Coronavirus updates: State reaches 151,019 cases
Updated at 9:30 a.m.
The Washington state Department of Health reported a record high 3,482 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 35 deaths Tuesday.
Pierce County reported 343 cases Tuesday and one new death. Pierce County has a total of 225 deaths likely caused by COVID-19 as of Tuesday, according to the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department.
Statewide totals from the illness caused by the coronavirus are at 151,019 cases and 2,690 deaths, up from 147,537 cases and 2,655 deaths Monday. Washington’s population is estimated at about 7.6 million, according to U.S. Census figures from July 2019.
Forty-three people were admitted to Washington state hospitals on Nov. 5, the most recent date with complete data. Average daily hospitalizations peaked in early April at 78. Preliminary data shows hospitalizations have been increasing in November.
On Nov. 13, the most recent date with complete testing data, 26,311 specimens were collected statewide, with 9% testing positive. The average positive test rate for the seven days prior was 8.8%. More than 2.9 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 40,522 cases and 864 deaths. Pierce County is second, with 15,370 cases, according to the state’s tally. That number differs from the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department’s tally due to lags in reporting data. Yakima County has the second highest number of deaths at 295.
All counties in Washington have cases. Only five counties have case counts of fewer than 100.
For the past seven days, Washington had a case rate of 30.3 per 100,000 people. The national rate for the same period is 52.3 per 100,000, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. North Dakota has the highest rate in the United States, at 158.5. Hawaii is the lowest, at 6.8.
There have been more than 12.5 million confirmed coronavirus cases and 259,477 deaths from the virus in the United States as of Tuesday afternoon, according to Johns Hopkins University. The United States has the highest number of reported cases and deaths of any nation.
More than 1.4 million people have died from the disease worldwide. Global cases exceed 59 million.
Health workers join Gov. Inslee to warn that hospitals are approaching capacity
Updated at 9:30 a.m.
With cases of COVID-19 skyrocketing and hospitalizations nearing an “all-time high,” Washington Gov. Jay Inslee and health care workers on Tuesday gave a look inside increasingly busy hospitals and implored residents again to take precautions and stay home this Thanksgiving.
Inslee and health officials have repeatedly warned that hospitals are nearing capacity as case rates rise statewide. While he’s hopeful targeted restrictions introduced last week will bend the current curve, he said if it doesn’t bend there will be “no other option” but to extend the restrictions to other parts of the economy.
The latest data on the state’s risk-assessment dashboard shows the rate of new cases per 100,000 residents has risen to nearly 300 cases over the two-week period Oct. 30-Nov. 12. The target rate is fewer than 25.
On Monday, the state Department of Health issued a press release warning that COVID-19 transmission is “exceedingly high” in Washington on the heels of a roughly three-day total of 6,277 new cases. Tuesday, the state reported a record high of 3,482 new confirmed cases along with 35 deaths.
“We have almost a vertical curve on how fast this pandemic is moving upwards,” Inslee said Tuesday. “It is really quite stunning, and certainly alarming to all of us who understand what the future could hold if we do not act aggressively against this pandemic.”
Several hospitals have started to plan to curtail elective surgeries and “other, less emergent” problems due to crowding, Inslee said. If this trajectory holds steady, State Health Officer Kathy Lofy expressed concern for what could come next.
Hospitals will probably start to delay all but the most critical surgeries over the next couple weeks if the trend continues, she said. After that, surge plans would kick in to allow hospitals to expand capacity.
While answering a reporter’s question, Inslee said that unless something changes, the state will reach a point where hospitals will have to move into a “critical care situation” and move “to some degree into a triage situation” to determine who can get care.
Threshold for reopening WA schools could be lowered significantly, draft plan shows
Updated at 9:30 a.m.
Washington officials are considering updates to the state’s plan for reopening schools amid COVID-19 that would loosen regulations, according to a Department of Health presentation first reported by The Seattle Times on Tuesday.
The presentation, dated Nov. 6 as a briefing for Gov. Jay Inslee, shows a draft update to the state’s Decision Tree, which acts as a guide for local health jurisdictions and schools districts in determining whether to return to school face-to-face or remain in remote learning.
The guidelines, while not legally binding, currently recommend schools within counties that have 75 or more COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people over a 14-day period stay in remote learning. The draft update in the Nov. 6 presentation changes that to 200 cases per 100,000 people.
Below 200 cases per 100,000 people, counties could begin phasing into in-person learning starting with elementary-aged students, then middle and high school, according to the draft updates.
According to the Seattle Times’ Dahlia Bazzaz and Hannah Furfaro, the changes would allow the number of school districts that could return
A spokesperson for the state Department of Health told The Seattle Times that the proposed updates are still under review and “there is no timeline for releasing any updates to the school decision tree.”
The Department of Health presentation states that “emerging evidence suggests that with reasonable precautions, schools are not significant drivers of transmission,” citing studies from the Institute for Disease Modeling.
The presentation also outlines school-based testing pilots at schools across the state. Peninsula School District in Pierce County is one of them, with the district already opening schools for in-person learning for younger grades.for in-person learning to jump from 32 to 150, out of about 300 school districts statewide.
