CORONAVIRUS: Saturday 4/18 roundup

| Coronavirus | West Seattle news

As we start the eighth week since King County’s first COVID-19 case, here’s tonight’s roundup:

2ND DAY WITH ANOTHER LOCAL DEATH: For the first time since zip-code-specific stats became available, we’e had two days in a row with an additional local death. Today, as happened yesterday, another death was reported in 98126. That area is now up to 5 deaths, while 98106 and 98146 have 2 each, 98136 has 1, and 98116 has none.

NEWEST COUNTYWIDE NUMBERS: Also from the Seattle-King County Public Health data dashboard:

*5,063 people have tested positive, 161 more than yesterday

*340 people have died, 9 more than yesterday

One week ago, the numbers were 4,262 and 284.

STATEWIDE NUMBERS: See them here.

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

UNEMPLOYMENT EXPANDS, SITE CRASHES: Earlier today, we published a reminder that self-employed people and independent contractors could apply for unemployment benefits starting tonight. Commenters report the website quickly crashed. Here’s an update/apology via Twitter:

Our system update is complete and eServices is online. However, the site is experiencing an extremely high volume of visitors and pages are loading slowly. Please keep trying or come back and try later. Thank you for your patience. We apologize for the inconvenience.

— Washington State ESD (@ESDwaWorks) April 19, 2020

BUS CUTS BEGIN: If you have to ride Metro, remember that the latest round of service cuts began today.

NO PARK TROUBLE … that we’ve heard of, anyway. We drove through Alki late today and saw several SPD vehicles; earlier in the day, Mounted Patrol officers were spotted.

SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL RESTAURANTS (ETC.): More updates to our list of local restaurants/beverage businesses offering takeout and/or delivery — another reopening today – Cupcake Royale – plus some changes, including a move for the newly opened West Seattle branch of HeartBeet Organic Superfoods Café.

GOT SOMETHING TO REPORT? westseattleblog@gmail.com or 206-293-6302, text/voice – thank you!

J April 19, 2020 (7:44 am)

Since it is radio silence from most care facilities, can we get a king county a 3 year average total deaths and this year total deaths for the first 2 weeks of April? There must be a more objective indicator somewhere. Also, I hope that everyone planning to go back to work at Boeing on Monday is aware of the great risk that they are taking. Guidelines for workplace infection control may help to decrease transmission risk, or they may be completely, and fundamentally inadequate for this airborne virus. We do not know. If you are over 60 or have any medical condition you may want to decline working until it has proven to be somewhat safe. If you Have someone vulnerable at home you may want to consider separate housing while you participate in Boeing’s return to work experiment, as you may become contagious without developing symptoms. You might consider grocery delivery to protect shoppers from pathogens that you may come to carry. I hope Boeing does not spark a second wave of infection, and I hope UW will be there to do random screening studies of workers, and testing for symptomatic workers sent home. I haven’t heard about that part of planning. How is making comercial airplanes essential right now. Air travel has plummeted due to SARS-COV-2. Unused planes are sitting idle all over the world. Any mass transit airplane or bus is a hot spot for transmission because social distancing cannot be maintained, and many are still not masked. One would think that we have plenty of planes to meet demand.

AMD April 19, 2020 (11:28 am)

Hi, J. I’ve seen you post in a lot of these threads and appreciate your concerns regarding the elders in our community. I would encourage you to look back through prior posts on this site, as you will find much of the information you’re looking for. Providence Mt. St. Vincent and Bridge Park both sent notification when infections surfaced in their communities, as well as additional information on how they’re caring for and working to keep safe those who are in their care. The Kenney and other facilities (details escape me) have given a “we’re working to keep people safe and have no cases so far” answer to inquiries periodically, but do not give daily updates saying they’re still okay (nor does it seem reasonable for them to, if we’re being honest). The phrasing you’ve chosen implies an effort to withhold or conceal information, whether you intended so or not, which may be hurtful to the dedicated workers at our local care facilities who are working diligently to keep their patients safe. If you have concerns about the elders in your community, I would encourage you to search the topic here on the blog and read what has already been published, then reach out to the facilities themselves and see what remote options they have to offer your help.