Coronavirus updates: COVID-19 cases beginning plateau; private schools alter plans for fall
This page includes coronavirus developments around Washington state for Saturday, August 15.
The Washington State Department of Health on Friday reported 800 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 19 deaths.
Pierce County reported 96 cases Friday and two new deaths. Pierce County had a total of 132 deaths likely caused by COVID-19 as of Friday, according to the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department.
Statewide totals from the illness caused by the coronavirus are at 66,139 cases and 1,755 deaths, up from 65,339 cases and 1,736 deaths Thursday.
Thirty-five people with confirmed COVID-19 cases were admitted to Washington state hospitals on Aug. 6, the most recent date with complete data. Late March had two days with 88 people admitted, the highest numbers to date during the pandemic.
The total number of tests conducted is temporarily unavailable, according to the DOH. On Aug. 6, 9,391 specimens were collected statewide, with 7.3% testing positive. The average positive test rate for the seven days prior was 7%.
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 17,308 cases and 689 deaths. Yakima County is second, with 10,523 cases and 218 deaths. Pierce is third with cases at 6,038.
All counties in Washington have cases. Garfield and Wahkiakum have case counts of fewer than 10.
On Thursday, Washington had a 867-per-100,000-people case rate. The national rate is 1,595, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Louisiana has the highest rate in the United States at 2,906. Vermont is lowest at 237.
There had been nearly 5.2 million confirmed coronavirus cases and 168,181 deaths from the virus in the United States as of Friday evening, according to Johns Hopkins University. More than 761,000 people have died from the disease worldwide.
Washington Health Department says COVID-19 cases are beginning to plateau
The rise in COVID-19 cases is flattening in most Washington state counties, but we need to stay cautious, the state Department of Health said Friday.
“While this is encouraging news and a sign of our collective efforts, we must not let our guard down,” Secretary of Health John Wiesman said in a press release. “Plateauing is not enough to keep this pandemic under control; we must transition to a state of sustained decline in new cases. It remains critical that we continue to stay home when possible, keep interactions with others brief and wear face coverings.”
The latest weekly report estimated the number of new people each patient will infect — which is called the reproductive number — was 0.79 to 1.15 July 26 in Western Washington. Their best estimate is that it was 0.97.
“The goal is a reproductive number well below one, which would mean the number of people getting COVID-19 is declining,” the DOH press release said.
The reproductive number was estimated between 0.82 and 1.13 July 25 in Eastern Washington. Their best estimate is that it was 0.98.
“We’re starting to see the impacts of people using face coverings across the state,” the release said. “This report suggests that reductions in the reproductive number are attributable to statewide policy changes like the June 23 and July 7 mask mandates and pausing county movement with the Safe Start plan.”
In King and Yakima counties, the counties with the most cases since the outbreak began, cases are plateauing or declining in different age groups, and Pierce County cases might be going down “after alarmingly high growth in June and July,” the release said.
Cases were going down in the 39-and-younger population in Spokane County, but the report said they’re going up after an increase in people 40 and older.
Private schools alter plans as Pierce County health department requires remote learning
Some private Pierce County schools planning to return to school for in-person learning this fall are reversing course after a letter from the health department this week required both public and private schools to return this September with distance learning.
Dr. Anthony Chen, director of health at the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department, clarified recommendations made in July that encouraged remote learning until COVID-19 transmission levels decreased.
“I am not simply recommending but am requiring all schools to begin the school year using distance learning until COVID-19 disease activity in Pierce County decreases to a level safe to re-open schools for in-person learning,” Chen wrote to school leaders on Wednesday.
In an update on Friday, the health department said Chen has the authority to order schools not to open.
“We prefer to advise, but state law grants local health officers the power to ‘control and prevent the spread of any dangerous, contagious or infectious diseases’ and to ‘take such measures as he or she deems necessary in order to promote the public health,’” the letter said.
The health department did not immediately elaborate on what those measures might be in response to a News Tribune inquiry on Friday.
While all Pierce County public schools said in late July they would follow the health department’s recommendations, some private schools still had plans to reopen with some in-person learning, including Annie Wright Schools and Charles Wright Academy.
On Wednesday, Charles Wright Academy Head of School Susan Rice sent a note to families in response to the health department’s requirement.
“This is a disappointment following Governor Inslee’s press conference where he stated that there would not be a state mandate ordering remote instruction, but a recommendation based on the levels of community transmission,” Rice said.
She added that 86 percent of Charles Wright families who took a survey wanted an in-person option.
“Regardless of this news, we have been planning diligently for both a robust remote option and a safe in-person option to offer families this fall in a dual mode,” Rice said. “We knew that in the event of an outbreak or change in the recommendation from health authorities we would also need to be able to pivot to a full remote option for all students.”
Ability to get meals, services to quarantined school kids at risk, WA superintendents say
School district superintendents across Washington are voicing concerns over a state law that might prohibit them from collecting transportation funding to pay for bus drivers to deliver meals and instructional materials to students during the COVID-19 pandemic.
About 40 superintendents from King and Pierce counties representing more than 430,000 students sent a letter to state legislators earlier this month, asking for a change to the transportation funding formula, which provides funding to school districts based on the number of students they transport.
“Without immediate adjustments to rulemaking, and eventually state law, student needs will be unmet and the school transportation system will be dismantled,” the letter stated.
Due to COVID-19, many school districts are planning to return to school remotely this September and won’t be transporting students by bus. But superintendents say the buses and bus drivers still are needed.
This past spring, bus drivers “delivered educational materials, digital devices, hot spots for connectivity, and hundreds of thousands of meals to families facing food insecurity,” according to the letter signed Aug. 7. “We are relying on this strategy to meet student needs this fall, too.”
Superintendents say they have to make the decision before the beginning of the 2020-21 school year on whether they have money to keep their bus drivers employed through the year or if they will have to be furloughed.
“I think families should know that because of the uncertainties of funding at the state level, the services that they have had throughout the spring are at risk of not continuing, and that includes meal delivery and digital connectivity,” said Jessica de Barros, executive director of government and public relations for the Puget Sound Educational Service District.
Craig Sailor, Allison Needles and Alexis Krell contributed to this report.
This story was originally published August 15, 2020 at 9:11 AM.
