Coronavirus updates: State reaches 83,702 cases, 2,081 deaths
Updated at 9:20 a.m.
The Washington state Department of Health on Wednesday reported 509 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 11 deaths.
Pierce County reported 43 cases Wednesday and three new deaths. Pierce County has a total of 169 deaths likely caused by COVID-19 as of Wednesday, according to the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department.
Statewide totals from the illness caused by the coronavirus are at 83,702 cases and 2,081 deaths, up from 83,193 cases Tuesday and 2,070 deaths Tuesday. Washington’s population is estimated at about 7.6 million, according to U.S. Census figures from July 2019.
Sixteen people with confirmed COVID-19 cases were admitted to Washington state hospitals on Sep. 4, the most recent date with complete data. Late March had two days with 88 people admitted, the highest numbers to date during the pandemic.
On Sept. 11, the most recent date with complete data, 7,582 specimens were collected statewide, with 3% testing positive. The average positive test rate for the seven days prior was 3.1%. More than 1.74 million tests have been conducted in Washington.
The test numbers reflect only polymerase chain reaction tests, which are administered while the virus is presumably still active in the body.
King County continues to have the highest numbers in Washington, with 21,650 cases and 759 deaths. Yakima County is second, with 11,316 cases and 257 deaths. Pierce is third with cases at 7,697.
All counties in Washington have cases. Eleven counties have case counts of fewer than 100.
On Wednesday, Washington had a 1,104-per-100,000-people case rate. The national rate is 2,078, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Louisiana has the highest rate in the United States at 3,503. Vermont is lowest at 275.
There had been more than 6.9 million confirmed coronavirus cases and 201,882 deaths from the virus in the United States as of Wednesday afternoon, according to Johns Hopkins University.
The United States has the highest number of reported cases and deaths of any nation. More than 973,000 people have died from the disease worldwide. Global cases exceed 31 million.
Tacoma Schools alters plans for which grades will return
Updated at 9:20 a.m.
The Tacoma Public Schools has changed its plans for who will return to in-person instruction next week.
Preschool, kindergarten and special education students will return to class, but first- and second-graders will not attend school in person on Sept. 28 as previously planned.
Shannon Ergun, President of the Tacoma Education Association, said the union pushed back on including those grades because it was too much too soon.
“Adding first and second grade, that’s far too many kids to start with,” she said.
The 30,000-student district estimates that more than 1,600 Kindergarten students will return on Sept. 28.
It’s unclear when first and second grade will return, but it must be at least three weeks after Sept. 28.
The union also asked for more personal protective equipment for staff, plastic dividers and disinfectants before agreeing to return to the classroom.
Ergun worries that teachers will struggle because of the number of young students and new restrictions.
“For five-year-olds and their first experiences of schooling, it has to go through processes and procedures and talk about how we behave at school,” she said.
“When we add the social distancing, and the masks and all the safety protocols and handwashing, asking one adult to supervise that many five-year-olds in an uncomfortable and new environment without the parents just seems like a problem.”
US experts vow ‘no cutting corners’ as vaccine tests expand
Updated at 9:20 a.m.
A huge international study of a COVID-19 vaccine that aims to work with just one dose is getting underway as top U.S. health officials sought Wednesday to assure a skeptical Congress and public that they can trust any shots the government ultimately approves.
Hopes are high that answers about at least one of several candidates being tested in the U.S. could come by year’s end, maybe sooner.
“We feel cautiously optimistic that we will be able to have a safe and effective vaccine, although there is never a guarantee of that,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, infectious disease chief at the National Institutes of Health, told a Senate committee.
President Donald Trump is pushing for a faster timeline, which many experts say is risky and may not allow for adequate testing. On Wednesday he tweeted a link to news about the new Johnson & Johnson vaccine study and said the Food and Drug Administration “must move quickly!”
“President Trump is still trying to sabotage the work of our scientists and public health experts for his own political ends,” Sen. Patty Murray, a Democrat from Washington state, said before ticking off examples of pressure on the FDA.
FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn pledged that career scientists, not politicians, will decide whether any coronavirus vaccine meets clearly stated standards that it works and is safe. Vaccine development usually takes years but scientists have been racing to shorten that time, in part by manufacturing doses that will have to be thrown away if studies find they don’t work.
“Science will guide our decisions. FDA will not permit any pressure from anyone to change that,” Hahn said. “I will put the interest of the American people above anything else.”
Projected state revenues improve in Washington state
Updated at 9:20 a.m.
Lawmakers in Washington state received some good financial news Wednesday, with updated numbers showing an increase in state revenues over the past few months, cutting an earlier projection of revenues losses by more than half.
But officials warned there’s still a good deal of economic uncertainty due to the coronavirus pandemic.
In June, the Economic and Revenue Forecast Council showed that state revenues through mid-2023 were projected to be nearly $9 billion lower than previous projections had shown. On Wednesday, updated numbers increased revenues by $4.6 billion for that timeframe.
Improved revenues over the past three months came in part from increased consumer spending in areas like retail and food services as restrictions on businesses began to lift.
“Some of that big increase that we saw was as the economy was reopening, sort of pent-up demand,” said Steve Lerch, the chief economist and executive director of the council, though he noted that some of that activity has started to level out a bit.
Since June, the state saw collections of nearly $963 million higher than had been forecasted, with much of the taxable activity seen in July, which Lerch noted was the last month that the unemployed received a supplemental $600 per week from the federal government. Starting this week, those filing unemployment claims due to the coronavirus pandemic will receive an additional $300 weekly boost for a limited period of time.
The current projected ending balance for the state’s approximately $53 billion two-year budget that ends mid-2021 is now projected to be minus $1.2 billion, but if lawmakers tap the entirety of the state’s so-called “rainy day” fund, the state will have an ending balance of $759 million in reserves.
This story was originally published September 24, 2020 at 9:23 AM.
