Coronavirus updates: Amazon seeks to hire 33k people; vaccine developers make pledge
Updated at 3:50 p.m.
Pierce County reported 28 new COVID-19 cases Wednesday and no additional deaths.
County totals are now 7,007 cases and 156 deaths since the first case in the coronavirus pandemic was recorded March 6.
The Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department has reported 528 cases in the past 14 days. The 14-day case rate per 100,000 people is 58.5. The goal for counties in Phase 2 is 25 or fewer per 100,000.
The average cases per day over the past 14 days is 37.7.
There are an estimated 1,260 still-active cases in the county, according to the health department.
The 20-39 age group continues to have the highest number of COVID-19 cases at 40.3 percent in the past two weeks, according to data released Wednesday.
The health department has created a dashboard to show how the county is doing in terms of returning students to in-person classes. The dashboard is at TPCHD.org/covidinfoschools.
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 testing sites, go to www.tpchd.org/covidtest.
Wednesday’s geographical case totals are listed below with previous day’s totals in parentheses:
▪ Bonney Lake: 176 (no change)
▪ Central Pierce County: 425 (423)
▪ East Pierce County: 237 (230)
▪ Edgewood/Fife/Milton: 292 (291)
▪ Frederickson: 261 (no change)
▪ Gig Harbor area: 191 (192)
▪ Graham: 236 (235)
▪ JBLM: No longer reported
▪ Key Peninsula: 56 (54)
▪ Lake Tapps/Sumner area: 222 (221)
▪ Lakewood: 650 (647)
▪ Parkland: 380 (377)
▪ Puyallup: 417 (no change)
▪ South Hill: 369 (no change)
▪ South Pierce County: 170 (no change)
▪ Southwest Pierce County: 72 (no change)
▪ Spanaway: 328 (no change)
▪ Tacoma: 2,167 (2,159)
▪ University Place: 281 (279)
▪ Unknown: 77 (82)
Vaccine developers make pledge
Updated at 9:25 a.m.
In a “historic pledge,” nine biopharmaceutical companies vowed to ensure that the coronavirus vaccines they develop are safe and effective before submitting them for approval to federal health officials, according to a joint statement released Tuesday.
The companies’ CEOs said they hope their pledge will “help ensure public confidence” in the future COVID-19 vaccine as the Trump administration continues to push for a Nov. 1 deadline — just two days before Election Day.
“We, the undersigned biopharmaceutical companies, want to make clear our ongoing commitment to developing and testing potential vaccines for COVID-19 in accordance with high ethical standards and sound scientific principles,” the statement said. “We pledge to only submit for approval or emergency use authorization after demonstrating safety and efficacy through a Phase 3 clinical study that is designed and conducted to meet requirements of expert regulatory authorities such as [the U.S. Food and Drug Administration].”
The signatories include Moderna, AstraZeneca, BioNTech, Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Novavax and Sanofi, the first four of which have potential vaccines in late-stage clinical trials.
Together, the nine companies have developed more than 70 vaccines that have “helped eradicate some of the world’s most complex and deadly public health threats,” the statement said.
An infectious diseases and immunization expert at Vanderbilt University in Nashville told USA Today the joint pledge is “unprecedented.”
“I’ve only been doing vaccines for 40 years and I’ve never heard of anything like this before,” Dr. William Schaffner told the outlet. “Having the companies themselves issue this statement I think will offer some reassurance. Not completely, but some reassurance to the medical profession.”
A July Yahoo News/YouGov poll revealed that 42% of Americans said they plan on getting the coronavirus vaccination when it’s available to the public — that’s 13 percentage points lower than a similar survey conducted in mid-May, the Miami Herald reported.
Other surveys and polls have found that much of the doubt stems from the politicization of science that could put the public at risk.
What slowdown? Amazon seeks to hire 33,000 people
Updated at 9:20 a.m.
Amazon is on a hiring spree.
In the latest sign of how it’s prospering while others are faltering during the pandemic, Amazon said Wednesday it is seeking to bring aboard 33,000 people for corporate and tech roles in the next few months.
It’s the largest number of job openings it’s had at one time, and the Seattle-based online behemoth said the hiring is not related to the jobs it typically offers ahead of the busy holiday shopping season.
Amazon can afford to grow its workforce: It is one of the few companies that has thrived during the coronavirus outbreak. People have turned to it to order groceries, supplies and other items online, helping the company bring in record revenue and profits between April and June. That came even though it had to spend $4 billion on cleaning supplies and to pay workers overtime and bonuses.
Demand has been so high, Amazon has struggled to deliver items as fast as it normally does and had to hire 175,000 more people to help pack and ship orders in its warehouses. Walmart and Target have also seen sales soar during the pandemic.
But other retailers have had a rougher time. J.C. Penney, J.Crew and Brooks Brothers have all gone bankrupt. And Lord & Taylor, which has been in business for nearly 200 years, recently said it will be closing its stores for good. Companies across other industries have announced buyouts or layoffs, including Coca-Cola and American Airlines.
Amazon said the jobs will be centered around Amazon’s offices across the country, including Denver, New York, Phoenix and its hometown of Seattle. The new hires will work from home at first, but the company said it does want employees to return to the office eventually.
Ardine Williams, Amazon’s vice president of workforce development, said plans to build a second headquarters near Washington, D.C., are going as planned, despite the pandemic, with 1,000 workers already hired.
Should an employer require employees to be tested?
Updated at 9:20 a.m.
The Department of Health only recommends routine screening of asymptomatic employees in certain high risk situations (e.g., healthcare workers in skilled nursing facilities).
Screening asymptomatic workers for COVID-19 only assesses the worker at that point in time and tests do not always detect people who are infected.
The Department of Health strongly discourages employers from requiring their employees to test negative before returning to work after a confirmed COVID-19 infection. People with confirmed COVID-19 infection who are not hospitalized can return to work after:
▪ At least 10 days since symptoms first appeared and
▪ At least 24 hours with no fever without fever-reducing medication and
▪ Other symptoms of COVID-19 are improving
People with confirmed COVID-19 infection who were admitted to a hospital may need to stay in isolation up to 20 days since their symptoms first appeared.
Repeat testing after COVID-19 is not generally recommended because recovered persons can shed pieces of the SARS-CoV-2 virus at very low levels in their nose and test positive for up to three months after illness onset. However, these individuals are not likely infectious to others.
Washington state schools provide devices for remote learning
Updated at 9:20 a.m.
School districts in Washington state have distributed thousands of computers and other devices to students to assist them with remote learning during the pandemic, but many families are still facing connectivity issues in rural parts of the state.
Families in Kitsap County raised concerns about digital access as schools reopened online for the year to limit the spread of COVID-19 and minimize the risk of in-person schooling, the Kitsap Sun reported.
“Supply disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic have significantly delayed a shipment we placed last spring,” the Central Kitsap School District said on its website Aug. 28 regarding delays in delivered devices. “Until we receive that shipment, we ask families who already have devices in their homes to wait before requesting a district Chromebook.”
IT Director Deborah Bryan said it is affecting the supply across the entire United States, adding that shipments would be delayed until at least the beginning of October.
District spokesman David Beil said the order for 5,900 devices is part of the district’s routine replacement cycle, and the shipment delay has not affected its ability to provide devices to those who need them.
The IT department distributed 1,000 Chromebooks for students to take home last spring, and another 2,500 leading up to the start of school year Sept. 2.
The district has had a one-to-one device initiative for the past five years, with students in K-5 using devices in schools and those in 6-12 bringing them home.
“We initially began working with a list of 1,600 families that may not have internet access. From that list we were able to identify approximately 100 families that did need internet access,” Beil said. “We are working with these families to connect them with an internet provider.”
Most local districts reported they were working to support the initial demand for devices during the pandemic and have already started working toward assigning devices to students, including in the South Kitsap School District and North Kitsap School District.
This story was originally published September 9, 2020 at 9:33 AM.
