CORONAVIRUS: Our weekly look at West Seattle, King County trends/stats

| Coronavirus | West Seattle news

Hours after last week’s update, Public Health Seattle-King County announced we’re now at “medium” COVID level. Authorities stressed that’s not a cause for worry, just for cautiousness. Checking countywide and West Seattle stats as we do at the end of each weekend, here are the trends: Cases are up for a sixth week, hospitalizations are up (countywide but not locally), and deaths continue going down. As we noted last week, all three categories remain far lower than the winter peaks, as shown on the graphs featured on the Public Health – Seattle/King County dashboard:

*22 percent more cases countywide in the past week than the week before
*Currently averaging 796 new daily cases countywide (up from 644 when we checked a week ago)

*46 percent more hospitalizations countywide in the past week than the week before
*Currently averaging 10 new hospitalizations daily (up from 5 a week ago)

*27 percent fewer deaths countywide in the past two weeks than the two weeks before (the dashboard doesn’t offer a one-week increment)
*Currently averaging 1 death daily (same as the two-week average last week)

For West Seattle, we have two-week comparisons (these are the combined totals from two “health reporting areas,” labeled West Seattle and Delridge):
*553 cases between 4/11 and 4/25, up from 331 between 3/27 and 4/10
*5 hospitalizations between 4/11 and 4/25, same as between 3/27 and 4/10
*No deaths between 4/11 and 4/25, same as between 3/27 and 4/10

And checking vaccination rates:
*80.9 percent of all King County residents have completed the initial series (up .1% from a week ago)
*85.6 percent of all King County residents ages 5 and up have completed the initial series (up .1% from a week ago)
*48.6 percent of all King County residents have had the initial series plus a booster (up .1% from a week ago)

*In West Seattle, here are the zip-code vaccination rates for ages 5 and up (reminder, 98106 and 98146 are not entirely within WS):
98106 – 87.9% completed initial series (up .1% from a week earlier), 52.8% have had a booster
98116 – 92.7% completed initial series (up .1% from a week earlier), 64.5% have had a booster
98126 – 83.4% completed initial series (same as a week earlier), 54.5% have had a booster
98136 – 93.6% completed initial series (up .2% from a week earlier), 67.6% have had a booster
98146 – 83% completed initial series (up .1% from a week earlier), 47.6% have had a booster

VACCINATION AND TESTING, UPDATED HOURS: No pop-up clinics on the near-future schedule, so you can look for vaccination locations via this statewide lookup. If you want to get tested and don’t have a kit at home, public testing sites include the city-supported site at Nino Cantu Southwest Athletic Complex (2801 SW Thistle, 9 am-5:30 pm Mondays-Saturdays), the Curative kiosk at Don Armeni Boat Ramp (1220 Harbor SW, 9 am-3 pm Monday-Friday), and the Curative van at Summit Atlas (35th/Roxbury, 8 am-noon Tuesday-Friday). … If you need to report self-test results, that’s explained on this page.

AlkiBean May 2, 2022 (6:55 am)

Covid hit our house this past week. We tried so hard and felt we did everything right. So far the two cases seem mild…hoping and praying for a rapid recovery.

Pessoa May 2, 2022 (10:08 am)

If this is any encouragement, my sister and her husband contracted very nasty cases and recovered fully. Both are middle-aged.

Johnson, T.M. May 2, 2022 (8:25 am)

Excluding Omicron (Dec 8, 2021 – Feb 2022), last week, King County saw its second-highest new daily cases count since the beginning of the pandemic.

High Point May 2, 2022 (1:59 pm)

And the Seattle Public Schools posted their 5th highest weekly stats from the beginning of the school year. Had these numbers been in the 2021 portion of the academic year it would have been 4 times higher then any other week. Numbers are really high right now.

Jay West May 2, 2022 (9:12 am)

It can be hard to assess personal risk when most people use rapid tests and don’t report results. I think the percent positively on those PCR tests might be telling a more accurate story. We were at a low 3.2% positive rate in mid-March after that first Omicron wave swept through. Today 12.3% of the PCR tests are coming back positive. The King County site has a nice graph. Personally, family after family in my circle are falling ill now with a covid-like illness again. Sometimes a single family member will test positive when they are all sick together. The home tests and the even the PCRs are missing cases. Maybe it’s timing. It’s too bad because high risk people can get treatment now if they have a positive test. If you’re high risk and have symptoms please do PCR on multiple days, as it could mean access to treatment, and prevention of a serious outcome. One child I know of needed a little respiratory medical care. So still watch out for the silent hypoxia this round, especially if unvaccinated. While most people are fine now, some still do very poorly, especially some of the older folks, obese or very overweight, immune naïve, and also people with high risk illnesses, or immunodeficiencies. Also, a fairly large minority were left with lingering symptoms/illness, after our first Omicron wave, there is no reason to think this phenomenon has suddenly changed, and there is still no evidence based treatment for long Covid.

Beach drive May 2, 2022 (9:33 am)

As most people are now testing at home I have to wonder how accurate these stats are. I know there is the option to self report but are people really doing that? I recently had COVID and thought my employer reported to learn later they did not for instance.

deo May 2, 2022 (10:44 am)

Last week I tested (at home) positive and was similarly curious about underreporting of these cases. I called the state department of health to ask about how they come up with the counts given at home testing:They told me that they rely on people calling to report (these numbers are heavily undercounting the real case load) and on PCR tests. I forgot to ask about aggregating phone’s exposure notifications and testing viral load in sewage, but I bet that’s being done as well.Lastly, they told me that I may be testing positive for up to 90 days and that’s when I realized that I need to get a PCR test. This’d get me an official proof of a prior infection, just in case I need to travel or do anything that requires a test. I guess that makes me double counted now but that doesn’t impact the big picture.
newnative May 2, 2022 (11:25 am)

I wonder too. My partner came down with it and I isolated with him, he took a home test and then a PCR test. I took two home tests before coming up positive (with symptoms) and then a PCR test. If we hadn’t have had travel plans, I likely would not have taken the PCR as I stayed isolated the whole time. I had to get the PCR test (and subsequent letter of recovery) to resume plans.

WS Res May 2, 2022 (10:39 am)

Went out for drinks and dinner with four friends on April 20th, both at establishments that required vaccine cards at the door; dinner was also outdoors. A few days later, 3 of the 4 were testing positive for COVID (one asymptomatic, one quite sick, one moderately sick) and the 4th was having cardio symptoms but never came up positive. Then there was me, boosted (for the second time) just 10 days before – I stayed negative. This pandemic is far from over, please get boosted if you can, and if you test positive, please ask for Paxlovid! (Infographic here – I literally had no idea this was a thing until I read it. Sadly I didn’t run across it until Friend 1 had been very sick for multiple days already, but Friend 2 got a scrip the day after they had a positive PCR test and it may have helped their course be shorter.)

M May 2, 2022 (2:49 pm)

I had a not mild case last week and my Kaiser docs wouldn’t entertain Paxlovid because I wasn’t high risk. Sounds like others have had better luck at non-Kaiser facilities, which is on brand for Kaiser. The window for being able to start treatment has closed now and I’m just crossing my fingers these symptoms go away soon!
- Jay May 2, 2022 (10:16 pm)
  
  The correspondents dinner went ahead because there was plenty of supply for everyone in DC. Supply is spottier out west. Kaiser may have been out of supply when you were turned down. They should be prescribing for anyone with a risk factor, or finding alternative treatment if your medications or kidney function make it not safe for you. Hopefully they have more stock now. Accessing treatment has been such a problem. I hope you get well soon.

HS May 2, 2022 (12:48 pm)

I am going to share this again this week since I see some questions in peoples comments. This is the blog of a local epidemiologist that I have found very helpful. It is the current post and has links to answer some of those questions. (Please just remove if not allowed.)https://www.wearedatadriven.com/post/are-we-there-yet

sigh May 2, 2022 (1:01 pm)

I know so many people who’ve come down with COVID in the last few weeks. It’s like the last waves, except this time we’re all pretending COVID is over. Hospitalizations are going up, as predicted. Get your elective procedures while you can, everyone!

Wseattleite May 2, 2022 (1:57 pm)

Case counts are going to go up. As serious side effects subside, this is good news as it means enhanced inoculation for many. For those waiting for COVID to go away, it is not going to. It is going to be around, and higher case counts only bring lower ones later. The key index is that the vast majority of people get over it. Time to start worrying about something else that is more likely to take your life. There are many of those to fret about.

WS Res May 2, 2022 (3:08 pm)

Long COVID (post-COVID sequelae) is still a concern. It is reasonable to be concerned and to still work to avoid catching it if you can. It is also reasonable to work to avoid re-infection if you have had it as we don’t yet have any understanding whether multiple infections increase the risk of long COVID.
hollyle May 4, 2022 (1:13 pm)

While I understand this (wishful) thinking, it is not reflective of the full picture. Outcomes from infection aren’t just limited to whether you live or die. There is still much the scientific and medical communities don’t understand about long-term effects and damage resulting from infection– heart or lung damage, neurological damage, liver damage and more– in addition to long Covid. It’s highly reasonable to be working to avoid infection. There are still too many unknowns.

Jay West May 2, 2022 (4:57 pm)

Here is the link to the federal therapeutic locator. It looks like Sea Mar got a large supply of Paxlovid. https://arcg.is/iuuW50

Mj May 2, 2022 (5:32 pm)

Wseattleite – I agree with you it’s time to move forward.

Pessoa May 2, 2022 (10:59 pm)

Obviously take precautions as necessary, but at this point you are far more likely to be effected by a serious chronic condition you are currently battling, or onset of a chronic illness. To put it indelicately, people are dropping dead, often relatively younger and not from Covid-19. I hear this often, from my dentist to co-worker’s, sometimes from chit chat with a complete stranger. Cancer. Heart attack. Stroke. Is it a result of delayed care and overreaction to the pandemic? One source claims that over 200,000 children in Asia died as a result of disruptions in the healthcare system during the pandemic. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-56425115

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