CORONAVIRUS: Thursday 4/2 roundup

| Coronavirus | West Seattle news

We’re on orders to “Stay Home, Stay Healthy” for another month, and that’s just one of the headlines in our nightly roundup:

MAY THE 4TH BE WITH … YOUR HEALTH: Gov. Inslee‘s early-evening media briefing led off with his announcement that the “Stay Home, Stay Healthy” order – originally expiring April 6th – will go until May 4th. (Many “Star Wars” references followed.) The governor continued his wartime analogies, meantime, but also congratulated everyone for doing their part. Our coverage includes video of his announcement and the Q&A that followed.

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

2,656 confirmed positive cases (up 175 from yesterday)

175 confirmed deaths (up 11 from yesterday)

One week ago, the cases/deaths numbers for King County were 1,577/109.

TWO MORE NEARBY DEATHS: Checking the county’s data dashboard for the first time in a few days, two more local zip codes have had someone die of COVID-19, 98106 and 98146; previously, 98126 and 98136 had 1 each. Here are the newest numbers of confirmed cases, people with test results, and confirmed deaths, by zip code:

98106 – 28/213/1

98116 – 18/240/0

98126 – 29/240/1

98136 – 13/155/1

98146 – 37/222/1

Both 98106 and 98146 stretch beyond city limits.

(Photo courtesy Neighborcare Health)

TESTING IN HIGH POINT: Thanks to reader tips, we learned today that West Seattle’s first outdoor COVID-19 testing location opens tomorrow. Neighborcare Health is operating it behind its High Point clinic, in the parking lot it shares with the (closed) High Point Library.

NUCOR MAKES PPE: The steel mill alongside the West Seattle Bridge has joined the fight against COVID-19, with engineers using business and personal 3-D printers to make shields for local health-care workers.

TOP HAT QUARANTINE SITE UPDATE: King County had estimated that its quarantine/isolation site in Top Hat, east of White Center, would open tomorrow. That’s not going to happen, county official said today – there’s still work to be done. We’ll have a detailed update on partner site White Center Now later tonight. Meantime, 33 people are now staying in other county facilities set aside for quarantine and/or recovery.

RESOURCES ROUNDUP: As we’ve been mentioning, there’s an avalanche of assistance offers. Could any help you? The city’s put together a roundup you might want to browse. Among the possibilities it mentions is the Paycheck Protection Program we spotlighted this morning at the suggestion of a reader.

LAST BUT NOT LEAST: Another example of neighbor-to-neighbor encouragement, from Yma, who explains that someone mysterious leaves surprise treasures like these:

The rock with the smiley face was the first (some nice glitter paint on the other side). Today – I was going out to get my elderly gato his meds & came upon the painted shell at the bottom of the porch steps. This warms my heart, brings a smile, and gives me hope.

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

Eric April 3, 2020 (6:36 am)

It seems that testing in King County has slowed. Is this correct or due to the problems with reporting? From the county’s website, the number of test results has been declining for a week.

J April 3, 2020 (10:15 am)

I wonder if access is being limited due to accuracy concerns. People might be tempted to break quarantine after a negative result. I was tempted for a moment, but then got extremely ill with the pneumonia part, and I assume the test was wrong. See WSJ article… https://www.wsj.com/articles/questions-about-accuracy-of-coronavirus-tests-sow-worry-11585836001 https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.wsj.com/amp/articles/questions-about-accuracy-of-coronavirus-tests-sow-worry-11585836001
- newnative April 3, 2020 (10:36 am)
  
  Either result should reaffirm the need for isolating. If you’re positive, then you know you need to self-isolate to prevent transmission. If you’re negative, then you haven’t had it and you don’t want it. the faster we shut this down, the easier it is to treat those who need it and the faster we can return to work.
  - J April 3, 2020 (4:20 pm)
    
    It was a different time then. I’m glad there is a stay at home order now, but critical industries need to reconsider their return to work policies, especially with the false negatives on testing coming to light. Glad I didn’t dismiss mild symptoms, and used caution. I could have infected many people or dropped dead on the job.
J April 3, 2020 (10:40 am)

They’re also running out of protective gear to administer the tests, swabs, vials, and perhaps reagents. They may be running short on staff to administer the tests, and folks are on a stay at home order anyway now. Perhaps they can save the remaining test capacity for elder and nursing facilities, which have had limited access (to help them contain the virus at those locations), and medical facilities, to direct the best use of restricted PPE.