Tomorrow the pandemic begins its ninth month in our area. Here’s the latest:

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

*26.621 people have tested positive, 100 more than yesterday’s total

*800 people have died, 9 more than yesterday’s total

*2,559 people have been hospitalized, 14 more than yesterday’s total

*526,824 people have been tested, 4,055 fewer than yesterday’s total++

One week ago, the totals were 25,367/785/2,508/510,947. (++The county explains the drop in people tested as the result of a new state “deduplication process” and adds that 2,183 new test results were reported today.)

STATEWIDE NUMBERS: See them here.

NATIONAL/WORLDWIDE NUMBERS: 43.9 million cases worldwide, 8.7 million of them in the U.S. – see other nation-by-nation stats by going here.

GOVERNOR’S BRIEFING: This morning, Gov. Inslee announced that our state will join with other Western states in a workgroup to independently review any COVID-19 vaccine approved by the FDA. This would not be a lengthy review delaying the availability of a vaccine, he said, as the group will be accessing data along the way, even before approval announcements. The video from his briefing is here.

CONTACT-FREE HALLOWEEN: Thanks to Don Brubeck for this photo from North Admiral, in the spirit of the pandemic-year Halloween season:

We are continuing to add decoration locations and no-contact trick-or-treat events to the WSB West Seattle Halloween page.

BRIEFING TOMORROW: State health officials’ weekly briefing is happening again Wednesday at 2 pm; you can watch the livestream (or, later, the archived video) here.

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