CORONAVIRUS: Saturday 3/7 toplines – newest numbers; college changes; more…

| Coronavirus | Health | West Seattle news

Here’s our nightly roundup of local info:

NEWEST KING COUNTY NUMBERS: From today’s official Seattle-King County Public Health announcement:

13 new cases of COVID-19 have been reported to Public Health – Seattle & King County through 11:59 p.m. on 3/6/20, bringing the total number of reported King County cases to 71.

Of the 13 new cases reported today, two are deaths. In addition, two cases previously reported last week are people who have now died. The total number of deaths reported to Public Health is now 15. The four deaths being reported today include:

A man in his 70s, a Life Care Center resident, was hospitalized at EvergreenHealth, and who died on 3/2/20. This case is included in the 13 new cases being reported today.

A woman in her 80s, a Life Care Center resident, was hospitalized at Harborview Medical Center, and who died 3/5/20. This case is included in the 13 new cases being reported today.

A woman in her 70s, a Life Care Center resident, was hospitalized at EvergreenHealth, and who died on 3/6/20. This case was previously reported on 3/5/20.

A woman in her 80s, a Life Care Center resident, was hospitalized at EvergreenHealth, and who died on 3/6/20. This case was previously reported on 3/2/20.
Of the 15 deaths reported, 14 are associated with Life Care Center.

If you are interested in statewide numbers/info, see the Washington Department of Health COVID-19 page. (Added: The DOH announced tonight that the time and format of its daily statewide reports will change starting tomorrow.)

‘ALTERNATIVE MODES OF INSTRUCTION’ AT SOUTH SEATTLE COLLEGE: The Seattle Colleges, including South Seattle College (WSB sponsor), whose main campus is on Puget Ridge, announced this morning that they are moving to “alternative modes of instruuction” for the rest of the winter quarter. “Classroom and instructional staff will make local decisions about which modes to employ for each particular course,” says the announcment, so wait to hear from faculty.

CHANGES FOR CHURCHES: Some are canceling services. Some are going online. Some are already there. Here’s our roundup.

FARMERS’ MARKET IS ON TOMORROW: Here’s the story we published Friday with market managers explaining why they ARE going ahead with West Seattle and other markets.

REVIEW THE RECOMMENDATIONS: SKCPH’s guidance on how to protect yourself and others is here.

WHAT’S BEING CANCELED, POSTPONED, CHANGED: Our West Seattle list continues growing – see it here. If your organization, business, church, school, group, etc. has cancellations, postponements, changes, please let us know – westseattleblog@gmail.com or text/voice 206-293-6302.

WSB CONTINUING COVERAGE: Everything we publish related to all this is categorized so that you can find it anytime at westseattleblog.com/category/coronavirus. We’re also using Twitter (@westseattleblog) for instant bursts.

Greg March 8, 2020 (1:47 am)

Today I pray for my neighbors, and family, that make difficult choices. I pray for the families of those that are passing and for the families of those that have passed. Today, I pray for those that, in the name of public service, spend their nights sleepless. I also pray for those too tired to stay awake.Today I pray for unity and solidarity and wonder how long it’s been. I pray for wisdom and compassion and humanity. Be well.

anonyme March 8, 2020 (9:01 am)

I’d like to see a graph of how this thing is growing. Any estimate of when it might peak, or is it all unknown at this point?

Lisa March 8, 2020 (12:43 pm)

Anonyme – here’s a great resource that’s updated frequently:https://blog.datawrapper.de/coronaviruscharts/
Anon March 8, 2020 (1:19 pm)

Here is another one: https://youtu.be/qgylp3Td1Bw
Anon March 8, 2020 (2:21 pm)

I’ve heard that when about 50% of the population has had it and gained natural immunity, or are immunized by vaccine, then spread should slow down, because it will be harder for new waves to find places to spread… That is if we don’t stop it with behavioral measures. But allowing it to get to 50% of the population, would mean a lot of deaths. Americans are pretty old and unhealthy, and we have pretty poor healthcare. So, yes, please isolate your family if anyone shows any signs of viral illness, at least until they test negative. Call or email you doctor rather than go in for medical advise. Save ERs for emergencies.
Anon March 8, 2020 (7:50 pm)

Here’s a math explanation: https://youtu.be/Kas0tIxDvrg

Anon March 8, 2020 (9:30 am)

Seattle was supposed to be a disease surveillance city. That never happened. I wonder when we will start testing all residents and staff of all care facilities and all medical staff and all first responders. It seems like that would be the minimum we could do to protect our vulnerable populations. It would be nice to see mass drive through testing readily available for a wider screening and for those who become symptomatic. Why hasn’t the CDC set this up yet? We clearly have a local outbreak of a highly transmissible, and deadly disease? We are supposed to be a surveillance city for the nation, and testing has not yet been available even for the staff and visitors at Life Care. All of our isolation procedures are based on the assumption of widely available testing. Yes, we all need to pray for the health and faith of our community and our nation. Obviously, God is the one in charge of our lives and our deaths here in Seattle.

Tsurly March 8, 2020 (12:50 pm)

Q:“Why hasn’t the CDC set this up yet? We clearly have a local outbreak of a highly transmissible, and deadly disease?”A: because of the gross mismanagement by the Trump Administration.Obviously God is NOT the one in charge of our lives and deaths here in Seattle. You pray all you want and see where that gets you; I will exercise my free will and continue to employee my existing good hygiene habits.

Jethro Marx March 8, 2020 (5:00 pm)

Sorry, Tsurly- God never promised to try to keep us alive. As Mr. Morrison said, no one here gets out alive. The latest viral threat has not changed the overall death rate, which is 100%. Now, as to whether He cares about us, that’s different, and we may debate it endlessly and occasionally fruitfully. But dissing on others who offer heartfelt prayers without demanding that you concur is classless, even in a purely terrestrial sense.
- Tsurly March 8, 2020 (7:25 pm)
  
  These days, heartfelt prayers are nothing more than empty platitude; a vehicle to punt personal responsibility/accountability up to the sky when it comes to dealing with tangible, real world problems. I don’t think I need to point out all the examples of this being done every time there is a natural disaster, mass shootings, etc.If pointing out yet another example of masking indifference as empathy and/or failing to deal with real problems with real solutions makes me classless, well I’m classless with a capital C.
  - Jethro Marx March 8, 2020 (8:01 pm)
    
    We’re not likely to agree on the type of vehicle prayers are (I’m in the “reversed thunder” camp, if that helps,) but I do understand what you mean. I guess it’s kind of like little kid art- sometimes it sucks and sometimes it’s half-hearted but it still means something to the recipient and the important thing is to keep trying.

Mark Schletty March 8, 2020 (2:46 pm)

Trump is clearly mismanaging, and with his crony in charge of the CDC it is even hard to believe them. But we have really dropped the ball locally too. In many ways, but the stupidest of all was letting the Sounders play in front of an audience last night. 30,000 fans jammed together and screaming (spitting) all over each other when we have no idea how many of them have been exposed and are carrying the virus. Idiocy! Even soccer crazed cities in Europe have stopped allowing fans in many of the stadiums. It appears that making money is more important than protecting people here.

WSB March 8, 2020 (3:06 pm)

~~For the record, the game turnout was 15,000.~~
- Stacy March 8, 2020 (3:33 pm)
  
  Sounders turnout was 33,080 as announced at the match.
  - WSB March 8, 2020 (5:09 pm)
    
    Odd. Last night the police working the game announced on their side channel (which our scanner gets) that 15,000 people were in the stadium and we also heard that in a broadcast report this morning, but I see the official box score tally is 33K, down from the previous week’s 40K. So I’ll strikethrough my previous comment. – TR

HS March 8, 2020 (4:13 pm)

I noticed that WA DOH has adjusted available information on their site – age ranges of positive tests, gender breakdown and number of tests processed.https://www.doh.wa.gov/Emergencies/Coronavirus

WSB March 8, 2020 (4:52 pm)

We featured that briefly in this roundup – see link to DOH site – that the state’s time and format for daily report would change starting today.
- HS March 8, 2020 (7:54 pm)
  
  Thank you. I missed that.

zephyr March 8, 2020 (5:56 pm)

WSB, could you please post that announcement from the West Seattle YMCA about their policies during this current situation again? I checked their website and didn’t see it. Also scrolled through several days of your postings. It’s here somewhere. Thanks.

WSB March 8, 2020 (7:40 pm)

No, we actually have not had an announcement from them. I have asked them to please provide us with info such as the apparently last-minute decision to close the Fauntleroy Y today. If and when we get a general changes/policies statement/link, we’ll include it in the cancellations/postponements/changes list as we have with Seattle Parks, Public Library, etc. – TR

Captain trips March 8, 2020 (8:42 pm)

Trump bungled this? I agree, now tell us how you stop a pandemic, because every government from authoritarian to libertarian to progressive has failed to halt the spread. You could absolutely shutdown the borders, arrest the tested /suspected and involuntarily quarantine people based on race, geographic proximity or risk factors but that would be totally unacceptable to Americans ( right, left or center) and that would ultimately be ineffective. If your answer is “wash your hands” then you are admitting that this disease is between you, your immune system and Mother Nature. No politician can save you even if Obama himself brought you chicken soup… I mean unless it was really really good chicken soup.

Sorry, comment time is over.