28 weeks ago tonight, King County announced its first case of COVID-19. Here’s what’s new:

NEWEST KING COUNTY NUMBERS: From the Public Health daily summary:

*20,699 people have tested positive, 259 more than yesterday

*743 people have died, 2 more than yesterday

*2,294 people have been hospitalized, 11 more than yesterday

*389,459 people have been tested, 2,521 more than yesterday

One week ago, those totals were 20,073/732/2,249/376,642.

STATEWIDE NUMBERS: See them here.

WORLDWIDE NUMBERS: 28.3 million cases, 913,000+ deaths – see the nation-by-nation numbers here.

STATEWIDE SITUATION REPORT: Some good big-picture news in this report released by the state today:

Today the Washington State Department of Health (DOH) released the latest statewide situation report, which reflects an overall decline in COVID-19 activity as of late August. The report also highlights encouraging signs that keeping our distance, limiting gathering size and wearing face coverings are working to slow the spread of the disease.

Report findings include:

The reproductive number (how many new people each COVID-19 patient will infect) was close to one in western Washington and above one in eastern Washington as of August 28. The best estimate of the reproductive number at that time was 0.86 in western Washington and 1.22 in eastern Washington. The goal is a number well below one, which would mean COVID-19 transmission is declining.

We’re seeing decreases in case counts in both eastern and western Washington since the start of August. These decreases are occurring across all age groups. We are starting to see similar trends in hospitalizations and deaths, which take longer to reflect changing levels of disease activity than case counts.
Whitman County is a notable exception, with a sharp spike in cases starting August 19. While many of these cases are linked to an outbreak among young adults, we may see a repeat of previous patterns where increased disease activity among younger populations starts to spread into older and more vulnerable groups.

Patterns of decline look different from county to county. The report compares these trends in Yakima county, which has seen steady declines since a peak in early June; Benton and Franklin counties, where initial declines after similar outbreaks have plateaued and transmission may be increasing; and King County, where cases have been decreasing steadily since early July.

People are interacting more safely than we were earlier in the pandemic, and it’s making a difference. The report includes a model that isolates the effect of mobility changes from non-mobility related changes on COVID-19 transmission. The comparison suggests that while we are more mobile than we were in April, we are interacting more safely—taking precautions like wearing face coverings, restricting gathering size and keeping high-risk environments closed. We must continue these precautions to keep transmission decreasing.

Read the full report here.

TESTING: If you need it, remember that the city’s new West Seattle site (2801 SW Thistle, at the south end of the Southwest Athletic Complex lot) is open Saturdays too. Find the appointment link on this page.

HELPING: Volunteers at the Greater Seattle Filipino Seventh-day Adventist Church spent their morning handing out free boxes of food:

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