PANDEMIC UPDATES: Weekly check-in #9, 9/5/2021

Here’s our weekly roundup of local pandemic updates, starting with the newest local numbers.

KING COUNTY CUMULATIVE NUMBERS AS OF FRIDAY:

137,785 people have tested positive – 4,138 more than a week ago (4,946 in West Seattle, up 189)
7,463 people have been hospitalized – 174 more than a week ago (230 from West Seattle, up 8)
1,776 people have died – 23 more than a week ago (69 in West Seattle, unchanged)

VACCINATION RATE:

77.9% of King County residents 12+ have completed their vaccine series (up .6% in the past week)

By West Seattle zip code:
98106 – 80.4%
98116 – 86%
98126 – 75.5%
98136 – 87%
98146 – 74.7%

(More COVID-related King County stats here)

PANDEMIC NEWS

Mask order expanding – On Tuesday (September 7th), masks will be mandatory at outdoor events in King County if 500+ people are expected, as announced this past Thursday.

State employees’ tentative agreement – There were rumblings of labor unrest as a result of the governor’s vaccine mandate for state employees, but that’s apparently been headed off by this tentative agreement.

Tracking COVID at schoolSeattle Public Schools has a dashboard that it promises will display case numbers by region – but the year’s first weekly update isn’t up yet.

NEED TO GET TESTED IN WEST SEATTLE?

The UW Medicine testing service at the Nino Cantu Southwest Athletic Complex parking lot (2801 SW Thistle) continues to operate; you can make an appointment here, though readers report walk-ups have been accepted. Meantime, the Curative testing kiosk at Don Armeni Boat Ramp (1222 Harbor SW) is also still operating. In addition, both West Seattle Walgreens stores are offering drive-up testing (35th/Morgan and 16th/Roxbury) – more info here.

NOT VACCINATED YET?

Go here to see where you can change that.

18 Replies to "PANDEMIC UPDATES: Weekly check-in #9, 9/5/2021"

  • Neighbor September 6, 2021 (7:51 am)

    Am I remembering correctly, are the cases continuing to rise here week over week? What has been the highest per week cases in WS throughout this whole thing?

    • WSB September 6, 2021 (10:50 am)

      Second question, I don’t know, though you could wander around the dashboard and possibly come up with that – “geography over time” used to show two weeks at a time (remember to add the West Seattle and Delridge HSAs together for the full WS total). As for the first question, looking at the nine weekly updates since we switched from daily updates, this is the highest level of the past two months. With our first weekly update as a baseline, the weekly case increases since then have been
      39
      44
      53
      163
      181
      165
      176
      189
      (Again, that’s week to week in the “Health Reporting Areas” labeled West Seattle and Delridge.)

      • ACG September 6, 2021 (11:49 am)

        Thanks for posting those numbers from the last few weeks all together for comparison. I was wondering the same thing. Appreciate all the information you provide!!

      • JJ September 6, 2021 (11:58 am)

        That’s a lot of our neighbors testing positive every week. I hope they recover.

        • Wseattleite September 6, 2021 (1:02 pm)

          Only a tiny percentage will not recover based on historical statistics. 

    • Smittytheclown September 6, 2021 (11:38 am)

      Actually cases are declining slightly.  Just click on the “a week ago” link at the top of the story.  You can go back one week at a time.  

  • Pessoa September 6, 2021 (5:32 pm)

    A recent Israeli study appears to show that natural immunity is far more effective against the Delta variant than two doses of the Pfizer. One wonders where we would be now if we had let the original strain circulate through the healthy and young population, to which it posed a very minimal mortality risk, while safeguarding the vulnerable.  We can only speculate now, but I believe it is as likely that the pandemic was prolonged and we suffered more pain in the long run by the wrong approach, vis a vis,  lock downs. 

    • that’s not how it works September 6, 2021 (8:06 pm)

      What would have happened if polio was left to “natural immunity”? 

    • OneTimeCharley September 6, 2021 (8:11 pm)

      We would have at a minimum a million additional deaths in the U.S. alone.

      • Pessoa September 7, 2021 (1:17 pm)

        Perhaps, but I’m not so sure.  Whether it is was logistically feasible or not I don’t know, but I think we – the world health organizations – badly miscalculated.  After all, fatalities among children were extremely rare, and serious complications were only slightly more prevalent among teenagers and those in their 20’s and 30’s.  Instead of the much better protection against variants conferred by natural antibodies, we are now facing booster after booster against potentially more dangerous variants.  But again, this is just a hindsight thought experiment at this point. 

    • Rara September 6, 2021 (10:36 pm)

      I wonder the same. Natural immunity does work wonders. Especially after hearing a ton of doctors talk about this subject. However nobody really knows what would have happened. Polio is a whole other can of worms. And the Spanish flu, well my family survived simply by not being around others. And a ton of people died due to doctors overdosing them on aspirin. They just didn’t know any better. My father is in his 70’s and has never been vaccinated for anything. 🤷‍♀️ It’s every man for himself. You just have to take care of your own household. You can’t do anything else. 

    • Matt P September 6, 2021 (11:26 pm)

      The report hasn’t been peer reviewed.  It didn’t account for social distancing or mask use, and it didn’t test entire populations – only those who chose to get tested.  The numbers are also vanishingly small – a couple hundred cases out of tens of thousands.  They also acknowledge that it’s likely those who have been infected and get re-infected with a later mild case are far less likely to get tested than those who never had an infection and get a mild case after being vaccinated – so it’s most likely that these results are bunk and will not pass peer review especially since those who were infected and got a vaccine supposedly get even greater infection even though the number of these is in the single digits.  The 13 times more likely finding is pure statistical manipulation for no reason.

    • AMD September 7, 2021 (1:01 am)

      We don’t need to wonder, we know.  The Delta variant came about in a population that was not yet vaccinated.  That’s what happens when people get infected with COVID.  It evolves and mutates, and some of those mutations will be viable in the population, and make more people sicker than the original.  You don’t need to speculate.  We are LITERALLY watching what happens when the virus is allowed to run unchecked through unvaccinated populations.

    • Peoplenotpercentages September 7, 2021 (6:24 am)

      My sister is an ICU nurse and her recent patients have been in their late 30s and 40s. She’s facilitating family goodbyes via the phone. I think if we’d let this run unchecked, more families would be saying goodbye to folks who are young. More kids would grow up without mom or dad or both. Sure, lots of folks would be fine. But there would be a whole lot more in the ICU.

  • Jay September 6, 2021 (6:16 pm)

    SPS has updated their dashboard to show 10 students/2 staff in the SW Region tested positive during the first week of school.  I wish it was as good as Bellevue School District’s dashboard, which drills down to each school and is updated daily.  

  • Madison parent September 6, 2021 (7:39 pm)

    If I’m looking at the right place it looks like the COVID dashboard for Seattle Public Schools updates Monday.  The latest indicates 12 cases in SW region.   10 students.  2 staff. 

    • WSB September 6, 2021 (7:58 pm)

      I’m actually writing about that shortly, separately. I didn’t expect it to be updated today given the holiday but the data appeared since last night.

  • Get vaccinated 98126 and 98146 September 6, 2021 (9:54 pm)

    1 out 4 in 98126 and 98146 are not vaccinated that are eligible. This % doesnt seem to change much over last few weeks. SW seattle schools have highest number of cases. There is a correlation between cases and % vaccinated based on research in other areas. Please 25% get vaccinated to protect our community and kids. We all need to do our part.

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