CORONAVIRUS: Monday 6/29 roundup

One of the highest daily new case numbers we’ve seen in a while tops tonight’s roundup:

NEWEST KING COUNTY NUMBERS: Here’s today’s daily summary from Public Health – the cumulative totals:

*10,069 people have tested positive, 168 more than yesterday

*586 people have died, unchanged for a third day

*1,587 people have been hospitalized, 13 more than yesterday

*161,398 people have been tested, 1,847 more than yesterday

One week ago, the totals were 9,273/584/1,547/144,631.

STATEWIDE NUMBERS: See them here.

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

3 WS BUSINESSES IN 4 DAYS … have confirmed employee COVID-19 cases. Today, Trader Joe’s; Saturday, Duke’s; Thursday, Admiral Starbucks.

LOOKING FOR WORK? Though the virus crisis has cost many their jobs, some are hiring. Local businesses can post listings for free in our West Seattle Jobs Offered section, and there are several new ones.

GOVERNOR’S BRIEFING TOMORROW: He’ll be in the Tri-Cities and has announced an 11:45 am media briefing, “joined by Secretary of Health John Wiesman and retired Navy Vice Adm. Dr. Raquel Bono, Washington State Director, Pandemic Health Response.” (No advance streaming link in the announcement.)

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

28 Replies to "CORONAVIRUS: Monday 6/29 roundup"

  • Death Correction June 29, 2020 (11:03 pm)

    It would be nice to know how many people died with Covid19 and how many people have been raised up from the death count. Our numbers are meaningless if they are being “adjusted” all the time.

    • CAM June 30, 2020 (12:23 pm)

      Statistically, given the low numbers of new diagnoses that were occurring several weeks ago the current low number of deaths seems consistent. The medical staff would have more resources to care for those that needed it and also there just wouldn’t be as many potential cases to increase the death count. Recent data that I’ve read has suggested that on average people have died about 21 days after becoming symptomatic. If that holds true, you’d probably expect the number of deaths to increase again in the coming weeks. What might be a saving grace is that our hospitals are better prepared today then they were at the onset and may be able to provide more comprehensive care even when/if they become overwhelmed. 

  • Gwen June 29, 2020 (11:16 pm)

    Mixed feelings—so happy that we’ve gone 3 days without a death. Dismayed to see that high of a new case count. Mask up, West Seattle!

  • Stay well June 29, 2020 (11:21 pm)

    13 new hospitalizations… this is a bit of a jump.

    46 new hospitalizations in King County within the last week.

    Well wishes for all those hospitalized with this.

  • Smittytheclown June 30, 2020 (6:45 am)

    Here’s a great site for tracking.  You can select by state or US total.  For the cases and deaths bar graphs make sure and check the “7 day moving average” box.  It’s nice to see the death rates still dropping despite the increase in cases.  It’s a lagging indicator, of course so keep an eye on it.  This is updated throughout the day depending on when each state reports.  https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/

  • Trickycoolj June 30, 2020 (8:08 am)

    Cases are going up at my employer fairly steadily right as they’re starting to talk about bringing us back from telecommuting since it’s only optional in Phase 2. Not thrilled. 

  • Rb June 30, 2020 (10:05 am)

    I wonder if we are seeing this bump as a results from the loose protesting from two weeks ago.

    • Probably And June 30, 2020 (10:11 am)

      Probably both protesting and reopening, both.

      • me June 30, 2020 (11:41 am)

        Nothing more than increased testing.

    • LJ June 30, 2020 (10:36 am)

      No: “ In King County, the epicenter of Washington’s protests, health investigators have tracked — during a 19-day span in June — less than 5% of 1,008 total positive cases to people who attended protests. In other cities, including Minneapolis and Portland, researchers have yet to find that protests, where many were masked, have caused major spikes in cases.”source: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/health/protests-in-seattle-and-elsewhere-dont-appear-to-be-driving-virus-surge-researchers-say/

      • WSB June 30, 2020 (10:59 am)

        And FWIW you can scroll through our protest coverage dating back to the huge Junction gathering. Vast majority of people, in all our photos, wore masks. Yes, a few outliers. Can’t speak for non-WS events – aside from the ILWU march, we haven’t covered non-WS events – but the WS protesters have had face coverings.

        https://westseattleblog.com/category/west-seattle-protests/

    • Smittytheclown June 30, 2020 (10:44 am)

      Oh boy RB you’ve done it now!  Prepare to get shamed for even bringing it up. There is one (non peer reviewed) study by NBER that tries hard to say any increase due to protesting was offset by others who stayed home to avoid the protests.  Anecdotal at best.  Also, the head of health in LA thinks it caused their spike.  Bottom line, states that had been in a new  phase for weeks with no spike all of a sudden saw a spike just after the protests.  Coincidence?

      • newnative June 30, 2020 (11:03 am)

        Your graph in the other comment thread showed Florida’s alleged spike in infection after the protests. However, after digging deeper into Florida (a state that didn’t have strict lockdown in place anyways) I noticed that their protests were much smaller in scale than in other states, yet they’re one of the states with the faster rate of infection. Looking at a graph of the country, it’s obvious that the rapidly spreading virus is more closely correlated to attitudes towards wearing masks, opening venues that facilitate crowds (not wearing masks) and close physical interaction. 

      • heartless June 30, 2020 (11:45 am)

        Smitty, I am sorry you felt I was shaming you.  The last thing I wanted to do was shame you–rather, I wanted to engage you in dialogue about why you thought protests were the cause of spikes (and, somewhat related, why you keep saying there have been no spikes in Florida and Texas).

        While it is nearly impossible to prove a negative (in this case prove that protests do not result in more cases), scholars who have looked at the data in a systematic manner haven’t found anything that indicates protests have resulted in more cases.  These studies might seem anecdotal to you, but I assure you that they are anything but–they are designed by trained scientists who are looking carefully at the data available.  Indeed, in a study I linked earlier the hypothesis was that protests WOULD result in more cases–and the authors were quite surprised to learn that’s not the case:
        https://www.nber.org/papers/w27408

        If you have any data that support your position that protests have resulted in spikes in cases I am all ears–I think this is important to discuss, and I am happy to do so.  And, again, I apologize if you were shamed.

        • Too Early June 30, 2020 (1:06 pm)

          Their analysis was too early. Protesters may not have been the most likely people to seek or have access to testing. Especially after threats to protesters from federal figures. The impacts may still be coming and are mingled with business reopenings and social relaxations. To prematurely conclude there was not substantial impact is wishful thinking, like we have seen in every corner of this pandemic response.

          • heartless June 30, 2020 (3:42 pm)

            “Their analysis was too early. Protesters may not have been the most likely people to seek or have access to testing.”

            I agree with all of that, but all of that is orthogonal to the current argument: People have been claiming that the spikes in cases are due to protests, and I was pointing out that we have no evidence for this. 

            Now, the reason we might have no evidence could very well be related to the factors you pointed out–that it could be too early, or maybe there are spikes and we just aren’t aware of them due to lack of testing or interest in testing.  But remember that the spikes in cases people are talking about (and claim come from protests) have de facto been measured, and since the points you made are about protest-related transmission NOT being measured it doesn’t change that specific argument.

            That said, I do agree with your points, especially the urging of caution.  

        • Smittytheclown June 30, 2020 (6:19 pm)

          100% agree there has been an increase in spikes.  Just not sold it is 100% due to opening.  More testing, and protests played a role as well.  Luckily, deaths continue to decline (see below).

      • Friend O'Dinghus June 30, 2020 (12:22 pm)

        Does it really matter? Truth is we will never know with certainty, but on the bright side, we need only be concerned about bringing it back down again. Put your mind at ease STC.

    • heartless June 30, 2020 (11:50 am)

      “I wonder if we are seeing this bump as a results from the loose protesting from two weeks ago.”

      RB: I think that’s a good question. 

      So far people looking at the roles of protests in case spikes don’t think the protests were a factor (which has actually surprised quite a number of people). 

      There are various weird reasons why this might be the case, perhaps the funniest reason is that protests tend to make everyone else even better at social distancing–so even if protesters themselves are seeing more cases everyone else is staying at home and avoiding the protests and so they (the vast majority of any city, obviously) are seeing their cases go down, which counteracts any increases from protests.

  • Math teacher June 30, 2020 (12:23 pm)

    @Smittytheclown @RB –  In our state, the steepest increases are currently happening in the Phase One counties: Yakima, Benton, Franklin, Chelan, and Douglas.  Yeah, sure, real hotbeds of Black Lives Matter protests. (map from Tri-CityHerald.com).  But why should data matter when we can rely on bias?

    • Food production June 30, 2020 (1:23 pm)

      These are fruit basket counties. Agriculture workers have been “re-opened” the whole time. They are filled with essential workers. They never shut down, so the stages have less meaning for those counties. And they are sick and dying… so what was your point Math Teacher?

      • Zark00 June 30, 2020 (3:04 pm)

        But the large metro areas like King County have massive numbers of essential delivery and warehouse workers that were never closed, and higher population density so many more points of contact. It’s pretty clear, opening early and refusing to wear masks leads to increased outbreaks.

      • Math teacher June 30, 2020 (8:00 pm)

        @Food Production – My post was in response to posters choosing to primarily blame protests for the spread of COVID-19, when in fact we have an abundance of data showing that the disease is spiking in migrant worker housing, agriculture, food processing facilities, and many other places. 

  • ScubaFrog June 30, 2020 (3:45 pm)

    168  :(   Dr. Fauci said the US could see 100,000 cases per day (we’re currently at 40k per day).  Trump’s stupid idea to “open up” has cost tens of thousands of lives, there’s no excuse for that.  It’s possible that hospitals in Texas won’t be able to keep up with Covid cases.  Abbot and his stupid Lt. Governor “There are more important things than living!” really screwed their constituents.Hopefully Inslee dials the state back to phase 1.  

    • Smittytheclown June 30, 2020 (6:21 pm)

      • AMD June 30, 2020 (8:49 pm)

        Dude, stop spamming that chart.  It’s not adding anything to the conversation when you post it a second, third, or fourth time and I really don’t understand what your point is.  Are you saying COVID doesn’t matter if everyone doesn’t die a grisly death?  Deaths are trending down because people getting sick are in categories less likely to die.  That doesn’t mean COVID is not a big deal and I’m sure the people who’ve had it and have long-term health effects don’t appreciate you writing their cases off as “not important” because they didn’t die.  My friend was a healthy 41-year-old who’s looking at long-term kidney damage because he had COVID.  He still matters.  Every case matters, even the ones that don’t die.  For god’s sake, I don’t understand why it’s so hard to get some people to see that it’s okay to care about other people and not want them to get sick!  Cases are going up, and that’s a bad thing for each and every person that’s sick.  Wear a mask and don’t gather indoors.  They’re really not asking much of people.

    • me July 2, 2020 (6:20 am)

      Trump has nothing to do with whether States or cities “opened up”. These are local decisions.  Blame local officials for lockdown policies you don’t agree with. Trump has pointed out over and over again (10th Amendment) these are local decisions.

  • Smittytheclown June 30, 2020 (6:16 pm)

    More good news.  Despite’s spikes in cases deaths continue to drop.  This is the best site for digging into the numbers.  Today’s numbers almost 100 fewer than last Monday.  Younger people being infected and therapeutics are improving.  https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/

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