CORONAVIRUS: Tuesday 7/21 roundup

Sports and food are part of tonight’s virus-crisis roundup. But first:

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

*13,486 people have tested positive, up 147 from yesterday’s total

*635 people have died, unchanged from yesterday’s total

*1,818 people have been hospitalized, up 12 from yesterday’s total

*252,090 people have been tested, up 4,401 from yesterday’s total

One week ago, those totals were 12,244/606/1,706/217,633.

STATEWIDE NUMBERS: Find them here.

WORLDWIDE NUMBERS: Find them here.

PANDEMIC-ERA SPORTS: The Washingon Interscholastic Athletics Association has come up with a plan for next school year’s sports. Among other things – spring football. Here’s tonight’s announcement.

RESTAURANT REOPENING: Grillbird Teriyaki, which closed almost two weeks ago after reporting an employee tested positive for COVID-19, says it will reopen this Friday (July 24th).

FREE FOOD: Food Lifeline is distributing emergency food boxes this week – sites and times are listed here, including tomorrow and Friday afternoons at FL HQ in South Park.

ALSO TOMORROW: The governor hasn’t given a briefing yet this week but his office and other state officials will present an update on the state’s COVID-19 response at 2 pm tomorrow. Livestream will be here.

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

22 Replies to "CORONAVIRUS: Tuesday 7/21 roundup"

  • Masked July 21, 2020 (10:49 pm)

    Masking compliance inside stores is great. Outside of stores is not good at all, not even half. At least make an effort to socially distance yourself from other pedestrians if you’re not going to wear a mask walking on the sidewalks. 

    • 22blades July 22, 2020 (4:45 am)

      I absolutely agree. Almost all the businesses & the customers there have done a great job. Are there places I wholesale avoid? You bet!!! The worst “offenders” are, ironically, people exersizing. No attempt to distance, sweating & breathing heavy through other groups of pedestrians while wearing no masks. Also MASKS WITH EXHALE VALVES DO NOT FILTER OUT. They may be great for you but they only serve HALF the function in a pandemic. 

      • newnative July 22, 2020 (12:53 pm)

        People exercising outdoors cannot be the “worst” offenders, unless they are following you and breathing on you or talking to you for an extended amount of time. I take a mask whenever I leave the house but if I’m running I make a point of keeping away from people. To the extent that I walk/run in the street if I have to. I have encountered pedestrians and skate boarders and bicyclists who don’t afford me the same courtesy. In fact, I have had people riding bikes right behind me on a sidewalk ask me to move out of the way. I have encountered other pedestrians look at me and stand still in the middle of the sidewalk, like it’s some kind of standoff. I would say the vast majority of runners are distancing and/or wearing masks. The worst offenders are people who  are gathering in groups, going to restaurants and businesses without masks. That’s how the virus is being spread. BTW, 22Blades, your link didn’t work. 

        • 22blades July 23, 2020 (8:39 am)

          Over the course of a cup of coffee this morning, not a single runner wearing a mask. One runner had 1 around his neck. Not a single mask worn. Period.

    • Doug July 22, 2020 (6:39 am)

      I agree. I love dogs, but maybe 1 in 10 dog walkers I see each day wears a mask. Those of us who bothered to mask then have to dance around them on the planter strip and street because they refuse to move off the sidewalk.

    • Andrea July 22, 2020 (8:27 am)

      Agree! I run almost every day and have a mask ready to put on if I cannot avoid another person by crossing the street or just running in the road for a moment until we pass each other. If it is not possible to move I put my mask on and walk until I get by the other person. Our family walks a lot to the store, pick up food, etc. and in the last couple days I have had runners fly by me and make zero attempt to move. Very frustrating and just screams a lack of consideration for others. Selfish.

    • Goddess Andraste July 22, 2020 (9:04 am)

      I’ve been pleasantly surprised at stores! The only barefaced heathen was a guy at the Roxbury Safeway last week, and I know you can’t judge by looking if someone has a medical issue, but dude looked like he’d just come from a run, so I think he was just a maskhole. Even 100% at Burien FM, which had been a sore spot. They even had two people on the door, counting incoming and checking for mask compliance. It’s made my shopping anxiety go down a bit. Now, if we could just get people to stop wearing the masks UNDER their nose…

      • Xman July 22, 2020 (11:05 am)

        Burien FM mask or no mask was super crowded and they should limit their customer intake. Never going there again. 

  • M July 21, 2020 (11:58 pm)

    It seems like the positives are starting to go down. Weren’t we in the 220 range a week ago and then slowly dropping to 180s and 170s and now we are at 147?

    • CAM July 22, 2020 (12:28 am)

      The link to last week’s #s shows positive results for that day of 145. A week prior to that was 66. The numbers have not stabilized based on any of the new data. This chart stolen from the website linked above shows the continued increase in cases every day (note that days in gray have incomplete data due to delays in test results): 

      • mok4315 July 22, 2020 (9:27 am)

        M isn’t talking about increase/decrease but the rate of increase/decrease. In which case, yes, the rate is going down as can also be illustrated by your graph (it’s that concave down parabola at the end). 

        • CAM July 22, 2020 (11:34 am)

          You can’t tell anything by the gray areas of the chart because they are incomplete data due to delays in test results. The county and state acknowledge that those numbers are not an accurate means to project current transmission and so should we. The numbers reported each day include test results from people that were tested many days ago and those numbers get added to bars farther back in the chart. Let’s not be Georgia here and present misleading data to serve our own purpose. 

    • Friend O'Dinghus July 22, 2020 (8:33 am)

      I too was heartened to see the 147 number last night, and thought the same thing M. Thanks to WSB posting the most important of all of the figures prominently every night, I watch it routinely. I look (and sing ” It’s the ‘Rona Round-up. It’s the ‘Rona Round-up. ” ), much to my dog and family’s delight. Since the great Greek secretions swap up in the U-dist., things have been trending (crosses fingers) downward ever so gradually. We are all so lucky they identified those cases as quickly as they did.

  • Person July 22, 2020 (3:23 am)

    The number of people being tested also seems MUCH higher recently. That also plays a part in higher positives.

  • HS July 22, 2020 (6:56 am)

    For everyone who lives alone and has been without physical contact, no hugs, no hand holding, no brushing past another person, etc, for the past 5 months, stay strong.

    • richwseattle July 22, 2020 (10:46 am)

      That’s kind encouragement, HS, thanks for putting that message out. For my part I never considered myself particularly touchy-feely but I’ve found I do miss giving a hug to family and friends. I even miss the handshake of co-workers, acquaintances, and heck even the occasional stranger.Like HS said, stay strong, folks. If you are dealing with depression there are local resources you can reach out to, and there is a national hotline at 1-800-662-HELP.

    • Xman July 22, 2020 (11:08 am)

      It’s not easy, and feels like I’m an outsider when my neighbors have indoor visitors all day and constant playdates. 

  • Barb July 22, 2020 (10:34 am)

    Runners are the worst.  Through Constellation Park, where the road has been closed (mostly) to cars, runners insist on running on the sidewalk, forcing seniors & people with strollers onto the road.  I was walking on the railing side when a runner came up behind me & actually brushed my arm. I had no place to move.  As I continued to walk he came back toward me on the street side, but I had to step into the street to avoid him.  Thank you, HS, for the encouragement.

  • CL July 22, 2020 (12:16 pm)

    As a reminder:Whether masked or not when encountering other pedestrians outdoors the first thing to do is to distance if at all possible.  Masks are an enhancement to distancing.  Distancing needs to be followed if possible whether masked or not.  There are very few outdoor places where distancing cannot be accomplished with the cooperation of all parties.  -It is not always the job of the other party to distance from you.  It is the job of everyone to cooperate to create appropriate social distance.  All parties many times need to work together to create social distance.  – It is not always the job of runners to distance from walkers.  Everyone is a pedestrian using public space.  Work together to create social distance.  – when passing another party from in front or behind, if it’s not clear they know you are passing, let them know so you can cooperate to create distance.  – When a large group is fanned out across a walkway, it is not always the job of others to try to create distance.  In fact it may be impossible because the group has left no room for other pedestrians.  Out of courtesy, groups walking abreast should collapse even to single file to create social distance for passers by.  – when walking one or more dogs, part of making room for social distancing may require keeping the pet close.  – when walking on a walkway located in the middle that will not allow others to pass with social distance, move to the side so that others can pass with social distance.  – when two parties are passing, possibly one may need to go to the street to create distance.  The party that is facing oncoming traffic should go to the street if at all possible so pedestrians are not in the street with their back to oncoming traffic creating the obvious safety problem.  – None of this is a perfect science.  Sometimes both parties just need to cooperate the best they can.  I spend alot of time as a pedestrian around here and I guess in review, when there is a problem with distancing, what I see is parties that think it is the other parties job to make room.  Not accusing anyone, just pointing out what I see.  Distancing is everyones job.  It’s pretty simple.  

  • anonyme July 22, 2020 (1:46 pm)

    “Maskhole”.  Love it!  “Covidiot” is wearing thin…

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