CORONAVIRUS: Wednesday 1/13/21 roundup

Tonight’s pandemic toplines:

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

*70,094 people have tested positive, 572 more than yesterday’s total

*1,151 people have died, 3 more than yesterday’s total

*4,494 people have been hospitalized, 6 more than yesterday’s total

*782,443 people have been tested, 2,212 more than yesterday’s total

One week ago, the four totals we track were 65.631/1,117/4,340/763,306.

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

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

VACCINATION UPDATES: This was the main topic of today’s weekly briefing by state health officials. Our state has received 624,000+ doses so far, and has administered about 32 percent of them – 201,660. While that’s not fast enough, they say that statewide the rate is getting up to 15,000-20,000 per day, and that’s encouraging. They hope to expand to Phase 1B within a few days but urge everybody who’s eligible in Phase 1A to hurry and get their shots. One big challenge, said Health Secretary Dr. Umair Shah – they need a more consistent supply funneled by the feds. They’re not only not getting a consistent supply, they’re not getting a long-range projection that will further enable planning.

TRENDS: Also at the briefing – last week’s downward trend in cases has ended and many parts of the state are headed back upward, spiking. The hospitalization rate, however, is not spiking … so far. You can see the entire briefing by going here.

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

North Admiral January 13, 2021 (11:45 pm)

The vaccines numbers are so frustrating. Even at 20k a day we’re taking 380 days to vaccinate the state. Why are 400k just sitting around? Just inject them into people and get this thing moving along

Matt P January 14, 2021 (11:11 am)

It’s happening all across the US. In the name of fairness, they’re letting vaccines go to waste. They should have 2 buckets – 1 based on fairness, and 1 for anyone who is willing to brave the lines. Those willing to brave long lines are probably the ones you want vaccinated first anyway since they are more likely to be out and about spreading it

Reality check January 14, 2021 (5:51 am)

The upward spiking might be due to the new more contagious variant. Did they discuss that at all?

WSB January 14, 2021 (6:22 am)

No.
Jamie January 14, 2021 (3:20 pm)

The more likely explanation is that we are seeing a post-Christmas/NYE spike given the incubation period of the virus.

WestSeattleNative January 14, 2021 (7:43 am)

The state Health Secretary is attempting to blame the Feds for the state’s failure to have an efficient vaccination program. The state knew the vaccine was coming and should have been ready, they weren’t and aren’t. Dow Constantine just announced the county will try and set up some more vaccination stations which “might” be ready by next month. Another example of the inept governing of the state and county.

anonyme January 14, 2021 (9:24 am)

Agreed, it is a combined failure, but there’s no excuse for the snail’s pace of vaccinations with the supply we already have. And Dow is insistent that seniors under 70 continue to wait in limbo without assignment to any tier, literally waiting until the end. This is not the first time Mr. Constantine has voted against seniors, but it will be the last if my vote has anything to do with it.
PG January 14, 2021 (2:42 pm)

Just out of curiosity, where was the money for this supposed to come from? Obviously not the Federal government.

joel January 14, 2021 (9:59 am)

mobile vaccine stations – like a blood draw lab or taco truck…Use a Sysco food truck to keep it at correct temp.

Reality check January 14, 2021 (1:51 pm)

Did you say, ‘like a taco truck?’

🙄

Well, I do like tacos…

Anne January 14, 2021 (1:11 pm)

Everything I’ve seen/read in the last week has emphasized SIMPLICITY -to get the vaccine out .I don’t believe our State knows that word . I also see that city/state say they are not getting information from Federal Government on how much vaccine they’ll be getting in a timely manner -so it’s hard to plan.If that’s true-I do see a problem-but they’ve had so much time to think about this-these categories are confusing for many. . SIMPLIFY.

flimflam January 14, 2021 (6:12 pm)

Nas far as I can see, “essential workers” like grocery and restaurant folks aren’t even on a schedule – behind jailed criminals and the homeless – maybe by December at this rate.

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