Coronavirus updates: Statewide report shows transmission persisting in western Washington
This page includes coronavirus developments around Washington state for Sunday, May 17.
Updated at 4:40 p.m.
The Washington State Department of Health on Sunday reported 145 new confirmed COVID-19 cases and one additional death.
State totals are now at 18,433 cases and 1,001 deaths, up from 18,288 cases and 1,000 deaths on Saturday.
King County continues to be the hardest hit with 7,472 cases and 572 deaths. Snohomish County has 2,784 cases and 125 deaths while Yakima County has 2,253 cases and and 75 deaths. Pierce County reported 1,688 cases and 60 deaths.
Garfield County remains the only county in the state without a confirmed case. There are 101 cases that haven’t been assigned a county.
DOH is now reporting that 285,243 tests have been given with 6.5% coming back positive. Of those confirmed cases, 5.4% have resulted in death.
The latest dataset for cases and deaths by week of illness onset, county and age is available for download here. Data are updated weekly on Sundays.
Cumulative counts for hospitalizations — presented by admission date, date of illness onset, age, sex and race/ethnicity — are also available here.
Pierce County reports 10 new cases
Updated at 1:50 p.m.
Pierce County reported 10 new COVID-19 cases and no additional deaths on Sunday.
County totals since the start of the outbreak are now 1,795 cases and 68 deaths.
As of May 18, Department of Health data shows that 20,678 Pierce County residents have been tested for COVID-19 with 8.0% of tests coming back positive. This total doesn’t include negative tests from long-term care facilities or tests not yet assigned a county, which means the positive test rate is likely lower.
Data now reported on the site assumes about 1,100 residents out of the nearly 1,800 in the county who have contracted the virus have now recovered.
Daily case totals and death information can change as new information becomes available during disease investigation. Adjustments can include correcting duplicate data, assigning a case to another county or learning a test was a false positive.
Sunday’s geographical totals are listed below with Saturday’s numbers in parenthesis:
▪ Bonney Lake: 44 (no change)
▪ Central Pierce County: 129 (130)
▪ East Pierce County: 49 (48)
▪ Edgewood/Fife/Milton: 85 (no change)
▪ Frederickson: 62 (60)
▪ Gig Harbor area: 52 (no change)
▪ Graham: 54 (no change)
▪ JBLM: No longer reported
▪ Key Peninsula: 7 (no change)
▪ Lake Tapps/Sumner area: 45 (44)
▪ Lakewood: 183 (no change)
▪ Parkland: 98 (96)
▪ Puyallup: 126 (125)
▪ South Hill: 99 (no change)
▪ South Pierce County: 38 (no change)
▪ Southwest Pierce County: 21 (no change)
▪ Spanaway: 62 (59)
▪ Tacoma: 575 (573)
▪ University Place: 58 (no change)
▪ Unknown: 8 (no change)
Daily reports include cases received by 11:59 p.m. the previous day.
Statewide report shows transmission persisting in western Washington
Updated at 8:15 a.m.
A new statewide report shows COVID-19 transmission is persisting in western Washington and slowly increasing in eastern Washington.
The measure of how many new infections a single COVID-19 case will produce — known as the effective reproductive number — has not changed significantly in either region since the last statewide report, and continues to be higher than ideal.
“The new report is one more data point emphasizing how critical physical distancing and other disease control measures continue to be,” said Secretary of Health John Wiesman.
“We’ve seen some success in our state because of the work each and every one of us is doing to stop the spread of the virus, and an exponential increase in cases is still a possibility. I’m asking everyone to keep up the good work to protect their families and communities.”
The Department of Health worked with Bellevue-based Institute for Disease Modeling and the Microsoft AI for Health program to develop the report, which updates the estimates in a previous statewide report with data collected through early May.
“The vast majority of people on both sides of the Cascades remain fully susceptible to COVID,” the report reads, “‘and as a result, exponential growth of disease burden is still a possibility across Washington.”
The report is one of many data sources the state is using to assess COVID-19 risk levels. These data sources help inform the state’s Safe Start planning and guidance.
Washington state reaches 18,288 cases
Updated at 8:15 a.m.
The Washington State Department of Health reported 337 new COVID-19 cases and eight additional deaths on Saturday.
Statewide case totals have reached 18,288, while the state’s death toll is now at 1,000. Washington is one of 18 states that has reported 1,000 or more virus-related deaths since the outbreak began.
The state passed 18,000 cases and 1,000 deaths on the same day, after reporting 17,951 cases and 992 deaths Friday.
King County continues to be the hardest hit, reporting 7,426 cases and 526 deaths. Snohomish County has reached 2,773 cases and 125 deaths, and Yakima County has reached 2,217 cases and 74 deaths.
Pierce County reported 22 new cases and two additional deaths Saturday, bringing its totals to 1,787 cases and 68 deaths. Of the state’s 39 counties, all but Garfield County have reported cases. Twenty-four counties have reported at least one virus-related death.
There are 112 cases and one death that have not been assigned to a county.
There have been 280,993 tests completed in Washington, with positive results now at 6.5%.
Kroger offers Fred Meyer workers extra pay after outcry
Updated at 8:15 a.m.
Kroger, the parent company of grocer Fred Meyer, announced Friday that it will provide “thank you” payments to hourly employees after a union outcry over the company ending a $2 per hour pay bump it implemented in March amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union held rallies Friday at Fred Meyer stores seeking additional pay for workers while the pandemic continues, KREM-TV reported.
Kroger officials said Friday that bonus payments of $400 and $200 for full- and part-time employees will be paid in two installments in May and June.
Fred Meyer has locations in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Alaska.
“Our associates have been instrumental in feeding America while also helping to flatten the curve during the initial phases of the pandemic,” Rodney McMullen, Kroger’s chairman and CEO, said in statement. “As the country moves toward reopening, we will continue to safeguard our associates’ health and well-being and recognize their work.”
Testing for the coronavirus is available for Fred Meyer employees based on their symptoms and medical need, said Fred Meyer spokesperson Jeffrey Temple. Workers who are most directly affected by the virus or experiencing related symptoms have been provided with emergency leave or paid time off, he said.
Fred Meyer has also added safety measures throughout the stores including plexiglass partitions on check-out stands and masks for employees.
Washington state braces for wildfire season as firefighter tests positive for COVID-19
Updated at 8:15 a.m.
As Washington prepares for the impact the new coronavirus will have on fighting wildfires this summer, the state Department of Natural Resources learned Thursday that a firefighter has tested positive for COVID-19.
It’s the first case in what state officials say could be a “catastrophic” fire season with drier-than-usual conditions in eastern Washington and a potential strain on federal, state and local resources because of the deadly virus.
The seasonal firefighter — a wildfire engine crew leader in the northeast region — was scheduled to report for duty on June 1, but has tested positive for coronavirus. A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention representative has been assigned to monitor the case, said state Public Lands Commissioner Hilary Franz.
The crew leader had contact with another current DNR wildfire engine crew leader. That employee has not shown symptoms, but is self-monitoring and working from home for several days, Franz said.
“It does show you how significant this challenge is going to be of helping keep our firefighters safe amongst this pandemic,” she said Thursday.
Franz said the state relies heavily on firefighters from around the country along with National Guardsmen to help combat wildfires, but many of them now are assigned to the COVID-19 response.
“We are expecting we will not have the same level of resources from our federal agencies and partners that we have had in the past that has helped us get through our fire season,” she said.
In the summer, from 27,000 to 32,000 firefighters are moved around the country, but one estimate puts the number of available firefighters at 17 percent to 22 percent lower than that this year. The reason: COVID-19 protocols could halt or delay their movement among states or they’ll be out of service due to being in isolation or quarantine, State Forester George Geissler said.
DNR’s strategy includes using personal protective equipment, increasing sanitation efforts, following physical distancing, and minimizing the amount of time that firefighters will be on the front line, he said.
The agency also is examining increased use of aviation and “pre-positioning resources just so we can get to the fires quicker, with maybe fewer personnel on the ground and in close proximity with each other,” Geissler said. That also could limit the need for large camps of firefighters, he added.
Snohomish County health officials probe positive blood tests
Updated at 8:15 a.m.
Two people in Washington state who recall being sick in December have since had blood tests showing they developed antibodies for the coronavirus, but health officials aren’t counting them in their official case counts.
The positive serology tests can’t determine whether the people had the coronavirus in December, weeks before the disease was officially detected in the United States. They may have been exposed after the first recorded case. One of the people had lunch with a hospital nurse in Kirkland, for example, site of a large outbreak in a nursing home.
“They are being considered ‘probable,’ ” Heather Thomas, a Snohomish Health District spokeswoman, told The Seattle Times. “However, they are not captured in our case counts from Jan. 20 forward.”
The two people are residents of Snohomish County, north of Seattle, which has the second-highest number of confirmed cases in the state with more than 2,700.
On Jan. 20, a man in Snohomish County became the first person to test positive for COVID-19 in the U.S.
The man had been traveling in Wuhan, China, where the outbreak appears to have originated. He returned to the Seattle area on Jan. 15 and days later began showing symptoms.
If any Washington cases predated the first known case, there were probably very few that didn’t multiply, Dr. Jared Roach, a senior research scientist at the Institute for Systems Biology, a Seattle-based biomedical research firm, told the newspaper.
Chris Spitters, health officer for the Snohomish Health District, said Friday “it’s possible — and frankly, I think more likely” that the two patients with positive blood tests didn’t have COVID-19 in December, but later picked up a mild or asymptomatic case of it.
“But we can’t say that with 100 percent certainty,” he said. “I think that’s just the more likely scenario.”
Spitters did say it was likely that COVID-19 was introduced in the area before Jan. 20.
This story was originally published May 17, 2020 at 8:20 AM with the headline "Coronavirus updates: Statewide report shows transmission persisting in western Washington."
