Here’s our nightly roundup of local COVID-19-related neww:

KING COUNTY’S UPDATED NUMBERS: From this afternoon’s Seattle-King County Public Health news release:

33 new cases of COVID-19 have been reported to Public Health – Seattle & King County through 11:59 p.m. on 3/8/20, bringing the total number of reported King County cases to 116.

Of the 33 new cases reported today, two are deaths. In addition, one person who was previously reported as a positive case has now died. The total number of deaths reported to Public Health is now 20. The three deaths being reported today include:

A woman in her 80s, a Life Care Center resident, was hospitalized at EvergreenHealth, and died on 3/4/20. (This case is included in the 33 new cases reported today.)

A woman in her 90s, a Life Care Center resident, was hospitalized at Harborview Medical Center, and died on 3/8/20. (This case is included in the 33 new cases reported today.)

A woman in her 70s, a Life Care Center resident, who was hospitalized at EvergreenHealth, and who died on 3/8/20 (This case was previously reported as a positive case on 3/4/20, in an earlier case count.)

Of the 20 [King County] deaths reported, 19 are associated with Life Care Center.

OTHER NUMBERS: Official dally statewide reports are here; a nationwide/worldwide look is here,

FIRST CASE PUBLICLY LINKED TO WEST SEATTLE: As we reported earlier in the evening, a South Seattle College (WSB sponsor) student has a confirmed case of COVID-19 and is now in “self-isolation.” The college was already moving to “alternatve modes of instruction” for the rest of winter quarter and is now going entirely into remote-operation mode, as explained here.

CITY COUNCIL BRIEFING: Seattle City Councilmembers had their first meeting by phone today. Starting seven minutes in, they got a COVID-19 briefing from county and city officials:

REP. JAYAPAL’S TOWN HALL: We listened in tonight as U.S. House Rep. Pramila Jayapal, also accompanied by a local Public Health official, presided over an hourlong telephnne town hall focused on the outbreak. We haven’t yet found a recording of it but the major bit of news was that the federal government is sending more protection gear. 4,000+ people listened in, Jayapal noted. Her website’s coronavirus infopage is here

SEATTLE FIRE DEPARTMENT: Wondering what kind of training firefighters are getting regarding dealing with medical calls? SFD published this video:

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TOP HAT QUARANTINE/ISOLATION SITE: No patients at the SW 112th site yet. We followed up with King County today and will be writing a story for White Center Now shortly; we’ll link it here when published. (10:30 pm update: Here’s the link.)

TIRED OF WORKING ALONE AT HOME? Kevin is starting a daily community bike ride.

RESPONSE FUND: Want to help the organizations on the front lines of COVID-19 community response? Heather shares this link about a new fund.

TOMORROW: Gov. Jay Inslee just announced a 9 am news conference “to detail new policies that will support workers and businesses impacted by COVD-19, as well as announce a directive for long-term facilities in the state. The governor’s office says it will be streamed on TVW.

WHAT’S CANCELED, POSTPONED, CHANGED LOCALLY: We’re continuing to update our West Seattle list – see it here. If your organization, business, church, school, group, etc. has cancellations, postponements, changes, PLEASE let us know – westseattleblog@gmail.com or text/voice 206-293-6302.

WSB CONTINUING COVERAGE: Everything we publish related to the COVID-19 situation is categorized so that you can find it anytime at westseattleblog.com/category/coronavirus. We’re also using Twitter (@westseattleblog) for instant bursts.

We’ve just received word that this update has been published on the South Seattle College (WSB sponsor) website:

South Seattle College learned on Monday, March 9 that a student at our main campus in West Seattle has tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. Information so far indicates the student was on campus for an evening class, entering one classroom in the University Center Building (UNI). UNI is now closed in preparation for cleaning and sanitization.

The individual is complying with instructions from health care professionals to stay home in self-isolation, and we wish our student the best in their recovery. A college employee who had a confirmed interaction with the student is in contact with their physician and has been advised to remain at home.

College officials are in direct communication with King County Public Health, and stand ready to support their work. Department of Health guidance at this time is that you generally need to be in close contact with someone with COVID-19 to get infected. Close contact includes scenarios like living with or caring for a person with confirmed COVID-19, being within six feet of a person with confirmed COVID-19 for about 10 minutes, or if someone with COVID-19 coughed on you, kissed you, shared utensils with you, or you had direct contact with their body secretions.

Following the guidance from King County Public Health and out of an abundance of caution, South Seattle College is moving the main campus in West Seattle to remote operations starting March 10 and for the remainder of Winter Quarter, ending March 25, 2020. During this time, the West Seattle campus at 6000 16th Ave SW will be closed for deep-cleaning and sanitization and to provide us time to work with public health officials to best protect the campus community and slow the possible spread of coronavirus (COVID-19).

Georgetown Campus, NewHolly Learning Center classrooms and the Harbor Island Training Center will stay open (with possible alternative modes of instruction in place) at this time.

College leadership is actively planning for remote operations, and additional information will be shared in the coming days. Students, please keep in contact with your instructors, and more information about accessing student services will be shared soon. Faculty and staff, please keep in contact with your supervisors as we work through this ever-changing and unprecedented situation.

Staff and faculty may come to campus on March 10 to consult with their supervisor and gather necessary supplies for remote work. Staff should reference recent emails from IT Services and Human Resources for further instruction. Staff who receive a paper paycheck can stop by the cashier’s office by 2 p.m. on March 10. Otherwise, the paycheck will be mailed to your home address on file.

We have made this decision to put the safety, health and well-being of our campus community first. Students, please keep in contact with your instructors, and faculty and staff, please keep in contact with your supervisors as we work through this ever-changing and unprecedented situation.

SSC already had started the process of moving to “alternative modes of instruction” starting this week. This is the first *announced* case of COVID-19 publicly linked to West Seattle, though we can’t say for sure that there aren’t others, as Seattle-King County Public Health has stopped announcing details on new cases.

Our nightly roundup of local (mostly, this time) info related to the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak:

KING COUNTY NUMBERS UPDATE: From the daily Seattle-King County Public Health update:

12 new cases of COVID-19 have been reported to Public Health – Seattle & King County through 11:59 p.m. on 3/7/20, bringing the total number of reported King County cases to 83.

Of the 12 new cases reported today, two are deaths. The total number of deaths reported to Public Health is now 17. The two deaths being reported today include:

A woman in her 80s, a Life Care Center resident, was hospitalized at EvergreenHealth, and who died on 3/6/20
A man in his 90s, a Life Care Center resident, was hospitalized at Harborview Medical Center, and who died 3/5/20

Of the 17 deaths reported, 16 are associated with Life Care Center.

NEW FORMAT FOR DAILY STATEWIDE REPORTS: As mentioned last night, the state changed the time and format for its daily reports (which are always at this link). Now it’s including the breakdown by age groups among confirmed COVID-19 cases among other stats – here are screengrabs from today’s report:

Again, those are STATEWIDE numbers. We have generally been just publishing the King County numbers in this nightly report, but with the format change, the statewide report seemed worth a closer look tonight.

LOOKING FOR A WORLDWIDE OVERVIEW? Try the Johns Hopkins-produced dashboard.

CRUISE CONCERNS + WHAT WE DISCOVERED ABOUT ONE QUARANTINED SHIP: With Seattle a major, albeit seasonal, cruise-ship hub, it’s worth noting that the State Department tweeted today that Americans should avoid cruising because of the coronavirus outbreak:

The cruise season in Seattle is scheduled to start April 1st – and when we looked up the schedule (PDF) tonight, we discovered that the first ship scheduled to call here is Grand Princess, currently dealing with a COVID-19 crisis. Grand Princess’s scheduled stop is its only Seattle visit on the schedule; it’s not listed as one of the ships slated to be based from here this season. But we’ll be following up tomorrow with the cruise line and the Port of Seattle.

(Port of Seattle photo, October 2019)

Added: Grand Princess also was the last cruise ship to stop in Seattle last year. 2nd addition: Here’s a comment from the port:

We appreciate the work of the federal government and cruise lines to institute new protocols related to cruise passenger safety and health. This is a rapidly developing situation and we are in daily contact with federal and local officials.

The safety, health, and well-being of cruise passengers, employees, community, and first responders always comes first. Therefore, we are actively reviewing multiple options about the launch of the 2020 cruise season with our cruise operators, the United States Coast Guard, public health authorities, and local leaders. We are using the time before cruise season starts to closely coordinate with our partners. We will report back to the public soon with further information about our upcoming plans for the season.

SOUTH SEATTLE COLLEGE REMINDER: In case you missed the Saturday announcement, a reminder – South Seattle College (WSB sponsor) is ceasing most in-person classes and moving to “alternative modes of instruction” for the rest of winter quarter starting Tuesday, after taking tomorrow to plan and communicate. SSC’s updates are here.

GLOBAL READING CHALLENGE: With Seattle Public Library events canceled – though the facilities remain open – that mean the Global Reading Challenge semifinals, set to start continuing tomorrow morning, are going “virtual.”

WHAT’S CANCELED, POSTPONED, CHANGED LOCALLY: We’re keeping a West Seattle list – see it here. If your organization, business, church, school, group, etc. has cancellations, postponements, changes, PLEASE let us know – westseattleblog@gmail.com or text/voice 206-293-6302.

WSB CONTINUING COVERAGE: Everything we publish related to the COVID-19 situation is categorized so that you can find it anytime at westseattleblog.com/category/coronavirus. We’re also using Twitter (@westseattleblog) for instant bursts.

Here’s our nightly roundup of local info:

NEWEST KING COUNTY NUMBERS: From today’s official Seattle-King County Public Health announcement:

13 new cases of COVID-19 have been reported to Public Health – Seattle & King County through 11:59 p.m. on 3/6/20, bringing the total number of reported King County cases to 71.

Of the 13 new cases reported today, two are deaths. In addition, two cases previously reported last week are people who have now died. The total number of deaths reported to Public Health is now 15. The four deaths being reported today include:

A man in his 70s, a Life Care Center resident, was hospitalized at EvergreenHealth, and who died on 3/2/20. This case is included in the 13 new cases being reported today.

A woman in her 80s, a Life Care Center resident, was hospitalized at Harborview Medical Center, and who died 3/5/20. This case is included in the 13 new cases being reported today.

A woman in her 70s, a Life Care Center resident, was hospitalized at EvergreenHealth, and who died on 3/6/20. This case was previously reported on 3/5/20.

A woman in her 80s, a Life Care Center resident, was hospitalized at EvergreenHealth, and who died on 3/6/20. This case was previously reported on 3/2/20.
Of the 15 deaths reported, 14 are associated with Life Care Center.

If you are interested in statewide numbers/info, see the Washington Department of Health COVID-19 page. (Added: The DOH announced tonight that the time and format of its daily statewide reports will change starting tomorrow.)

‘ALTERNATIVE MODES OF INSTRUCTION’ AT SOUTH SEATTLE COLLEGE: The Seattle Colleges, including South Seattle College (WSB sponsor), whose main campus is on Puget Ridge, announced this morning that they are moving to “alternative modes of instruuction” for the rest of the winter quarter. “Classroom and instructional staff will make local decisions about which modes to employ for each particular course,” says the announcment, so wait to hear from faculty.

CHANGES FOR CHURCHES: Some are canceling services. Some are going online. Some are already there. Here’s our roundup.

FARMERS’ MARKET IS ON TOMORROW: Here’s the story we published Friday with market managers explaining why they ARE going ahead with West Seattle and other markets.

REVIEW THE RECOMMENDATIONS: SKCPH’s guidance on how to protect yourself and others is here.

WHAT’S BEING CANCELED, POSTPONED, CHANGED: Our West Seattle list continues growing – see it here. If your organization, business, church, school, group, etc. has cancellations, postponements, changes, please let us know – westseattleblog@gmail.com or text/voice 206-293-6302.

WSB CONTINUING COVERAGE: Everything we publish related to all this is categorized so that you can find it anytime at westseattleblog.com/category/coronavirus. We’re also using Twitter (@westseattleblog) for instant bursts.