Coronavirus updates: Inslee issues dine-in guidance for Washington counties in Phase 2
This page includes coronavirus developments around Washington state for Tuesday, May 12.
Updated at 3 p.m.
Pierce County on Tuesday reported 13 new cases of COVID-19 and one new death.
The county’s total now is 1,725 cases and 63 deaths, according to the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department.
The new death involved a Spanaway woman in her 60s with underlying health conditions.
Daily case totals can change as the county receives new information about cases, finds duplicate data or is assigned cases that were originally attributed to other counties.
According to the state Department of Health’s COVID-19 data dashboard, there have been 18,499 tests run on Pierce County residents with 8.6 percent of them positive.
The county’s COVID-19 tracking page lists the number of assumed recovered cases as 952 with estimated still-active confirmed cases at 773.
Tuesday’s geographical totals are listed below with Monday’s numbers in parentheses:
▪ Bonney Lake: 40 (no change)
▪ Central Pierce County: 127 (no change)
▪ East Pierce County: 48 (no change)
▪ Edgewood/Fife/Milton: 83 (no change)
▪ Frederickson: 59 (58)
▪ Gig Harbor area: 51 (no change)
▪ Graham: 52 (no change)
▪ JBLM: No longer reported
▪ Key Peninsula: 7 (no change)
▪ Lake Tapps/Sumner area: 42 (41)
▪ Lakewood: 181 (179)
▪ Parkland: 93 (91)
▪ Puyallup: 120 (no change)
▪ South Hill: 94 (91)
▪ South Pierce County: 37 (no change)
▪ Southwest Pierce County: 21 (no change)
▪ Spanaway: 57 (56)
▪ Tacoma: 555 (553)
▪ University Place: 51 (50)
▪ Unknown: 7 (no change)
Daily reports include cases received by 11:59 p.m. the previous day.
QFC, Fred Meyer announce drive-thru testing
Updated at 11:45 a.m.
QFC and Fred Meyer on Tuesday announced a partnership with the City of Seattle and the Seattle Mariners for free COVID-19 drive-thru testing. The first testing will be at the T-Mobile Park in Seattle, May 13-14.
Testing Site Information:
▪ Dates: Wednesday, May 13 and Thursday, May 14
▪ Time: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
▪ Location: T-Mobile Park Parking Garage at 1250 1st Ave S. Seattle – south entrance (Massachusetts and Occidental)
▪ Registration is required. Register at krogerhealth.com/covidtesting or call 1-888-852-2567 (select option 1, then option 3).
People seeking a test will use a virtual screening tool based on Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines to see if they are eligible. Those eligible will next select a testing location and appointment time. Then, registrants will receive an email confirmation with pre-appointment paperwork to complete. When a person arrives for their test, they should have their photo ID ready and should leave their window rolled up for check-in, until a health-care practitioner comes to the car to administer the test.
For the testing, patients remain in their cars throughout the process, which is completed in just a few minutes using self-administered test kits. The test uses self-administered nasal swabs, which are less painful and designed to increase safety. This onsite testing is supported with laboratory services provided by eTrueNorth, a contractor of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Test results are expected within approximately 48 hours. The Seattle testing site is estimated to have capacity for 250 vehicles per day.
Inslee issues restaurant guidelines for counties in Phase 2
Updated at 8:30 a.m.
Gov. Jay Inslee issued guidance for partially resuming the dine-in restaurant and tavern industry for counties granted variance under the Safe Start Phase 2 recovery plan laid out last week.
Through the Washington “Safe Start” plan, more businesses and activities will re-open in subsequent phases with adequate safety and health standards in place. Each phase will be at least three weeks — metrics and data will guide when the state can move from one phase to another.
Through the Safe Start approach, counties with a population of less than 75,000 that have not had a new case of COVID-19 in the past three weeks can apply for a variance to move to Phase 2 of “Safe Start” before other parts of the state. County variance applications will be approved or denied by the secretary of the Department of Health. Eight counties have received the variance.
All businesses are strongly encouraged to require their customers to use cloth face coverings when interacting with their staff.
Here are the general procedures for dine-in service.
▪ Hand sanitizer should be available at entry for all staff and patrons (assuming supply availability).
▪ No bar seating is permitted during Phase 2.
▪ If the establishment does not offer table service, they must have protocols in place to ensure adequate social distancing at food and drink pick-up stations, and seating within their dining area.
▪ All parties and tables must be five guests or less.
▪ Guest occupancy must be 50% of maximum building occupancy or lower as determined by the fire code. Outdoor seating is permitted but must also be at 50% capacity. Outdoor seating does not count toward the building occupancy limit.
▪ Tables must be placed far enough apart when measured from occupied chair to occupied chair, to ensure dine-in guests seated at a table are a minimum of 6 feet away from guests at adjacent table, or there must be a physical barrier or wall separating booths or tables.
▪ It is strongly suggested customers wear a cloth face covering anytime they are not seated at the table.
▪ Buffets and salad bars are not permitted at this time but may be addressed through subsequent interpretive guidance.
▪ If the establishment offers table service, create a daily log of all customers and maintain that daily log for 30 days, including telephone/email contact information, and time in.
▪ Single use menus are required for in-person dining.
▪ Any condiments typically left on the table must be single-use or sanitized after each use.
▪ Restaurants must have implemented a plan to ensure proper physical distancing in lobby/waiting areas/payment counters.
▪ Minimize the number of staff serving any given table.
More information on the requirements can be found here.
Jury duty somewhere other than the courthouse? Pierce County is considering it during pandemic
Updated at 8:30 a.m.
Courthouses were not built for social distancing.
That has Pierce County court officials looking at ways to space out jurors when trials resume, including considering off-site locations for jury selection. The state Supreme Court has postponed jury trials until July 6 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We have to have our jurors safe,” Pierce County Superior Court Presiding Judge Garold Johnson said Monday. “They are absolutely essential to justice.”
The jury assembly area at the County-City Building in downtown Tacoma that can usually hold roughly 250 jurors for orientation can hold about 25 socially distanced ones.
“You can see the problem we have just trying to find a space large enough,” Superior Court administrator Chris Gaddis said.
Some of the locations he and Johnson said are being considered are the Armory building next to the courthouse, the nearby Greater Tacoma Convention Center and the former Kmart building near Sixth Avenue and Orchard Street.
They don’t have a sense yet of what it will cost. They haven’t received bids, and the uncertainty of the pandemic means it’s not clear how long the lease would need to be.
The different buildings also would require different improvements in order to work. Some would need temporary rooms built. There also are chairs, desks and podiums to consider.
They’ve talked about doing a mock jury orientation when they have a space to test the set-up and work out any issues.
Security is a concern. Any new building would need metal detectors and other measures the courthouse has.
“Everything that we have there we would have to replicate at an off-site location, and possibly more,” Gaddis said.
They’re working with the jail. Defendants have a constitutional right to be present at jury selection, which means those in custody would be transported to any off-site location.
The court also has been working with the local bar association, prosecutors, the Department of Assigned Counsel and Facilities Management, among others, to figure out how to make an off-site facility work.
Pierce County Prosecutor’s Office spokesperson Adam Faber said: “As all the criminal justice stakeholders evaluate potential sites, our top priority is safety. We will be looking at the overall physical security at these buildings and the security of each converted courtroom. For the safety of all involved, we want to see not only a level of screening similar to the (County-City Building) but also that all entrances and exits are properly secured.”
In addition to security, DAC director Michael Kawamura said one of his office’s main concerns would be that the location “strictly comply with current public health mandates.”
Coronavirus causes crisis at local transit agencies
Updated at 8:30 a.m.
The coronavirus pandemic has plunged Puget Sound-area transit agencies into crisis-planning mode, as ridership and revenue has plunged and predictions that people won’t be returning to buses and trains in large numbers anytime soon.
The Seattle Times reports that beyond the immediate health crisis, the pandemic threatens to undo years of transit growth and plunge local transit systems into a financial setback worse than the Great Recession in the late 2000s.
As some major employers like Amazon extend work-from home policies it’s clear demand will be depressed for some time, and there are fears commuters will avoid transit following warnings from officials to avoid enclosed spaces.
As much of the economy closed down and transit agencies began to worry about lost funding, some help arrived last month, thanks to a federal aid package. Still, experts say it almost won’t be enough.
Sound Transit will receive $166 million in federal funds, which represents about 45% of the agency’s annual operating budget but less than 2% of what the agency think it will lose if the upcoming downturn is similar to the Great Recession.
“In an economic catastrophe of this magnitude, we are going to bleed far more than $166 million in revenue — and we probably already have,” Sound Transit CEO Peter Rogoff said.
King County Metro will receive about $244 million in federal aid, shy of its projected losses of $185 million in sales-tax revenue and $80 million in farebox revenue this year. Some of that funding will cover extra costs this year and next, including employee leave, overtime and protective equipment.
Metro will consider service reductions, delays to new RapidRide lines and other ideas, said John Resha, Metro’s assistant general manager for finance and administration.
At Pierce Transit, years of work rebuilding service from deep recession-era cuts will begin to be eroded. After increasing service about 19% since 2015, Pierce Transit expects to reduce service by 12% this fall.
Pac-12 has discussed all-conference football regular season
Updated at 8:30 a.m.
The Pac-12 has discussed an 11-game regular season played solely against conference opponents as one possibility for keeping college football going this year amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Southern California coach Clay Helton confirmed the all-conference idea Monday as one of several scenarios being evaluated by the Pac-12′s coaches and administrators.
“It’s been discussed in our Pac-12 meetings, and it’s been discussed by the commissioners,” Helton said on a video conference call with Stanford coach David Shaw and new Washington State coach Nick Rolovich.
Pac-12 teams typically play 12-game schedules with three nonconference games. An all-conference schedule would minimize travel for a far-flung conference, but would wipe out several high-profile nonconference games on the league’s schedule this fall.
Helton repeatedly emphasized that the Pac-12 doesn’t expect to finalize a plan for at least six weeks while gathering information and observing the progress of the pandemic.
“That is one of the many structures as we go through this situation and this crisis that is a possibility of an all-conference schedule,” Helton said. “That is one of the structures under discussion, depending on where we are at six to eight weeks from now. Those are viable discussions, and it has been brought up in our meetings.”
Washington is supposed to host Michigan in the Huskies’ season opener on Sept. 5,
This story was originally published May 12, 2020 at 8:40 AM with the headline "Coronavirus updates: Inslee issues dine-in guidance for Washington counties in Phase 2."
