CORONAVIRUS: Wednesday 12/16 roundup

Tonight’s toplines in the pandemic:

NEWEST KING COUNTY NUMBERS: First, from the Seattle-King County Public Health daily-summary dashboard, the cumulative totals:

*55,212 people have tested positive, 363 more than yesterday’s total

*954 people have died, 6 more than yesterday’s total

*3,765 people have been hospitalized, 17 more than yesterday’s total

*703,210 people have been tested, 2,619 more than yesterday’s total

One week ago, the four totals we track were 50,970/920/3,523/699,809.

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

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

BACK TO SCHOOL? The governor announced new guidelines today, and the Seattle Public Schools board put off its reopening vote until tomorrow. Here’s our coverage.

VACCINE UPDATE: Hundreds of people have been vaccinated, and tens of thousands more doses are on the way. Here’s the state Health Department‘s update.

GROCERY-STORE CASE: Checking grocery-store websites, we found news of another infected worker at Metropolitan Market-Admiral (WSB sponsor):

One of our Admiral Metropolitan Market team members tested positive for COVID-19 on December 16th. The team member last worked in the store on Saturday, December 12th. We are following the recommended response guidelines from public health authorities, including the Centers of Disease Control (CDC) and the King County Department of Health. In addition to the rigorous sanitation protocols we already have in place, the store undergoes a commercial-grade, electrostatic disinfectant service twice a week, and we are able to safely remain open at this time. All team members who came into close contact with the person who tested positive have been identified, notified, and are required to self-quarantine for 7-days and may return pending a negative COVID-19 test.

The store had a case last week too.

EVICTION MORATORIUM EXTENDED: The city has extended the moratorium on residential, nonprofit, and small-business evictions through March.

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

aa December 16, 2020 (11:46 pm)

Met market is not monitoring the number of people who enter the store. I’m not sure what the current rule is but I was in there about a week ago and it was crowded. Space marks on the floor at the check stands are not enough when there are so many people all around. I won’t be back for at least a few months. They mention team members who came in contact with the person, what about the customers? Disinfecting the space is not enough when there are too many people in an enclosed space.

Matthew December 17, 2020 (9:22 am)

Met Market has posted signs about COVID preparations, but the store does not feel safe to me. It’s often very crowded – I’ve never seen them control entry. They’ve begun displaying merchandise like fire logs and beer in the aisles. They also do their stocking during operating hours rather than overnight as they used to. Both of these changes make social distancing even harder in a crowded store. There’s also an army of Instcart workers who are surprisingly unfamiliar with the store and inefficient in their movements, further clogging things up. All of these things are within the store’s control but it looks like they’ve prioritized sales over safety. I’m staying away.

zephyr December 17, 2020 (5:43 pm)

Okay. So if we shopped on Saturday at the Met Market–like we always do–(masked and distanced). do we need to quarantine even more than normal and then get tested? Do people consider themselves exposed under such circumstances? .Is there anyway to find out what department this person was in? Maybe even what time they were in the store. That would help narrow our concerns down a little. Were they a cashier? Details would be nice. Thanks.

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