PANDEMIC UPDATES: Weekly check-in #17, 10/31/2021

Sunday night brings our weekly update on local pandemic stats and news.

KING COUNTY CUMULATIVE NUMBERS (through Friday – they’re not updated on weekends):

*164,219 cases – 2,813 more than a week ago (5,862 total in West Seattle, up 93)
*8,427 hospitalizations – 83 more than a week ago (248 total from West Seattle, up 3)
*2,007 people have died – 37 more than a week ago (74 total in West Seattle, up 1)

VACCINATION RATE

82.9% of King County residents 12+ have completed their vaccine series (up .5% in the past week)

By West Seattle zip code:
98106 – 84.5%
98116 – 88.4%
98126 – 80.2%
98136 – 89.9%
98146 – 80.3%

(Find more COVID-related King County stats here)

THE WEEK’S PANDEMIC HEADLINES

New vaccination location – Friday and Saturday were the first days of operation for the city’s new West Seattle vaccination site, at Neighborhood House High Point. We had first word of the location on Monday and covered the briefing there on Tuesday. They’re accepting walk-ins as well as offering appointments.

Vaccine for kids under 12 – Vaccinations for ages 5-11 might be authorized as soon as this week. The new West Seattle hub’s operators say they’ll be ready to offer them as soon as they’re approved.

Outbreaks in schools – The state issued a new report this week. State health official Lacy Fehrenbach is quoted in the announcement as saying, ““While we never want to see an outbreak occur in a school setting, the relatively small size of outbreaks is an indication that schools are working very hard to respond when there are cases among students, teachers, and staff.”

Vaccination verification – Tomorrow marks 1 week since King County’s vaccination-verification rule took effect for.a variety of venues, as explained here. No

NEED TO GET TESTED IN WEST SEATTLE?

The UW Medicine testing service in 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, as is a Curative location at Summit Atlas (35th/Roxbury). In addition, both West Seattle Walgreens stores are offering drive-up testing (35th/Morgan and 16th/Roxbury) – more info here.

Lola November 1, 2021 (7:53 am)

Is the Vaccine Clinic in WS doing Second shots? Thank you.

WSB November 1, 2021 (9:13 am)

Yes, 1st or 2nd or boosters. If you use the registration link
https://seattle.signetic.com/service?lang=en
the first question will ask you if you are registering for a first or second shot, or a booster.
Or you can just show up.

Sasquatch November 1, 2021 (8:04 am)

Is that west Seattle hub up and running? Whenever I go to register for a booster shot it says “information coming soon”

WSB November 1, 2021 (9:12 am)

Yes, they operated both Friday and Saturday, which are the two days a week they’re open for starters. Don’t know where you’re seeing that – seattle.gov/vaccine has the link (“register today”) on the page linked above – or you can start here:
https://seattle.signetic.com/service?lang=en

WSDave November 1, 2021 (10:00 am)

With so much supply, why in the world are we imposing restrictions on who can receive this?

West Seattle Mad Sci Guy November 2, 2021 (12:56 pm)

They haven’t demonstrated it is necessary for everyone to get it yet (benefits vs possible downsides of having a third dose)That said my doc seems to be offering it to whomever wants it.

DBurns November 1, 2021 (10:00 am)

The SWAC (Nino Cantu) site is excellent and accepted my husband and myself for walk up testing without issue after traveling. Results in about 40 hours. Last week one of our family members came over and woke up super sick the next day (sore throat, cough & headache). We all felt exposed and have work and an unvaccinated baby grandson that we see every day. While we waited for her results we quarantined but grabbed home tests from Fred Meyer – they let you buy 4 [8 tests] and were able to home test which was a great relief while we waited. She was also negative but this was a super stressful realization of what it looks like to get a cold these days.

JJ November 1, 2021 (11:01 am)

This weekend we got walk-up testing and results in under 24 hours. What a great operation and testing site. Yup, colds are quite a different thing these days… or maybe being post viral and vaccinated our family fights off a SARS infection so fast now that we never catch the window of positivity with a PCR? This weekend’s “cold” was strangely short lived. Mercifully. Score one for the immune system either way.

Auntie November 1, 2021 (11:45 am)

And please don’t forget to get your flu shots! (also pneumonia, if you haven’t already done so)

Stupid in Seattle November 1, 2021 (2:02 pm)

Great to see King County vaccination rate at 83%. Now can the mask and vaccine mandates stop? Or what case and hospitalization numbers lead to removal of each mandate?

even stupider November 1, 2021 (3:32 pm)

And how about the travel quarantine rules, when will those end? I’m talking about the ones that require kids to quarantine after out-of-state travel if they haven’t been vaccinated. Any out-of-state travel, not specific to exposure or anything like that. It seems over the top.
WSDave November 1, 2021 (3:53 pm)

None of this is going to stop in the PS. There will always be an excuse for why we should mask up and show cards even if we have a 99.5 % vax rate. Many people were telling me that this would stop “when the kids can get a shot”. Now I am not hearing any of that when kids almost at that point. It would be nice for our “leaders” to tell us what those numbers need to be for them to end. Even if they would just say “never” a little honesty would go a long way.
- West Seattle Mad Sci Guy November 2, 2021 (1:00 pm)
  
  I have been presuming it will be a few months after the kids can get the shot, giving them time to get immunized. That will also conveniently coincide with post holiday / winter months, where we had a major spike last year possibly due to people gathering indoors in greater numbers. I’m also looking forward to that time.

anonyme November 1, 2021 (3:33 pm)

These reports of ‘colds’ over the past weekend are interesting. I was sick as a dog on Saturday (fever, headache, sore throat, cough) and half of Sunday, but attributed it to the Moderna booster I received on Friday. No problems with the first two shots. Now I’m wondering if it was something else…?

Al King November 1, 2021 (4:28 pm)

Vaccine and mask mandates will end when we are over covid. The SOONER you get the anti vaxers/maskers to recognize the TRUTH and not some “internet expert” that nobody’s heard of we’ll get back to normal. PLEASE don’t think for a SECOND that ALL of us don’t want to get back to normal as quickly as possible. Luckily the majority of us believe in REAL doctors/virologists.

OneTimeCharley November 2, 2021 (3:38 am)

Thank you Al King! Some falsely think that the mandates are somehow predicated on achieving an elusive vaccine rate; a rate that forever increases. In their view this is some population control experiment, or some scheme to take away civil rights. Theirs’ is actually just an example of convoluted thinking. In yet another attempt to explain this for all of our collective benefit, think of it this way: The mandates will be eased when the infection rate drops to a level that our hospitals aren’t operating above their normal capacity. The easiest, safest, cheapest, and fastest way to arrive at that reduced Covid-19 infection rate is to achieve a high enough vaccination rate, where community spread is simply too unlikely for sustained transmission. Our hospitals will then slowly resume normal operations. The message is as simple as can be; do your part, get vaccinated.

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