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CORONAVIRUS: Friday 6/19 roundup

June 19, 2020 10:44 pm
|      20 COMMENTS
 |   Coronavirus | West Seattle news

While the Phase 2 announcement first thing this morning was cause for celebration, a top health official offered cause for caution hours later, and that’s part of our nightly roundup.

PHASE 2: The week began with the county applying for permission to move to Phase 2, and four days later, the state announced its approval this morning. That means – as listed by the county – more businesses can open, and many that are already open can do so more widely.

…BUT FOR HOW LONG? In a midafternoon media briefing, county health officer Dr. Jeff Duchin warned that new data – just in last night – shows an uptick in cases, warning that the trend could even force the reopening into reverse. The past week saw 47 percent more cases than the week before, he said. The reason that didn’t put the brakes on the reopening, for now, he explained, is that the number isn’t huge – 100+ – but he stressed that it’s crucial people take simple steps, wearing face coverings and continuing distancing, or else things could get out of hand quickly. The new cases aren’t attributable to any particular area or any particular means of transmission, he added – there’s “no single smoking gun.” Overall, his message was that stepping ahead in reopening is the wrong time to step back in personal protective measures.

NEWEST KING COUNTY NUMBERS: The aforementioned spike was for the week of June 12-18. Here’s the first daily summary since then:

*9,096 people have tested positive, 109 more than yesterday

*584 people have died, 2 more than yesterday

*1,540 people have been hospitalized, 3 more than yesterday

*137,312 people have been tested, 2,309 more than yesterday

One week ago, those totals were 8,644/571/1,517/115,016.

STATEWIDE NUMBERS: See them here.

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

SEATTLE PUBLIC SCHOOLS’ FALL PLAN: It’s out and it’s complicated.

CONFUSED ABOUT WEDDINGS/FUNERALS? The governor issued “additional guidance” today.

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

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20 Replies to "CORONAVIRUS: Friday 6/19 roundup"

  • Dummy June 19, 2020 (11:37 pm)

    Thanks for forcing us into 1.5 and then moving us onto phase 2 when the King County numbers were on the rise… You guys are the best!

    • Anti-Dummy June 20, 2020 (3:56 am)

      If you want to stay home in your basement until some mythical vaccine arrives in 2011 or 2012, be my guest. No one is “forcing” you to leave your house or “forcing” you to do anything at all. A lot of other people, on the other hand, have bills and rent/mortgages to pay. It’s all great if you’re making six figures working for some IT company and can work from home indefinitely, or even if you’re retired with a fixed monthly income. It’s completely different when everything that you’ve built up and worked for your entire life is on the verge of collapse. It’s very simple, if you don’t want to participate in society, then don’t. It’s your choice. Stay home. Many other people either want to interact with society or they have to because of work. I’m tired of this judgmental attitude from some people who apparently want to mandate that everyone else be locked in indefinitely, just because of their own fears.

      • Andy Havens June 20, 2020 (11:35 am)

        People who trusted the government completely when it said “stay home,” but don’t trust the government when it says “go out.”

  • Andy June 20, 2020 (12:07 am)

    109 :(. Hopefully its just a spike with not too much downstream spread, otherwise we are back to early April numbers, followed by what I assume will be another 3 months of lockdown :(

  • psps June 20, 2020 (12:55 am)

    Society in general is, at best, just now getting into the “bargaining” stage with these re-openings despite increases in infection.  It may be quite a while before people reach “acceptance” that things will never go back to what used to be normal.

    • Eric Moon June 20, 2020 (7:37 am)

      Maybe not “never” but it really does look like it’s going to take years. (And I like your analogy.)

    • Phases June 20, 2020 (8:41 am)

      No! We are all in different phases of grief. I am in the anger phase of anticipatory grief. I don’t want a revolution only after a mass die off of the working class, like what happened with past pandemics. I hate death. I will fight against it.

  • Cool Rick June 20, 2020 (5:00 am)

    Moving backwards at all should not be tolerated unless there is serious strain on our health system, which never came close to happening here in the first place. It’s simply not feasible to live in a state of shutdown until there’s a vaccine, society would crumble. We need to be reasonable and continue moving forward. Case numbers rising were inevitable once testing ramped up and things started to reopen.

    • Elton June 20, 2020 (10:18 pm)

      Where are you getting this information from? From friends working on the front lines in hospitals, they were definitely teetering on the edges and there were older people unable to get ventilators because younger people needed them. 

  • J June 20, 2020 (8:27 am)

    Well, now it’s perfectly clear what the data “correction” was all about a couple days ago. There was only one reason to do that right when the phase 2 proposal was up for consideration. … Well, be sure to mask everyone, infections are rising, and folks are back out.

    • Seaweed June 20, 2020 (9:19 pm)

      Positives are rising. Because more testing. Like everyone kept asking for. Now catch-up. Folk need to be back out.
      Hiding is not Darwin’able.
      Herd Immunity. Reality.

  • Smittytheclown June 20, 2020 (9:11 am)

    We’ve “slowed the spread” and “flattened the curve” as we were told we must do so as not to overwhelm hospitals.  Has it now turned into “stop the spread”?  Newsflash; that ain’t happening until we have a vaccine.

    • Stay well June 20, 2020 (2:26 pm)

      Hey Smitty, It has not turned into ‘stop the spread.’ We’re now trying to suppress and manage the spread, so that it doesn’t spike and overwhelm our health care system, which could quickly happen, and cause much illness and many deaths in our community. Like what is currently happening in Yakima County. Current hospitalizations there have exceeded capacity. They are having to transfer patients out of the county, and there are people going to the ER who cannot receive immediate care.

      The point of flattening the curve was to position us to be able to better manage the pandemic going forward, to mitigate high numbers of illness and death. Of course there will continue to be some. Current efforts are trying to keep that level low and manageable, so we can continue the phased reopening.

      Be aware everyone, there has been a 47% spike in cases in our county this week.

  • Blbl June 20, 2020 (11:55 am)

    “I’m becoming convinced that Covid is not far from taking on the characteristics of gun violence. The U.S. will endure much higher, persistent negative effects from something that other countries have solved; we’ll normalize it and convince ourselves nothing can be done.” —Michael Rozier, St. Louis University

  • Lin June 20, 2020 (3:10 pm)

    We cannot stop the spread, not with the country in such a divide. I can only hope people wear masks and socially distance to slow down the spread so people can feel safe enough to venture out and enjoy life a bit. No one wants to stay at home, but if you’re in the vulnerable group, it is a big gamble to go out. And for people who say, they just want to get back to normal and who wants to hide can hide, well 60% of Americans are highly vulnerable to the virus and without their business, we will not get back to normal economically. Just won’t happen. 

    • Elton June 20, 2020 (10:21 pm)

      Additionally, the people choosing to go out and doing so irresponsibly (not social distancing, not wearing face masks) are endangering essential workers who have no choice but to work to bring you your groceries or other essentials but live with someone who is older or otherwise vulnerable. I get the argument that people don’t want to lose their businesses, they should be the most angry at people not respecting the severity of the pandemic because they’re screwing those business owners over by causing things to backside 

  • Patrick June 20, 2020 (4:13 pm)

    Perhaps I am thinking incorrectly here……2,309 new tests with 109 positives from those.  That is a little over 4% positive, which is still well below the overall state average.  Now a few days ago, using this same logic the positive test rate was about 3%.  So is the small uptick just an anomaly that will reverse, or will this continue in the next few days.  I am hopeful it is an anomaly and the numbers will drop again.   If the rise continues, it is ridiculous to say that no ‘one single smoking gun’ is to blame.  Clearly, the protesting is to blame. If our local political elite, along with those protesting were truly concerned about virus spreading, they could have made a stronger effort to minimize contact with others.  

    • CAM June 20, 2020 (5:10 pm)

      They are performing contact tracing when people test positive and would know if someone potentially got infected while protesting. The statement about no smoking gun implies that no single event or cause was found to be the source of a large number of new cases. That would include protests. 

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