Gov. Inslee: Washington state passes 2,000 COVID-19 deaths, 80,000 cases
Gov. Jay Inslee said Washington has passed 2,000 COVID-19 deaths, 80,000 cases and that the state might be seeing an increase in disease activity.
“We know just how hard these times are for everyone, even if you haven’t had COVID,” Inslee said at a virtual press conference Tuesday, where he talked about the state’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, wildfires and poor air quality.
He presented a graph that shows how many others a person with COVID-19 would infect.
The state Department of Health released a report Friday that said as of Aug. 28 the best estimate for that figure, known as the reproductive number, was 0.86 in Western Washington and 1.22 in Eastern Washington. A number below one suggests COVID-19 transmission is declining.
Inslee said he met with the Washington State University and Pullman communities last week to talk about a spike in cases there and how to prevent that elsewhere.
“That socialization that takes place in apartments and dorms is killing us,” he said.
The governor also said that soon the state expects to announce that people will be able to use apps to get notified when they’ve been close to someone who has tested positive.
“This is work we’re doing with our partners in the Western States Pact, which will use technology to get secure and timely information to people so that they can look after their own health,” he said.
Wildfires update
Talking about the wildfires that have burned more than 620,000 acres of Washington in recent days, Inslee suggested that people check the status of roads to minimize travel where emergency workers are responding.
As for smoke in the region, he said, the air is “at historically polluted levels” and that “virtually across the state we have concerns.”
The state is seeing the effects of climate change, he said.
“Our fire seasons are becoming more intense,” Inslee said. “This is clear. It was disappointing because the president had a chance to learn about that yesterday in California, but instead he just gave deception and smirked in the face of those who have had terrible losses.”
Inslee mentioned an open letter he sent to the president Monday about the role of climate change in the fires.
“You have worked to distract from our country’s most critical driver of long-term risk in favor of a more politically convenient target — state forest management,” the letter said in part. “This shows an utter lack of understanding about the robust forest management plans our states already have in place, as well as the need for our federal partners to work more collaboratively with us on forest health issues.”
Inslee said Tuesday the president’s budget proposal for 2020 would have cut $950 million from the U.S. Forest Service. Most forest land in the west is federal forest land, the governor said.
“I’ve seen too much suffering to think that we should ignore this clear and present danger,” Inslee said.
Crystal Raymond, a climate adaptation specialist and forest ecologist with the University of Washington Climate Impacts Group, joined Inslee on the call.
She said longer fire seasons, larger wildfires and poor air-quality events are what Washingtonians can expect.
“As bad as it is now, as high as the risks are now, they will continue to worsen as long as climate change continues to worsen,” she said.
Raymond went on to say: “Truly addressing the problem requires us to look at vegetation management, to look at how we develop in the urban interface, and to look at how we’re addressing the long-term problem of climate change.”
This story was originally published September 15, 2020 at 5:27 PM.
