CORONAVIRUS: Friday 3/5/2021 roundup

| Coronavirus | West Seattle news

We have vaccination news as usual, but let’s start with the numbers:

KING COUNTY NUMBERS: Here are the latest stats from the Public Health daily-summary page, cumulative totals:

*82,818 people have tested positive, 102 more than yesterday’s total

*1,412 people have died, 1 more than yesterday’s total

*5,125 people have been hospitalized, 12 more than yesterday’s total

*913,804 people have been tested, 1,776 more than yesterday’s total

Now, our weekly check of key numbers on the COVID Vaccination Among King County Residents dashboard:

*393.154 people have received one dose

*218,184 people have received both doses

*622,155 doses have been allocated to King County

One week ago, the first four totals were 81,918/1,380/5,084/900,647, and the vaccination totals were 327,087/166,236/546,035.

STATEWIDE NUMBERS: See them here.

WORLDWIDE NUMBERS: 116 million cases, 2,580,000+ deaths – see the nation-by-nation numbers here.

COUNTY HEALTH OFFICER’S BRIEFING: In his weekly briefing, Dr. Jeff Duchin said trends are still “better” than a few months ago, but warned that the case drop has plateaued, so precautions remain important to hold off a “fourth wave.” He said he’s “cautiously optimistic” that we can be “much closer to normal” by summer’s end. He also noted that variants are still active in the county; while very little genome sequencing is done, 43 cases of the UK variant have been found, and 5 of the South Africa variant.

VACCINATION SITUATION: The state says the short-term goal of 45,000 shots a day has been achieved. Some other numbers:

Due to an increase in weekly allocations, DOH has been able to provide more and more vaccine to our partners across the state. Washington’s 3-week forecast from the federal government helps DOH develop a multi-week strategy that supports consistency and predictability. The forecast is subject to change as vaccine availability from the federal government may change.

Week of March 7: 309,770 total doses (163,660 first doses, 146,110 second doses)
Week of March 14: 320,300 total doses (163,660 first doses, 156,640 second doses)
Week of March 21: 327,320 total doses (163,660 first doses, 163,660 second doses)

Although we are moving in the right direction, we still are not able to provide all the doses our providers request. Next week’s allocation is about 100,000 fewer doses than our providers requested.

WEST SEATTLE VACCINATIONS: No open public process announced for the week ahead at the new West Seattle site alongside the testing site at Southwest Athletic Complex‘s parking lot (2801 SW Thistle), but a reader forwarded an announcement about the plan for Thursdays, from the Equity in Education Coalition, which is signing people up for those days:

This site is prioritizing Black/Indigenous/People of Color who are:

– 65 years of age or older
– 50 years of age or older AND who live in a multigenerational household (with a grandparent or a grandchild)
– childcare providers over the age of 18
– live-in homecare providers over the age of 18
– paid or unpaid caretakers

We are currently not prioritizing teachers, as Seattle Public Schools is developing a plan for vaccinating SPS staff. We also encourage teachers to access the vaccine through their primary care providers or through their local neighborhood pharmacy/drug store.

* Folks will not be asked for your Social Security Number,
* Folks will not be asked about your immigration status,
* This is not zip-code locked (you can be from any zip code to get an appt slot)

For those who qualify, here is the link to sign up.

ALSO FOR VACCINE-SEEKERS … other places to check, as previously featured:
*Volunteer-compiled covidwa.com
*Pharmaca Integrative Pharmacy in The Junction – check here for appointments
*Local Safeway pharmacies – check here
*Local Rite Aid pharmacies – check here
*Local QFC pharmacies – check here
*Sea Mar‘s walk-in availabilities (White Center and South Park are their nearest locations)
*Veterans of any age who get health care from the VA can check for appointments
*The city’s standby list for people 65+ who would be able to drop everything and go to a city-run clinic if there are leftover doses at day’s end – the registration page explains
*City Councilmember Lisa Herbold‘s weekly newsletter again focuses on vaccine info

SCHOOL STANDOFF: Seattle Public Schools and the Seattle Education Association remain at loggerheads over the former’s unilateral announcement that staff for Special Education “intensive pathways” and preschool students must return to schools next week. SEA is urging members to “stay the course”; the district says it’s ready to resume some in-person learning.

Of note, district and teachers in Highline Public Schools immediately to our south haven’t reached an agreement yet, either.

IF YOU NEED TESTING SATURDAY: The city’s West Seattle test site (2801 SW Thistle) continues to be open on Saturdays.

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

Andy McCone March 6, 2021 (7:40 am)

Is that correct, the Death stats from last week? Or are this week’s numbers wrong? Last week was 1380 this week is 1312?“One week ago, the first four totals were 81,918/1,380/5,084/900,647“

workdowntown March 6, 2021 (7:51 am)

Hate to be a downer, but looks like the death number is understated…

WSB March 6, 2021 (10:24 am)

Fixed. Checking my screengrab from Friday (since they don’t archive the page as-is, I keep screengrabs of the county page now), it was 1,412, not 1,512.
https://westseattleblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Screen-Shot-2021-03-05-at-9.43.17-PM-e1615055241113.png

JJ March 6, 2021 (8:05 am)

Take a look at this recent publication. https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciab183 Children get Covid, often show only mild or no symptoms and are hard to test with a very high false negative rate on PCRs. They also suffer long Covid with lingering symptoms in about 13 percent of infected young children. Apparently, adults are biased to ignore mild symptoms in children. There is no evidence that children are not vectors. But read it for yourself.

Pessoa March 6, 2021 (2:12 pm)

A little perspective. First, you have to take into consideration that the study looks at countries such Spain and Australia, along with the U.S. One has to account for various cultural differences and school systems in those countries, which may or may not be confounding factors. True, the study does raise the possibility of higher child transmission rates, but does not refute the extremely low infection mortality rate for children (.002%) and the rarity of serious inflammatory reactions, despite the lingering infection as long as 5 weeks. Kids, as rule, don’t die from Covid-19. Even in adults under 65, the infection mortality rate is less than 1% (even though you are very unlikely to contract it), and drops dramatically for the younger. When is “safe” going to be “safe enough?” We could wait until every man, woman and child is vaccinated, but this sort of irrationality does not bode well for us as a society in the future. https://www.doh.wa.gov/Portals/1/Documents/1600/coronavirus/MultisystemInflammatorySyndromeChildrenCOVID19WA2020.pdf

a teacher March 6, 2021 (9:53 am)

Nice that as a teacher, this is where I hear that SPS is developing a plan to vaccinate teachers… SPS is not effectively communicating with teachers about anything with regard to this.

Math Teacher March 6, 2021 (2:56 pm)

If you are an SPS teacher, you received an email from the Superintendent on Jan 19 about SPS and Swedish partnering to provide vaccinations to educational staff as they become eligible. The title of the email was “Important Update on COVID-19 Vaccine for Staff ” and you can probably find it by searching your Outlook folders.

The email contains links to Phase finder info and Swedish appointment system. At the time that email went out, most teachers were not yet eligible. This week’s Federal Guidance to states to prioritize teachers caught locals by surprise, so the links may take a few days to be updated and reflect the new phase rules.

There is also a partnership “Get Ready” plan between Kaiser, OSPI, and the State Dept of Health to vaccinate educators throughout the state, also announced in January. As of a few days ago, Kaiser’s automated phase finders had not been updated to reflect the new eligibility, but if you call and are very patient, you do reach a human who has the new rules.

Kim March 6, 2021 (11:07 am)

Isn’t it that ways always with certain school district, you learn information first from the news versus the school district itself.
School District are known for their lack of clear communication with employees it seems like for certain things.

West Seattle parent March 6, 2021 (11:22 am)

I feel for the teachers personally. We have people in my family that are essential workers and have to go to work. So we rely on an independent childcare center that is paid less with no union protection and no benefits. They are doing their best to teach but they are not professional educators. They are also not equipped to deal with our kids IEP needs.There are already also tons of kids in community centers and other groupings while their parents are working. They are trying to attend school online from these noisy places with limited support. I’m running out of patience for the fact that we can’t even get the intensive pathways kids or vulnerable kids into in person learning when other towns manage to get there.Perhaps instead of continuing to negotiate with the union we should put effort into compensating the people who have been showing up to try to educate the kids already?

flimflam March 6, 2021 (12:07 pm)

eh, i feel more for the countless “essential workers” that have been plugging away since the beginning of this, face to face with the public everyday. now that its clear teachers aren’t returning to the classroom this year, why the need to rush them into the vaccine line?
- Helping Seniors March 6, 2021 (2:06 pm)
  
  West Seattle seniors are still behind the rest of King County in finding and getting their vaccine after two months. It would be grand if teachers were given an appointment only after they helped a senior secure an appointment, and, if needed, drove them to the appointment (one can dream).
- MW March 6, 2021 (7:25 pm)
  
  Many teachers and districts have been in person for quite some time. I’ve been in person in a neighboring district since January (and our students with special needs and staff have been in person the whole time to some extent) and I welcome the opportunity to schedule my vaccine. Seattle isn’t the only district in the state and just because they may not be going back in person doesn’t mean that state wide other educators shouldn’t be in line. I appreciate that many other industries and front line workers would like to be earlier in the phases and I recognize your frustration.

Mj March 6, 2021 (12:17 pm)

In today’s Seattle Times page A7, “Most COVID-19 deaths were in nations with high obesity levels”. Old age is the number 1 risk factor followed by obesity as a very significant factor.

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