states, 10 percent or more cases were children.
Indiana Evans, a 14-year-old from the United Kingdom, is one of the many children dealing with likely COVID-19 symptoms for months.
After Indiana got sick in March, her mother, Jane Evans, told CNN that her daughter was “suffering migraines and seeing flashing lights.”
“Her face all swelled up, her eyes swelled up, she got a rash all over her body,” Evans said. Indiana didn’t get tested for COVID-19 but was diagnosed with “post-viral fatigue post-COVID” and has still been experiencing symptoms.
Thousands of people have joined Facebook support groups, calling themselves “long-haulers” and saying they’ve been battling COVID-19 symptoms for at least a month after getting sick, McClatchy News previously reported.
A woman from southeast England identified only as Birgit told CNN that her 7-year-old son can’t run “without being noticeably out of breath” and is experiencing fatigue four months after getting COVID-19. Birgit, her husband, and her son got infected in March.
Chandra Pasma, her husband, and three kids in Toronto fell sick in mid-March and ever since have been getting different symptoms that would appear and disappear, according to CTVNews.
“That was really difficult to manage,” Pasma said. “It felt like for the longest time, nothing worked.”
Seahawks have their first player on COVID-19 list. Now comes the key: limiting, containing
Updated at 9 a.m.
After a dozen days of perfect testing and seemingly effective safeguarding, the Seahawks have their first COVID-19 case.
Second-year wide receiver John Ursua became Seattle’s first player to go on the NFL’s reserve/COVID-19 list Sunday, the 13th day of training camp.
Players go onto the new COVID-19 list after they test positive for the coronavirus, or after they have been in close contact with someone who has tested positive recently.
Entering the weekend, the Seahawks were among five teams in the 32-team NFL to not have added a player to the COVID-19 list. The others were NFC West rival Arizona, Houston, New England and the Los Angeles Chargers.
Ursua was Seattle’s seventh-round draft choice in 2019 out of Hawaii. His first career catch was at the goal line on fourth down in the final seconds of the 2019 regular-season finale, the Seahawks’ wild, last-play loss to San Francisco in the NFC West title game.
This season Ursua is a candidate for the slot-receiver role inside—at least when top receiver Tyler Lockett isn’t lined up there.
Ursua will be out indefinitely. Per the league’s testing protocol agreed upon with the players’ union last month, he must pass multiple, consecutive COVID-19 tests before he is allowed back in the team facility and to resume participating in training camp.
The Seahawks are scheduled to have their first no-pads practice and team work of camp on Wednesday. Ursua seems unlikely to take part in that. Their first full-pads practice is scheduled to be Aug. 17.
Now comes the key to Seattle’s camp and season.
This is the first time the Seahawks will use the contact-tracing protocols their medical staff and infectious disease control planned have so intricately prepared for this 2020 season like no other. The team must isolate and limit the positive tests immediately, to keep other players fully healthy and on the field.
Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said last week he wanted how his team dealt with and got through the pandemic to be an example for the country. He said though not exactly like the NBA and NHL, whose teams are playing season in “bubble” locations with players and coaches not traveling, the Seahawks are in a “bubble,” mind-set wise.
“In essence—we don’t bubble like the NBA or the NHL did, in the same fashion—but don’t think for a second that we aren’t in a bubble. We are,” Carroll said. “And that bubble is the conscious that we can hold: ‘always protect the team.’”
That is Carroll’s number-one rule. It’s taking on a different meaning right now.
This story was originally published August 10, 2020 at 9:02 AM.
