CORONAVIRUS: Thursday 12/24 roundup

Even on Christmas Eve, we have virus-crisis news (tomorrow, though, depends on whether there’s a data update):

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

*59,306 people have tested positive, up 479 from yesterday’s total

*1,032 people have died, up 9 from yesterday’s total

*3,974 people have been hospitalized, up 65 from yesterday’s total

*726,070 people have been tested, up 4,705 from yesterday’s total

One week ago, those totals were 55,919/976/3,803/704,029.

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

WORLDWIDE NUMBERS: 79,3 million cases worldwide, 18.6 million of them in the U.S. See the nation-by-nation breakout here.

SITUATION REPORT: The state’s newest situation report is out. It’s mixed, but there’s some positive news, including case-count declines in the state’s largest counties, including ours. Here’s the summary.

GROCERY-STORE COVID CASE: Posted today on the PCC Community Markets website:

PCC learned today that a staff member at its West Seattle store has tested positive for COVID-19. This staff member last worked in the store on December 21, 2020. PCC has been in regular contact with the King County Health Department. They have informed us that our current, rigorous COVID-19 cleaning protocol is sufficient to address the situation and that no store or department closures are required. Additionally, they’ve indicated that no other staff members at West Seattle PCC need to self-quarantine if they are asymptomatic. The staff member who tested positive is receiving care and will not return to work until guidance from public health officials allows it. PCC is following the guidelines of the CDC and federal and local governments to protect the individual to ensure they do not lose wages as a result of these steps.

TESTING: The city’s West Seattle test site is closed again today.

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

10 Replies to "CORONAVIRUS: Thursday 12/24 roundup"

  • PCC Shopper December 25, 2020 (12:25 am)

    Re PCC: I hesitate to speculate,  but does testing positive imply that the employee didn’t follow Covid-19 protocol while away from the store? Looks like just about every PCC has had at least one Covid-19 case over the past few six months or so.I am pretty confident that the PCC is doing everything right to protect its customers and employees, but the fact that employees are testing positive despite this is concerning.

    • WSB December 25, 2020 (1:41 am)

      Not necessarily. For one, no protocol is foolproof … for two, an employee of.a business could be unknowingly exposed by a customer or a fellow employee despite doing everything right themselves … or could be exposed unknowingly in their home … the possibilities, unfortunately, are endless. And I should say again, businesses aren’t even required to disclose this, but many do and so we publish the notices we find. – TR

      • JJ December 25, 2020 (6:03 pm)

        Yes. Although less likely the virus could land on an eyeball and infect. Store workers aren’t in goggles and N95s. They are still at pretty high risk working with the public all day. It will be great when vaccines are available for our essential workers.

  • Toni December 25, 2020 (12:08 pm)

    Any possibility of finding out whether the employee was serving the public (versus behind the scenes)?I was in the store on that date, so I’m a little anxious.I checked their website and saw zero about this.

    • R December 25, 2020 (6:01 pm)

      If you’re anxious, self-quarantine and get tested. Disclosing where/when the employee worked is against medical privacy laws and you will not find this info on a website.

      • heartless December 25, 2020 (7:08 pm)

        “Disclosing where/when the employee worked is against medical privacy laws and you will not find this info on a website.”

        Is it really? I mean, perhaps it’s an issue of scope: stores have frequently told us when and where an employee was sick with Covid–but maybe not at the level you are specifying? When and where could mean anything from “Tuesday at noon at the deli counter” to “last week at this store”.  

        I having some passing familiarity with confidentiality and HIPAA and all the rest, but in my experience it gets vastly over-extended in practice.  That is, information that is in no way contra privacy laws will get quashed under the guise of HIPAA, even though it oughtn’t.

        My experience here is passing, as I said, so please correct me if I’m wrong, I’d love to see the wording wherein a medical privacy law forbids such disclosures–I have been curious about this issue since, oh, along about March…  : )

        • newnative December 26, 2020 (10:54 am)

          Information that could lead to identifying the person who has been diagnosed would violate privacy laws. I mean people are asking very specific questions about the diagnosed employee to see if they were exposed to them. When you should really be looking at your own behavior and the behavior of those around you. Do you wear a mask, do you keep at least 6 feet away from people, do you keep your indoor interactions at a minimum, do you wash your hands and keep them away from your face?  It’s been almost a year and there are still grown people getting close, not wearing masks and travelling while sick. It blows my mind. 

          • heartless December 26, 2020 (11:59 am)

            “Information that could lead to identifying the person who has been diagnosed would violate privacy laws”

            I understand the basic premise, but not the details of how it’s playing out, which is why I was asking the question. 

            The way you have phrased it  doesn’t tell me anything new, and just raises more questions:
            If a store with 2 employees tells the public it has closed due to an employee having Covid, surely that is “information that could lead to identifying” who had Covid, right?  Does that mean alerting the public in such cases is in violation of HIPAA/privacy laws?  That doesn’t seem right, but…maybe?

            (And I agree with your post, by the way–the best thing you can do is keep yourself safe–fewer shopping trips, mask up, keep your distance, all that practical advice.)

  • West Seattle December 26, 2020 (12:35 am)

    I know the person, who was tested positive. All I got to say that they fine and have no symptoms. They found out while they going to a appointment and they got tested at same not because they felt liked they had Covid or they had to. They got offered to get tested. They been doing everything they can to not get Covid. 

    • Toni December 26, 2020 (8:59 am)

      Thank you! Glad to hear they are doing okay!

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