CORONAVIRUS: Wednesday 10/14 roundup

| Coronavirus | West Seattle news

Every night, we bring you the local/regional pandemic-related toplines:

NEWEST KING COUNTY NUMBERS: From the Public Health daily-summary dashboard, the cumulative totals:

*24,500 people have tested positive, 170 more than yesterday’s total

*782 people have died, 3 more than yesterday’s total

*2,467 people have been hospitalized, 9 more than yesterday’s total

*490.206 people have been tested, 3,239 more than yesterday’s total

One week ago, those totals (plus testing) were 23,419/774/2,410/456,822.

STATEWIDE NUMBERS: Find them, county by county, on the state Department of Health page,.

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

STATEWIDE SITUATION REPORT: The new one’s out, and here are the highlights for our part of the state:

Transmission is increasing in western Washington and recently plateauing in eastern Washington. The best estimates of the reproductive number (how many new people each COVID-19 patient will infect) were 1.12 in western Washington and 0.94 in eastern Washington as of September 27. The goal is a number well below one, which would mean COVID-19 transmission is declining.

Case counts in western Washington are increasing across all age groups and over broad geographic areas. This suggests increases are due to broad community spread, not driven by a single type of activity or setting. Though all age groups are seeing increases, the rising trends among older people are particularly concerning because these groups tend to experience more severe illness.

Recent growth in cases is widely distributed across a number of counties. Some larger counties (Clark, King, Kitsap, Pierce, Snohomish and Thurston) are seeing steady increases. Several smaller counties (Lewis, Mason, Pend Oreille and Skagit) are clearly experiencing increases, though the total number of recent cases remains low. Benton and Franklin counties are seeing gradual but steady increases as well.

FOLLOWUP: After our report on Sew Very Grateful – a West Seattle woman’s project organizing volunteers to sew scrub caps for health-care workers – lots of potential new helpers contacted her! If you missed the story (which includes info on how to help), check it out here.

GOT INFO? Email us at westseattleblog@gmail.com or phone us, text or voice, at 206-293-6302 – thank you!

Neutral October 14, 2020 (11:32 pm)

Come on….we can’t let Eastern WA show us up like this. Just returned from a work trip to Spokane and you rarely see a masked face or a stand on this ‘X’ to queue in line. There is free testing at SWAC so if we all get tested weekly it will dramatically drop our per/100k rate. Get tested weekly!!

JKK October 14, 2020 (11:53 pm)

Today I saw a maybe 1 or two year old and they were wearing a mask and it didn’t bother them. They weren’t touching it or trying to take it off etc. then I see 15 adults I walked by and they can’t be bothered to wear something that can save people. It’s not comfortable. Agreed. Is it simple. Yes. Let’s take a lesson from a two year old and be adults and wear a freaking mask or walk away from others. Period. It’s like a game of chicken walking around here. Who’s going to move first. People wearing masks think people that don’t should move. And vice versa. There should be a statewide mandate as our numbers are clearly going up as stated above with no “superspreader” event. I wear a mask to protect my 70 year old mom. So I don’t get it and pass it to her. It’s not pleasant. Mentally or physically. Be an adult and put a freaking piece of cloth on your face or we will all be wearing them for years to come. It’s not rocket science. Good lord. I’m so exhausted trying to protect myself while others are careless when the solution is very simple. Unless everyone wants to wear masks for years. Wear one now. Be kind. Give space to those that do wear masks and are trying to protect themselves and their families.

Neutral October 15, 2020 (1:56 am)

I respect your comments but 1 and 2 year old also wear diapers without complaint. =) I’m more concerned with adults and also agree with your point to respect people wearing masks. If we could play Monday Morning Quarterback as it pertains to Covid-19, we as a people would shelter-in-place those at moderate to high-risk categories. Many mistakes were made due to the unknown nature of this virus, but it’s becoming clear that ppl with underlying heath issues were most susceptible. The question becomes how do we protect that percentage of the population moving forward? Do we put more focus on obesity/diabetes/heart disease prevention or do we prescribe a national mandate to shelter people in that group…or both? Everyone should have healthcare under the ACA so go get tested for free. We also need Antibody testing for free to see how much Covid-19 has saturated our populous,
psps October 15, 2020 (5:53 am)

Most masks don’t protect the person wearing them as much as it protects others. You wear a mask in case you’re infected out of respect for others. Maskless people are just selfish and have no respect for anyone else. If they spew their aerosol into the air because they’re maskless, your mask will likely not protect you. The whole “I have a right to take my own chances by not wearing a mask” thing is just MAGA nonsense. The maskless person is actually choosing to endanger you.
C October 15, 2020 (7:15 pm)

I think a lot of the behaviors experienced are simply a case of “we reap what we sow”. Give space to all others. That is common courtesy and it has been indicated time and again that distancing is the first defense. Masked or not, anyone who refuses to do what they can to make room for distancing is part of the problem in more ways than one. Rarely is there not room to create distance.

Smittytheclown October 15, 2020 (8:53 am)

On a worldwide basis it is interesting to me how Sweden keeps moving down this chart (ranked by deaths per million). Wonder where they will rank 6 months from now……

ScubaFrog October 15, 2020 (12:34 pm)

I’m excited for Biden, if for nothing else than mandatory masks and the federal govt overseeing this in red states/counties especially. No mask = jail.Also, the nation obviously needs another extended lockdown. Until we have a vaccine, we need to get #’s down immediately. Hundreds of thousands of Americans have died, republicans can’t be bothered. Generations of Americans killed…. We have to stop the massacre of our countrymen. Note that trump his covid-riddled party are back to non-masking. No wonder they’re losing the Presidency/senate.