Coronavirus updates: State reaches 89,874 cases
Updated at 9:45 a.m.
The Washington State Department of Health on Sunday reported 455 new confirmed cases of COVID-19. The department is no longer reporting deaths on weekends.
Pierce County reported 50 new cases and one new death on Saturday. Pierce County had a total of 177 deaths likely caused by COVID-19 as of Sunday, according to the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department.
Statewide totals from the illness caused by the coronavirus are at 89,874 cases and 2,142 deaths, up from 89,419 cases on Saturday.
King County continues to have the highest numbers in Washington, with 23,022 cases and 767 deaths. Yakima County is second, with 11,494 cases and 262 deaths. Pierce is third with cases at 8,294.
All counties in Washington have cases.
First time this COVID-19 season, Seahawks had fans at a game. What it was like in Miami
Updated at 9:45 a.m.
The message coming through the speakers at the gates of the stadium from Dolphins radio analyst and former Miami wide receiver Jimmy Cefalo was clear.
And ominous.
“COVID-19 is a life-threatening disease.”
That’s what greeted the 12,369 masked, socially distanced fans attending the Seahawks’ win over the Dolphins, 31-23, as they entered Hard Rock Stadium Sunday. Miami is one of 10 NFL teams and city authorities allowing at least some fans to attend games during the coronavirus pandemic, though at limits far below stadium capacity.
It was the first Seahawks game this season with fans in attendance. They weren’t hugely loud. But they were louder than the artificial, piped-in noise of the first three games, two of them in mainly still-locked-down Seattle.
The fans in Miami on Sunday couldn’t just come in when they wanted. The Dolphins assigned time entries for each ticket holder. Fans could enter whenever from 11 a.m. until just past noon for the 1 p.m. kickoff. After 12:10, fans were assigned 10-minute intervals to pass through the gates, to prevent massing.
Once inside, many of them were chanting for...the Seahawks?
And before the game even started.
“Yeah, I did hear them chanting ‘SEA! HAWKS!,’” Seattle wide receiver DK Metcalf said.
Yes, the Seahawks—whose home games are in empty CenturyLink FIeld per Washington state restrictions for the coronavirus—had to go on the NFL’s longest trip there is inside the country, 3,330 miles,, to get two things their unbeaten season had lacked.
Fans. And cheers for them.
“Hey, man, it was lovely,” wide receiver David Moore said after his exquisite touchdown catch gave Seattle a two-score lead in the fourth quarter.
“We always love to hear the 12s, and the fact they were in the stands today, it was just...it felt like normal, a little bit. Just not as loud, but a little bit normal.
“You heard ‘SEA! HAWKS! It’s lovely to always hear that. That is good to hear.”
Did I mention those fans were masked?
This past week the Tennessee Titans suspended in-person activities at their team facility after the NFL said the Titans had 10 players and more team personnel test positive for the COVID-19 virus. On Wednesday, the league postponed the Titans’ game against Pittsburgh that had been scheduled for Sunday.
New England quarterback Cam Newton tested positive for COVID-19, causing the Patriots’ game at the Kansas City Chiefs scheduled for Sunday to be rescheduled—for now—to Monday night.
So the Seahawks traveling to a state where restaurants and bars are permitted to operate at full capacity, where businesses that remain closed in Seattle-Tacoma are very much open, was in the very least remarkable.
