CORONAVIRUS: Tuesday 3/24 roundup

Here are the toplines from today, 25 days after the first King County case of COVID-19 was announced:

NEWEST KING COUNTY NUMBERS: From today’s Seattle-King County Public Health news release:

Cases reported today are an approximation. Case numbers draw from a Washington State Department of Health database that is in the process of being updated. We expect to have an official count tomorrow. Public Health—Seattle & King County is reporting the following estimated positive cases and deaths due to COVID-19 through 11:59 p.m. on 3/23/20.

1277 estimated positive cases (up 107 from yesterday)
94 estimated deaths (up 7 from yesterday)

No other details. To compare – one week ago, 518 cases and 46 deaths were reported.

STATEWIDE NUMBERS: 2,469 cases, 123 deaths; 31,712 tested, 7 percent of them positive; other state stats here.

WORLDWIDE NUMBERS: Find them – nation by nation – here.

STAY-HOME ORDER TAKES EFFECT TOMORROW: What’s allowed? What’s not? Read the proclamation in its entirety here.

IF YOUR BUSINESS HAS TO CLOSEhere’s police advice.

IF YOUR BUSINESS DOES NOT NEED TO CLOSE … you do NOT need a letter proving you’re allowed to be out of your home. Some employers are apparently giving them to employees, but we confirmed with state officials that there is no such requirement. (Even the governor’s proclamation says there isn’t.)

NO PARKING AT CERTAIN PARKS: Though the parks themselves are NOT off-limits, the city has closed off “destination” parks’ parking lots including Lincoln Park.

WSB readers spotted at least one lot closed that wasn’t mentioned – Don Armeni Boat Ramp.

NEED HELP, OR WANT TO HELP? Some of your West Seattle neighbors have a new website to facilitate connections.

HELPING: And so many have helped already. One local doctor shared his gratitude.

SOLO SINGALONG: Seniors at The Kenney in West Seattle took to their balconies to sing.

GOT INFO? westseattleblog@gmail.com or text/voice 206-293-6302 – thank you!

22 Replies to "CORONAVIRUS: Tuesday 3/24 roundup"

  • LG March 24, 2020 (9:39 pm)

    WSB – thank you for keeping is up to date. There is so much going on right now and I really appreciate what you are doing. 

  • Ajwren March 24, 2020 (9:52 pm)

    Thanks, WSB, for publishing a consistent and concise daily wrap up. 

  • wseakell March 24, 2020 (10:31 pm)

    This is wishful thinking (someone please just say, “yeah, you’re totally right! ;) but those numbers of new infections and deaths seem to not be going up as quickly, correct? How soon will we be able to tell if our self quarantining is working? 

    • J March 25, 2020 (2:17 am)

      I wouldn’t pay too much attention to the number, because testing is still so limited. Perhaps the percent positives would be a better indicator… or deaths. Deaths are more known and tracked than positives, but on about a 2-3 week delay from infection. Yeah, those numbers from king county have looked more linear that exponential to me also. I’m hoping that is a good sign.

      • AMD March 25, 2020 (7:38 am)

        Washington is processing about 3000 tests a day.  As of yesterday we had a higher per capita rate of testing than even New York.  New York will likely overtake us there soon-ish but Washington did so many tests so quickly once the first cases were identified, we were way ahead of the rest of the country in number of tests done when they were just getting started.  About 7% of tests are positive.  

    • Eric March 25, 2020 (6:45 am)

      I think you are correct. I heard Dow Constantine on the radio yesterday saying that the number of Washington cases is actually below the number projected we would be at. Perhaps we’re doing a decent job. 

  • Sam-c March 25, 2020 (6:56 am)

    I thought i had heard, “expect numbers to double every six days.” Heard that very early on.  The King county numbers seem to follow that projection, so doesn’t seem that great.

  • J March 25, 2020 (7:27 am)

    I’m also concerned about false negatives. Remember the reports about the cruise ship patients being released after negative testing only to later test positive? Back then multiple swabs were taken together. Now just one swab is taken from a patient to conserve. Why were multiple tests taken with multiple swans early on? Was it because there was a decent false negative rate from any one sample? If we are getting false negatives then it’s good we are on lockdown for a while. I also hope our coroner is testing anybody dying of any disease at this point, as it seems to be so fatal for those with comorbidities.

  • Mike March 25, 2020 (7:50 am)

    We’ll likely need to wait another two weeks to see where numbers are at to determine the impact of current ordnance. Lack of testing has also skewed those numbers a bit. One could hope we’re lowering the curve a bit and hopefully doctors/nurses won’t be as overwhelmed here as they are in parts of the EU. :(

  • Kalo March 25, 2020 (7:59 am)

    The parking lot at Seacrest has a “closed”  sign up. However, the sign states you can park there as long as you practice social distancing. 

    • CAM March 25, 2020 (9:17 am)

      It says you can use the “park” not that you can “park” your car there. 

  • 22blades March 25, 2020 (8:57 am)

    With so much info on what to avoid, what we’re doing wrong, here’s an encouraging & interesting site that might show how we’re getting it right. https://www.unacast.com/It is a Social Distancing Scorecard based on cellphone data that can break it down to county resolution. We got a B. We can work on getting an A.The original article is courtesy of the Washington Post:https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/03/24/social-distancing-maps-cellphone-location/

  • DLC March 25, 2020 (11:03 am)

    Something is missing on the virus containment. Seems, for a determined period of time that we need to stop non Washingtonians from entering Washington or Idaho, Oregon, all states, by air, land and water, unless they are put into isolation for 15 days, otherwise how can states stop re-introducing the virus? Be just like Hong Kong is now.

  • zephyr March 25, 2020 (11:10 am)

    Hey, WSB.  When I went to that Volunteer site–West Seattle Recovers, I started tabbing through the links there.  I clicked on one at the bottom that said “Blog”.  *****************************************************This is the message page that showed up:Warning: Potential Security Risk AheadFirefox detected an issue and did not continue to blog.recovers.org. The website is either misconfigured or your computer clock is set to the wrong time.It’s likely the website’s certificate is expired, which prevents Firefox from connecting securely. If you visit this site, attackers could try to steal information like your passwords, emails, or credit card details.What can you do about it?Your computer clock is set to 3/25/2020. Make sure your computer is set to the correct date, time, and time zone in your system settings, and then refresh blog.recovers.org.If your clock is already set to the right time, the website is likely misconfigured, and there is nothing you can do to resolve the issue. You can notify the website’s administrator about the problem.****************************************************Does anyone else get this message?  Thanks. 

    • WSB March 25, 2020 (11:19 am)

      No idea what that is about. We have absolutely no involvement with this aside to say we can certainly vouch for the organizers’ authenticity, and I talked to Phil by phone for a while to learn about what they were doing, before he sent the official announcement. Perhaps you can send him a screengrab and he can look into it. – TR

  • zephyr March 25, 2020 (12:07 pm)

    Thanks for getting back. 

  • A. D. March 25, 2020 (2:48 pm)

    Greetings from outside but nearby. DLC raises an interesting question about control & containment. We’re all stuck on this I-5 corridor, connected like pearls on a necklace…only these white pearls are now turning black like death traps. Here in Oregon, we have a governor more concerned with closing barbershops and tanning parlors than dispatching the ODOT resources to prioritize and limit traffic flowing through the state. With the drop in spread just north of Lane County, these straight and flat stretches would have been a good control point. Instead, we seem to get nothing but Idocracy from above…did they just go stupid overnight! Stay home orders do little if you keep vectoring a disease over your roads. Non-essential air traffic should have immdiately stopped and fuel supplies guarded in case emergency evacuations and supply flights were needed. Did it happen? As soon as you go to the internet, almost all information is controlled by these same government wonder kids or the for-profit business establishment and no one can ask these questions openly…it took several pages into a search to get to here. Something seem wrong with the path we’ve been forced into?

    • WSB March 25, 2020 (2:47 pm)

      Don’t know what you searched for. If you searched for West Seattle news, we’re top of the list. As for evacuating – to where? Whole world’s caught up in this currently.

  • Orwell March 25, 2020 (2:53 pm)

    WSB, a slight math clarification:  The state chart “Number of Individuals Tested” is confusing in that you need to add up both the positive results and the negative results to get Total Number tested and for the % reported be correct.  Thus as of 3/24 a total number of 34, 181 people had confirmed tests, 31,712 Negative and 2,469 positive known cases statewide.Thus using math re confirmed facts: Percentage of all tested who die is 0.0035 or only 0.3% Of course as more are tested the chance of dying will go lower if the week long math facts stay at 93% test negative and 7% positive.  If a person tests positive overall there is a 4% chance of death, but as the chart reflects 82% of those who die are over 60.  Perhaps facts and math will reveal soon that it is safe to let those under 60 without dangerous preconditions to be free to restart our economy.  I’ll check but I think there is a greater than 0.3% chance of death when driving a car 15 miles. 

    • WSB March 25, 2020 (3:12 pm)

      I have not done ANY math myself. It’s firsthand quoting from the state website, so if there’s a math problem, it’s theirs. Meantime, looks lke they are still having some data trouble:
      https://www.doh.wa.gov/Emergencies/Coronavirus

      • Orwell March 25, 2020 (3:32 pm)

        WSBYou report above
        STATEWIDE NUMBERS 2,469 cases, 123 deaths; 31,712 tested, 7 percent of them positive;

        The 31,712 tested is the positive test results only. 
        Also 2,469 tested positive.
        Thus total tested is 34,181.
        The State report should reflect total of both. 

        Not a big deal in the scheme today, but as more are tested the true total vs. # deaths will help decide actual risk if shut down necessary.  Hopefully our WS business will be able to confidently open as soon as numbers prove the miniscule risk.  My hope this trend keeps om revealing the low risk. 

  • Orwell March 25, 2020 (3:08 pm)

    There is a 1 in 102 chance of dying in an automobile crash 0.009 or .9%.

    So far math shows a 0.0035 or .3% chance of dying from COVID-19.
    123 out of 34,181 WA state

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