CORONAVIRUS: Tuesday 12/15 roundup

Vaccine day 2, and tonight’s other pandemic news:

NEWEST KING COUNTY NUMBERS: First the numbers, as shown in today’s daily summary from Seattle-King County Public Health – the cumulative totals:

*54,849 people have tested positive, 200 more than yesterday’s total

*948 people have died, 13 more than yesterday’s total

*3,748 people have been hospitalized, 34 more than yesterday’s total

*700,591 people have been tested, 5.711 more than yesterday’s total

One week ago, the totals were 50,326/905/3,486/662,486.

STATEWIDE NUMBERS: See them here.

NATIONAL/WORLDWIDE NUMBERS: 73.4 million cases worldwide, 16.7 million of them in the U.S. – see other nation-by-nation stats by going here.

VACCINE, DAY 2: As of noon today, the Department of Health says, 20,475 doses of vaccine had arrived in our state. Among those who got it today, a Seattle Fire Department paramedic. Another vaccine is expected to get approval by week’s end.

BRIEFING TOMORROW: State health experts continue their weekly Wednesday afternoon briefings. You can watch at 2 pm tomorrow – here’s the link.

SOME SEATTLE PUBLIC SCHOOLS IN-PERSON LEARNING? The district published an update tonight. In short – if the infection rate is a lot lower by February 22nd, the youngest students, through 1st grade, plus some special-education students could return to campus March 1st. The school board would have to authorize this plan at its Wednesday meeting (here’s the agenda).

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

TeamsFatiguedFirstGradeTeacher December 16, 2020 (6:11 am)

Well, Seattle, here’s our chance to get me and my first grade class back in school. Let’s do this!!!

JJ December 16, 2020 (9:01 am)

TFFGT, I am totally with you on getting the infection rate much lower, but until our whole family is vaccinated we will not be sending our kid back to school. I know the home is where most transmission happens (duh), but someone brings it home first.

Brian December 16, 2020 (9:16 am)

I have a first grader and while teams sucks, it’s way better than my lungs turning to Swiss cheese and my heart getting shredded. Let’s just finish the year.

wsperson December 16, 2020 (10:12 am)

Mine’s older but I won’t be sending him back until my whole family is vaccinated either.

Anna December 16, 2020 (10:33 am)

Good news re: SPS!

Toolittletoolate December 16, 2020 (12:46 pm)

Great news SPS! You can do this. But too little too late for my family. I have doubts SPS will ever get students back in a classroom and am tired of waiting. We are giving up and moving to a smaller school district where students have been in-person learning the entire time. Best of luck to all teachers, students, and families!

HW December 16, 2020 (12:47 pm)

To all of the posters saying they will prefer to wait till next year to return to in person schooling, please consider your privilege in being able to make that choice safely. Many families do not have the ability to follow the same social distancing best practices or support their kids at home with school due to in person work requirements, lack of resources to facilitate virtual school, etc. It is great we can make that choice but for families without the same choices this is a huge win.

Brian December 16, 2020 (2:03 pm)

You’re absolutely right. We should be holding elected officials accountable for abandoning the people of this country so that the rich could just get richer. I’m not talking about writing an email or leaving a voicemail either.
wsperson December 16, 2020 (3:48 pm)

Absolutely, it’s really good for people who need their kids to be in school, I said I would keep mine home but I fully support opening the schools for other people. Also, some might lose their unemployment checks when the schools open, having no daycare or school made you eligible to continue receiving it.

wseakell December 16, 2020 (2:30 pm)

Totally agree with HW! Many families can’t have their kids at home right now because they are required to work in person at essential jobs, so where are the kids? At expensive daycare most likely with more kids around than would be at school and much less learning and education support. Opening schools provides a safer and less expensive alternative to those families not privileged enough to stay at home, working or otherwise, with their kids. Please keep that in mind. I fully support opening up schools safely as soon as possible!

JJ December 16, 2020 (2:50 pm)

Yes, it is heartless the way we have pushed the working poor out to get infected and build herd immunity or die. I’m not a fan of the cruelty of our nation, but I’m not going to jump out to be cannon fodder. More illness and death do not make the bad situation better, only worse. We’ll be staying home until vaccination if our finances allow. We’ve lost one income to this virus… but I think we can hold out.

Brian December 16, 2020 (3:06 pm)

You’re so close to getting it. You’re somehow able to identify all of the reasons why the working class can’t support a stay-at-home order without being able to clearly see the causes of those conditions.

If folks had adequate support from their federal and state governments to weather this pandemic, we could mobilize an entire safe shutdown where “essential worker” status would drastically diminish and we would pay people monthly stipends to stay the heck at home.

A general strike seems like its in order

JJ December 16, 2020 (3:42 pm)

Also, why not give the teachers the opportunity to get vaccinated first? Show the support for the schools up front. Vaccinate them. And if our health department is using data from Florida and Texas with their open schools, they can take that garbage right back where it came from. Without adequate testing and tracing no school or workplace or should not be allowed to claim that they are not a driver of infection. That’s total and complete bulls–t. Maybe a general strike is in order. Anyway, keep your mask up.

AMD December 16, 2020 (8:35 pm)

The first vaccines are being prioritized to relieve the health care system. Healthcare workers, the elderly, and those who work with the elderly (since the elderly are most likely to need a hospital bed if they get sick) are first. My understanding is that teachers will be in the mix of the second wave (or an early one at least).

G December 16, 2020 (4:19 pm)

My child will absolutely not be returning to in person school anytime soon.I care about my child returning when it’s pretty much at least a 99% guaranteed safe return. I care about the teachers as well as the families of all the school workers and other students.We have done our part and I can guarantee we are 99% Covid free at my house, haven’t even gone to a store since March, no delivery or takeout food from restaurants because we don’t know for sure if the person handling the order is completely virus free and so far several restaurants have closed temporarily for cleaning because employees have been found positive.We wear our masks anytime we leave the house along with lots of hand washing and keeping our living space pretty much sanitized at all times. We are a home that wants to get back to normal as quickly as possible, but not in a rush or at the expense of contributing to the problem of spread or unknowingly perhaps cause another human to lose their precious life.For now my family is living this as our new and hopefully temporary new normal.If schools do reopen, how about those who want to go back can by all means and those who are more comfortable doing online learning can continue on in online school.Online schooling though challenging at times is working for my family.

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