CORONAVIRUS: Wednesday 4/22 roundup

| Coronavirus | West Seattle news

Sorry for the lateness of tonight’s roundup, but it’s been a very busy night – all about The Other Big Story. So now let’s take a break from the bridge and check the pandemic-related news:

WHAT THE GOV SAID TODAY: Gov. Inslee had another media briefing this afternoon. No big announcements. We listened in on his remarks and the followup Q&A – here’s the video – and it seemed again to be largely a reaction to the spots in the state where some officials are dissing the stay-home order. (He and Attorney General Bob Ferguson released this statement about that.) He did say that after tomorrow’s modeling comes in, he hopes to have news about those possible restriction relaxations he mentioned Tuesday.

NEWEST LOCAL NUMBERS: From the Seattle-King County Public Health data dashboard:

*5,449 people have tested positive, up 70 from yesterday

*379 people have died, up 7 from yesterday

One week ago, those totals were 4,697 and 312.

STATEWIDE NUMBERS: Find them, county by county, on the state Department of Health page,.

WORLDWIDE NUMBERS: More than 2.6 million cases, almost a third of them in the U.S. See how that breaks out, nation by nation, here.

BE CAREFUL WITH CLEANING PRODUCTS: The Washington Poison Center has a warning for you.

ANOTHER TOWN HALL AHEAD: Mayor Durkan has just launched a series of weekly virtual town halls around the city. First one is tomorrow in the Central District; no date yet, but one focused on West Seattle is promised too. (The focus is supposed to be COVID-19-related resources, but we imagine another topic will come up …)

NO PLUG-PULLING: City Light is pausing “planned outages” for the rest of the stay-home period, we found out when asking about an alert a reader had received.

MORE SIGNS: The city’s announced 1,000 more signs are going up. This time, though, it’s not messaging but instead, art.

SPEAKING OF SIGNS: No rallies or cleanups this Earth Day because of COVID-19, so it was time for creative signage at (or near) home – here’s some of what your neighbors did!

QUARANTINE BEAR: So far this week, we’ve had a dragon and a reindeer. Tonight, a teddy bear with an unusual perch:

The bear is near the dragon in Gatewood, says Kanit Cottrell, who sent the photo.

GOT INFO? Email us at westseattleblog@gmail.com or phone us, text or voice, at 206-293-6302 – thank you!

Care April 22, 2020 (10:10 pm)

Thank you, poison control! It is painful to watch/hear of people washing down fruits and vegetables with a bleach solution and then putting it in their mouths. COVID-19 is bad, but ingesting bleach is not making your life better. Soap and warm water do an amazing job cleaning surfaces and are MUCH safer than bleach, alcohol, and other chemicals people are running to first. Those chemicals have their place, and hand sanitizer is still better than nothing if no sink for hand washing is available, but good old soap should always be the #1 choice. Chemicals should be used with care.

Mj April 23, 2020 (9:11 am)

Enough already, it’s time to start to pragmatically open things up. Residential and Commercial Construction needs to allowed now (Agency projects are being built).

tsurly April 23, 2020 (9:58 am)

Would it also be time for you to backtrack on your demand that “highly educated” medical workers be allowed to use the low bridge? I mean, if its safe enough to start opening things back up, then the demand in the hospitals must not be that high enough to justify that, right?
Josie April 23, 2020 (10:35 am)

We get it, you hate your grandma and want her to die.

sf April 23, 2020 (11:15 am)

Got it, only college degree holding medical workers on the low bridge and residential and commercial construction. I understand the Governor of Georgia has a spot for you on his scientific team. The remainder of us will realize that construction workers sharing the virus is just as bad as any other group and highly trained hospital workers can’t run a hospital without all the techs and EVS.

Mj April 23, 2020 (11:25 am)

Actually tsurly the demand at hospitals is not that high due to elective surgeries being put on hold. And Josie the economic cost of this shutdown is horrefic and needs to be factored into the equation. I like Sweden’s approach that is pragmatic and may lead to much quicker herd immunity without the disastrous effect to the economy.

AMD April 23, 2020 (11:59 am)

They’re using data to decide when and how quickly to allow things to reopen. If what Sweden did was good and the data bears out, we’ll follow their lead. We don’t know if everyone getting it creates herd immunity because we don’t know yet if getting it makes you immune and Inslee isn’t going to risk tens of thousands of lives experimenting to find out. Inslee already talked about residential construction being one of the first categories to open, and probably by May 4. Calm down. You’ll get your she shed.

Go gull April 23, 2020 (1:36 pm)

The economic costs will be greater if the outbreak isn’t managed well and is allowed to take its natural course. You don’t think hundreds of thousands, possibly millions of people, rapidly becoming sick and dying in our country from this, would impact the economy? The current approach here is intended to mitigate both the impact on lives, and on the economy, over the long run.