Here what’s new as the virus crisis continues into the second half of August:

KING COUNTY’S NEWEST NUMBERS: First, the cumulative totals from the Public Health daily-summary dashboard:

*17,643 people have tested positive, up 129 from yesterday’s total

*687 people have died, up 1 from yesterday’s total

*2,096 people have been hospitalized, up 9 from yesterday’s total

*319,046 people have been tested, up 4,192 from yesterday’s total*

One week ago, the totals were 16,601/674/2,028/332,460.

TESTING TOTALS DISCLAIMER: For the fourth day, the county’s daily summary includes this:

On Aug. 13, the state Department of Health provided an updated negative test total which is part of our daily outbreak summary. In this update, the negative test total for King County was reduced by 38,191. The current number of tests reflects the number of unique individuals tested. We hope to update our counts to also include the number of tests performed by the week of 8/17. Please note that this issue primarily affects negative lab results over the last several weeks, but does not impact the total number of positive tests.

STATEWIDE NUMBERS: See them here.

WORLDWIDE NUMBERS: 21.6 million cases and more than 775,000 deaths – see the nation-by-nation breakdown here.

2 WEEKS TO SCHOOL, OR MAYBE NOT: Seattle Public Schools classes were supposed to start – all remote TFN – on September 2nd, but the district now says, “To make sure staff are well prepared for a strong fall, we are exploring a delayed start to the school year in order to provide training for educators.” Your next chance to hear an update from district leaders is 4:30 pm Tuesday (August 18th) during their next “town hall.”

FIVE MONTHS AGO: Looking back to March 16th – it was the day after a Sunday night order that closed, or mostly closed, many businesses. Some have not been allowed to reopen at all, such as entertainment venues.

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