CORONAVIRUS: Thursday 2/11/2021 roundup

The governor’s latest updates top tonight’s roundup:

GOVERNOR’S BRIEFING: Under the latest version of the reopening plan, the state reviews stats by region every two weeks, and announces by Friday where everyone will be the following Monday. Today, Gov. Inslee announced all but one region (South-Central) will be in Phase 2 as of Sunday (moving it up a day for Valentine’s Day, at a reporter’s suggestion). “We are making real progress on the pandemic,” he declared, touting the dropping case numbers.

He also cited “huge” progress in vaccination acceleration, though the story was the same one we’ve heard for a while now – many more people could be vaccinated if only enough vaccine was available. So for counties like ours that are already in Phase 2, when will there be word of criteria for Phase 3? No timeline yet, Inslee said. You can watch the briefing here.

NEWEST KING COUNTY NUMBERS: From the Public Health daily-summary dashboard, here are today’s cumulative totals (no data notes explaining the extra-low numbers in some categories, if you’re wondering):

*79,233 people have tested positive, 66 more than yesterday’s total

*1,305 people have died, unchanged from yesterday’s total

*4,958 people have been hospitalized, 16 more than yesterday’s total

*867,522 people have been tested, 89 more than yesterday’s total

One week ago, the four totals we track were 77,841/1,279/4,846/841.693.

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

WORLDWIDE NUMBERS: 107.7 million cases worldwide, 27.3 million of them in the U.S. See the nation-by-nation breakout here.

VACCINATION EQUITY: A new state report is out. It includes these datapoints:

*The percentage of vaccinated people who are Hispanic (4.7% of people who have received at least one dose, 5.9% of people who are fully vaccinated) is lower than Hispanic representation in the state population (13.2%).

*The percentage of vaccinated people who are Black (2.2% of people who have received at least one dose, 2.7% of people who are fully vaccinated) is lower than Black representation in the state population (3.9%).

*Multiracial groups are also underrepresented compared to the overall state population, both among people who have received at least one dose of vaccine and people who are fully vaccinated.

SCHOOL OUTBREAKS: Another new state report has stats on outbreaks in K-12 schools:

Local health jurisdictions reported 84 COVID-19 outbreaks that occurred in K-12 schools across thirteen counties between August 1, 2020 and December 31, 2020. The number of outbreaks by county ranged from 1 to 33. A total of 305 COVID-19 cases were associated with these outbreaks. The median number of cases per outbreak was three. Sixty four percent of all outbreaks involved two or three cases. The smallest outbreak involved two cases, and the largest involved 13.

NEED FOOD? 2-5 pm tomorrow at Food Lifeline (815 S. 96th) HQ, it’s the weekly distribution of emergency food boxes.

HIGHLAND PARK ‘SNACK PACK’ EVENT POSTPONED: Because of the likelihood of more snow, this food-distribution event tomorrow afternoon at Highland Park Elementary is off, but the one set for 3-5 pm February 26th is still on.

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

Person February 12, 2021 (5:39 am)

Does anyone know what the percent positive number is based on? Is it really only the number of people who happen to be tested that day? That doesn’t seem like a meaningful number.

JJ February 12, 2021 (7:57 am)

It might be the most meaningful number, giving a clue to how much COVID is going undetected in the people not tested. Because so many cases are asymptotic or just mildly symptomatic at the time that a PCR test would detect the disease there are many positive people not seeking testing. The hospitalized patients will only be counted as Covid patients if they had sought testing during the viral phase of their illness. They likely won’t turn up for hospitalization until the inflammatory phase of their illness when some still test positive and some don’t anymore. Likewise the deaths will only be counted as Covid deaths if the person sought testing while still in the viral phase of illness. The positivity rate gives a glimpse of what might not be accounted for in the other numbers and in the community. You could get the other numbers to near zero by restricting testing, but the positivity rate would remain high of disease prevalence was actually high in the population.
JJ February 12, 2021 (7:59 am)

It’s a 7 day average, not just one day.

Ashley February 12, 2021 (9:03 am)

Are people not getting tested recently because they don’t need to? Seems like they would be higher with those traveling for mid-winter break (and yes, quite a few families are sadly) The number are so low for people being tested