COVID-19 Update: Governor Jay Inslee holds off on “shelter in place” order… for now

Local authorities: Keep off playgrounds and sports courts

Mean­while, King Coun­ty and the City of Seat­tle announced that all play­grounds, basketball/racket courts and sports fields would be closing.

“With schools closed and peo­ple adapt­ing to new work habits, our parks and open spaces can pro­vide an impor­tant break in these stress­ful times. It is clear, how­ev­er, that we must con­tin­ue to be vig­i­lant in these places as well, and make sure all our res­i­dents put into prac­tice Pub­lic Health direc­tives,” said King Coun­ty Exec­u­tive Dow Con­stan­tine. “Go for a hike. Take the fam­i­ly for a stroll. Kick a soc­cer ball around with your kids. But use good sense and avoid gath­er­ings, team sports, pick-up games, and play­ground equipment.”

“Parks are beloved by all, but we must be smart about our behav­iors dur­ing this unprece­dent­ed pub­lic health emer­gency. We are in a new nor­mal. While indi­vid­u­als and fam­i­lies can bike, walk, or run, we can­not allow gath­er­ings at Seattle’s best loca­tions includ­ing Alki, Gold­en Gar­dens, Seward, Vol­un­teer Park or Mag­nu­son. Every sin­gle res­i­dent should take social dis­tanc­ing guide­lines to heart – it could save someone’s life,” said May­or Jen­ny Durkan.

Reporters from sev­er­al dif­fer­ent media out­lets have observed large crowds con­gre­gat­ing at Alki Beach, and the staff of The Seat­tle Times have observed peo­ple fail­ing to prac­tice phys­i­cal dis­tanc­ing on bas­ket­ball courts.

More deaths, more cases in Washington State

The death toll from the nov­el coro­n­avirus con­tin­ues to increase in the Ever­green State, as does the num­ber of new­ly con­firmed cas­es. The Depart­ment of Health reports there are 1,524 con­firmed cas­es and eighty-three deaths. 21,719 indi­vid­u­als have test­ed neg­a­tive for COVID-19.

In King County:

Pub­lic Health—Seattle & King Coun­ty is report­ing the fol­low­ing con­firmed cas­es and deaths due to COVID-19 through 11:59 PM on 3/19/20.

• 793 con­firmed cas­es (up 100 from yesterday)
• 67 con­firmed deaths  (up 7 from yesterday)

These addi­tion­al deaths include:

• A man in his six­ties, who died on March 19th
• A woman in her nineties, who died on March 17th
• A man in his sev­en­ties, who died on March 18th
• A woman in her eight­ies. who died on March 18th
• A woman in her sev­en­ties, whose date of death has not been confirmed
• A man in his sev­en­ties, who died on March 19th at Val­ley Med­ical Center
• A woman in her six­ties, who died on March 19th at Har­borview Med­ical Center

Of the 67 deaths report­ed, 35 are con­firmed to be asso­ci­at­ed with Life Care Cen­ter of Kirkland.

More cases in Oregon

Ore­gon’s con­firmed cas­es now num­ber in the triple digits.

Ore­gon Health Author­i­ty report­ed 26 new cas­es of COVID-19, bring­ing the state total to 114, as of 8:30 AM today, March 20th. The COVID-19 cas­es report­ed today are in the fol­low­ing coun­ties: Clacka­mas (4), Deschutes (2), Grant (1), Linn (1), Mar­i­on (4), Mult­nom­ah (5), Union (1), Wash­ing­ton (6), Yamhill (2).

Ore­gon Gov­er­nor Kate Brown is com­ing under pres­sure to issue a “shel­ter in place” order, just like Wash­ing­ton Gov­er­nor Jay Inslee is, the Willamette Week reports.

More cases in Idaho

The Gem State is now begin­ning to grap­ple with the pan­dem­ic just like its west­ern neigh­bors. The state now has thir­ty-one total con­firmed cases.

Employ­ees of Boise State Uni­ver­si­ty, Micron Tech­nol­o­gy Inc. and the Boise VA Med­ical Cen­ter have all test­ed pos­i­tive for coro­n­avirus, the Ida­ho States­man reports.

Gov­er­nor Brad Lit­tle issued a state­ment fol­low­ing the dis­clo­sure of the new cases.

“My office and mem­bers of my Coro­n­avirus Work­ing Group are ful­ly engaged with the South Cen­tral Pub­lic Health Dis­trict, Blaine Coun­ty Com­mis­sion­ers, and may­ors in that area to ensure a strong response is in place. Our num­ber one pri­or­i­ty is to slow the spread of the virus in that com­mu­ni­ty and out­side of it. To ensure that hap­pens, the direc­tor of the Ida­ho Depart­ment of Health and Wel­fare will issue an iso­la­tion order for res­i­dents in the area. We are still work­ing on the details, and res­i­dents will still have essen­tial ser­vices avail­able to them, such as access to gro­cery stores and, of course, healthcare.”

“I am firm in my com­mit­ment to mak­ing deci­sions in our coro­n­avirus plan­ning and response based on sci­ence, not fear. Every step of the way, we have made deci­sions based on the best infor­ma­tion and guid­ance from the Cen­ters For Dis­ease Con­trol and Pre­ven­tion and our nation’s lead­ers, and we will con­tin­ue to do so.”

“I urge every­one to be even more vig­i­lant of the pre­ven­ta­tive mea­sures to slow the spread of coro­n­avirus. And most of all, I con­tin­ue to urge Ida­hoans to take care of each oth­er. Be mind­ful of our actions. Find some­one you can help. We will get through this together.”