COVID-19 Update: Pacific Northwest in the national media spotlight as outbreak worsens

It’s time for anoth­er install­ment of of our spe­cial series COVID-19 Update, bring­ing you the lat­est devel­op­ments on the nov­el coro­n­avirus out­break that pub­lic health author­i­ties in the Pacif­ic North­west are work­ing dili­gent­ly to con­tain. Unlike some of the non­sense that is unfor­tu­nate­ly cir­cu­lat­ing on social media, all the infor­ma­tion you’ll find here is accu­rate and based on sound science.

There’s a lot going on, so we’ll get right to it. First, an update from Seat­tle-King Coun­ty Pub­lic Health on con­firmed cas­es and addi­tion­al deaths due to COVID-19.

COVID-19 test results have come back from the Wash­ing­ton State Pub­lic Health Lab­o­ra­to­ry con­firm­ing four addi­tion­al cas­es of COVID-19 in King Coun­ty res­i­dents. With these four new results, the total num­ber of cas­es in King Coun­ty is 14. Today’s results include 2 addi­tion­al deaths, along with an indi­vid­ual who was pre­vi­ous­ly report­ed as ill but who has now died. This brings the total num­ber of deaths in King Coun­ty from COVID-19 to five.

We have the best peo­ple in the world right here in King Coun­ty respond­ing to this cri­sis,” said Pat­ty Hayes, RN, MN, Direc­tor of Pub­lic Health – Seat­tle & King County.

“We will get through this by stay­ing informed and unit­ed. There are things each one of us can do to take con­trol and reduce the impact of this dis­ease in our community.”

The four new cas­es are in:

• A male in his 50s, hos­pi­tal­ized at High­line Hos­pi­tal. No known expo­sures. He is in sta­ble but crit­i­cal con­di­tion. He had no under­ly­ing health conditions.
• A male in his 70s, a res­i­dent of Life­Care, hos­pi­tal­ized at Ever­green­Health in Kirk­land. The man had under­ly­ing health con­di­tions, and died 3/1/20
• A female in her 70s, a res­i­dent of Life­Care, hos­pi­tal­ized at Ever­green­Health in Kirk­land. The woman had under­ly­ing health con­di­tions, and died 3/1/20
• A female in her 80s, a res­i­dent of Life­Care, was hos­pi­tal­ized at Ever­green­Health. She is in crit­i­cal condition.
• In addi­tion, a woman in her 80s, who was already report­ed as in crit­i­cal con­di­tion at Ever­green, has died. She died on 3/1/20

10 oth­er cas­es, already report­ed ear­li­er by Pub­lic Health, include:

• A female in her 80s, hos­pi­tal­ized at Ever­green­Health in Kirk­land. This per­son has now died, and is report­ed as such above.
• A female in her 90s, hos­pi­tal­ized at Ever­green­Health in Kirk­land. The woman has under­ly­ing health con­di­tions, and is in crit­i­cal condition
• A male in his 70s, hos­pi­tal­ized at Ever­green­Health in Kirk­land. The man has under­ly­ing health con­di­tions, and is in crit­i­cal condition
• A male in his 70s was hos­pi­tal­ized at Ever­green­Health. He had under­ly­ing health con­di­tions and died on 2/29/20.
• A man in his 60s, hos­pi­tal­ized at Val­ley Med­ical Cen­ter in Renton.
• A man in 60s, hos­pi­tal­ized at Vir­ginia Mason Med­ical Center.
• A woman in her 50s, who had trav­eled to South Korea; recov­er­ing at home
• A woman in her 70s, who was a res­i­dent of Life­Care in Kirk­land, hos­pi­tal­ized at EvergreenHealth
• A woman in her 40s, employed by Life­Care, who is hos­pi­tal­ized at Over­lake Med­ical Center
• A man in his 50s, who was hos­pi­tal­ized and died at EvergreenHealth

Pub­lic Health is work­ing hard to iden­ti­fy close con­tacts of these con­firmed cas­es. These close con­tacts may include fam­i­ly mem­bers, co-work­ers, emer­gency respon­ders and oth­er con­tacts. A team of CDC offi­cials is on-the-ground work­ing with Pub­lic Health, along with the Wash­ing­ton State Depart­ment of Health, our health­care sys­tem part­ners and many others.

Mean­while, down in Ore­gon, offi­cials report­ed that an indi­vid­ual in the east­ern part of the state had test­ed pos­i­tive for the coronavirus.

Ore­gon health offi­cials have iden­ti­fied a third pre­sump­tive pos­i­tive case of COVID-19 among state residents.

The third case is an adult Ore­gon res­i­dent from Umatil­la Coun­ty who is hos­pi­tal­ized in Wal­la Wal­la, Wash.

State and local health offi­cials are mov­ing quick­ly to con­tact peo­ple who may have been in close con­tact with the indi­vid­ual who test­ed as a pre­sump­tive pos­i­tive case. The third case is not linked to trav­el to a part of the world with known cas­es of COVID-19. It is con­sid­ered a case of com­mu­ni­ty transmission.

Pre­lim­i­nary reports indi­cate the Ore­gon res­i­dent attend­ed a youth bas­ket­ball game at a gym­na­si­um at West­on Mid­dle School, 205 E. Wal­lace St. in West­on, Ore., on Sat­ur­day, Feb. 29.

Under fed­er­al Cen­ters for Dis­ease Con­trol and Pre­ven­tion and Pre­ven­tion (CDC) guide­lines, oth­er spec­ta­tors who may have been in a closed envi­ron­ment with the indi­vid­ual would be con­sid­ered “low-risk” exposures.

Athena-West­on School Dis­trict offi­cials have closed the gym and will con­duct a deep clean­ing out of an abun­dance of cau­tion. The gym is phys­i­cal­ly detached from the rest of the school. Health offi­cials do not con­sid­er the sep­a­rate school build­ing to pose any risk of expo­sure. The test on the sam­ple was per­formed by Washington’s pub­lic health lab­o­ra­to­ry. The case was one of Oregon’s pend­ing cas­es. Ore­gon health offi­cials have updat­ed their case and test­ing reports on OHA’s COVID-19 web page.

Ore­gon and Wash­ing­ton health experts are work­ing togeth­er to deter­mine if there are oth­er loca­tions where the indi­vid­ual may have inter­act­ed with oth­er peo­ple in recent days, after symp­toms of COVID-19 first appeared.

Health offi­cials will announce if there are any addi­tion­al loca­tions where peo­ple may been exposed, if they are determined.

Peo­ple who may have attend­ed Saturday’s bas­ket­ball game can call the fol­low­ing num­bers if they have questions.

• Ore­gon res­i­dents can call 211.
• Wash­ing­ton residents: 
  • Wash­ing­ton State Depart­ment of Health: 800–525-0127, press #
  • Wal­la Wal­la Coun­ty: 509–524-2647

OHA con­tin­ues to rec­om­mend all peo­ple in Ore­gon take every­day pre­cau­tions to pre­vent the spread of many res­pi­ra­to­ry ill­ness­es, includ­ing COVID-19 and influenza:

• Cov­er your coughs and sneezes with a tis­sue and then throw the tis­sue in the trash.
• Wash your hands often with soap and water for 20 sec­onds. If soap and water are not read­i­ly avail­able, use an alco­hol-based hand san­i­tiz­er that con­tains at least 60% alcohol.
• Avoid close con­tact with peo­ple who are sick.
• Avoid touch­ing your eyes, nose and mouth with unwashed hands.
• Clean and dis­in­fect sur­faces that are often touched.
• Take care of your health over­all. Stay­ing cur­rent on your vac­ci­na­tions, includ­ing flu vac­cine, eat­ing well and exer­cis­ing all help your body stay resilient.
• Con­sult CDC’s trav­el web­site for any trav­el advi­sories and steps to pro­tect your­self if you plan to trav­el out­side of the US.

Most peo­ple with COVID-19 have mild symp­toms. If you are feel­ing sick with mild symp­toms and do not need to see med­ical care, stay home while you recov­er. If you are sick and plan to seek care, please call before going in for care so arrange­ments can be made to pre­vent expos­ing oth­ers. For urgent med­ical needs, call 911.

To the north, pub­lic health offi­cials in British Colum­bia in Pre­mier John Hor­gan’s gov­ern­ment have extend­ed their con­do­lences and sym­pa­thies to their col­leagues south of the bor­der, and offered guid­ance for their own constituents.

VICTORIA — Adri­an Dix, Min­is­ter of Health, and Dr. Bon­nie Hen­ry, B.C.‘s provin­cial health offi­cer, have issued the fol­low­ing joint state­ment regard­ing updates on the nov­el coro­n­avirus (COVID-19) in Wash­ing­ton State:

“We send our con­do­lences to our neigh­bours in Wash­ing­ton state, espe­cial­ly to the fam­i­lies who have lost loved ones. We have offered our sup­port to Wash­ing­ton state’s pub­lic health offi­cials as we co-ordi­nate our response to COVID-19.”

“While the risk of COVID-19 spread­ing with­in British Colum­bia remains low at this time, we con­tin­ue our wide­spread test­ing by screen­ing British Columbians, as well as trav­ellers with symp­toms and their close con­tacts, to iden­ti­fy cas­es of COVID-19 early.

“Quar­an­tine offi­cers are always avail­able to sup­port the Cana­di­an Bor­der Ser­vices Agen­cy’s screen­ing con­duct­ed at land entries and air­ports. Giv­en the inten­si­ty of the out­break glob­al­ly, we ask all trav­ellers return­ing from Iran and Chi­na to self-iso­late for four­teen days upon their arrival in Cana­da. We ask all oth­er trav­ellers who are return­ing to, or vis­it­ing, B.C. from out­side Cana­da to mon­i­tor them­selves and their chil­dren close­ly for symp­toms, and if any arise, to lim­it their con­tact with oth­ers and call 811.

“The most impor­tant mea­sure any­one can take is pre­vent­ing the trans­mis­sion of res­pi­ra­to­ry ill­ness­es, includ­ing COVID-19. This includes clean­ing your hands reg­u­lar­ly, avoid­ing touch­ing your face, cough­ing or sneez­ing into your elbow sleeve, and dis­pos­ing of tis­sues appropriately.”

“It is also very impor­tant to stay home and away from oth­ers if you or mem­bers of your fam­i­ly are sick. This includes stay­ing home from work or school, and post­pon­ing vis­its to long-term care facilities.”

“Sim­i­lar to how you may need to care for some­one with influen­za, you will want to ensure you have suf­fi­cient food, med­ica­tions and sup­port in place for you and your fam­i­ly to stay home for a num­ber for days. These are the nor­mal prepa­ra­tions when some­one in your fam­i­ly is ill. There is no require­ment for British Columbians to stock­pile supplies.”

The region’s Unit­ed States fed­er­al rep­re­sen­ta­tives say they are close­ly mon­i­tor­ing devel­op­ments and are ready to pro­vide any help they can.

“My thoughts are with every­one in Wash­ing­ton State and around the coun­try being impact­ed by the nov­el coro­n­avirus out­break, and I want to thank our tire­less work­ers who are treat­ing patients and work­ing to con­tain the spread of COVID-19,” said U.S. Sen­a­tor Maria Cantwell. “I am in con­stant con­tact with our state and local offi­cials and ready to do what­ev­er I can to help.”

“I am deeply sad­dened by the news of a death in King Coun­ty today from the coro­n­avirus, and I extend my con­do­lences to his fam­i­ly and loved ones,” Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Suzan Del­Bene said in a Sat­ur­day after­noon statement.

“I will con­tin­ue to active­ly mon­i­tor the spread of the virus as new cas­es are iden­ti­fied in Wash­ing­ton State and across the coun­try,” she pledged.

“I com­mend state and local health offi­cials for their front­line work mon­i­tor­ing, pre­vent­ing, and man­ag­ing this emerg­ing threat. Con­gress and the Admin­is­tra­tion need to swift­ly agree on a sup­ple­men­tal fund­ing pack­age to pro­vide these agen­cies with the crit­i­cal resources they need, includ­ing back­fill­ing funds that have already been spent com­bat­ting the coronavirus.”

Del­Bene rep­re­sents the dis­trict that is home to the Kirk­land Life­Care facil­i­ty where dozens of peo­ple are believed to have been infect­ed with COVID-19.

“I am fol­low­ing the out­break in the 9th Dis­trict and across the coun­try close­ly and will work to ensure that the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment pro­vides the nec­es­sary resources to sup­port state and local health offi­cials pre­vent­ing and respond­ing to out­breaks,” said Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Adam Smith. “I rec­og­nize that many peo­ple are alarmed, con­cerned, and won­der­ing what they should do in response to this out­break. It is crit­i­cal that we take this evolv­ing sit­u­a­tion seriously.”

Wash­ing­ton State Gov­er­nor Jay Inslee held an after­noon press con­fer­ence at the Capi­tol with Sec­re­tary of Health John Wies­man and State Super­in­ten­dent Chris Reyk­dal to dis­cuss the state’s response to the COVID-19 outbreak.

“Our pri­or­i­ty now is to slow the spread of this dan­ger­ous virus,” Inslee said, after prais­ing the work that the Wash­ing­ton State Pub­lic Health Lab­o­ra­to­ry has been doing to process tests at its Shore­line facil­i­ty around the clock.

The Inslee admin­is­tra­tion, through Sec­re­tary of Health John Wies­man, has sig­nif­i­cant­ly increased the amount of mon­ey it is ask­ing the Leg­is­la­ture to appro­pri­ate to address COVID-19. The new ask is $100 mil­lion.

Leg­is­la­tors sig­naled that they would pro­vide the full amount requested.

“I think every­one knows at this point to take this seri­ous­ly,” said Sen­a­tor Annette Cleve­land in a state­ment. (Cleve­land chairs the Sen­ate Health Com­mit­tee.) “Every­one should also know that we have the best health experts in the coun­try work­ing on this, backed by the full sup­port of the Leg­is­la­ture. We are tak­ing all pos­si­ble steps to pro­tect the pub­lic and min­i­mize the spread of the virus.”

On the oth­er side of the rotun­da, in the House, State Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Eileen Cody and Joe Schmick intro­duced bipar­ti­san leg­is­la­tion to trans­fer fifty mil­lion dol­lars from the Rainy Day Fund (also known as the bud­get sta­bi­liza­tion account) to enable the exec­u­tive depart­men­t’s fund­ing request to be fulfilled.

“House Bill 2965 [see text] autho­rizes the fund­ing trans­fer to the state dis­as­ter response account specif­i­cal­ly for coro­n­avirus response,” a release from the House Demo­c­ra­t­ic cau­cus explains. “It also allows DSHS to increase nurs­ing facil­i­ty pay­ments as the depart­ment hires more nurs­es. That will move patients into nurs­ing care facil­i­ties and out of acute care cen­ters, which may be need­ed for coro­n­avirus patients, free­ing up more beds.”

“It is impor­tant that the gov­ern­ment be ready to address the pub­lic health needs from this out­break and this fund­ing is absolute­ly nec­es­sary,” said Cody, a retired nurse and Chair of House Health­care and Well­ness. “I appre­ci­ate my col­leagues are inter­est­ed in mov­ing quick­ly on this fund­ing trans­fer and I am open to adjust­ing it as need­ed so that we do not have a fund­ing shortage.”

“I think hav­ing resources read­i­ly avail­able to fight this virus is pru­dent,” said Schmick, the com­mit­tee’s Rank­ing Member.

State offi­cials are hope­ful that fed­er­al resources can be secured to cov­er the state’s COVID-19 fight­ing costs. That’s def­i­nite­ly a job for Pat­ty Mur­ray, Maria Cantwell, Suzan Del­Bene, Adam Smith, and their col­leagues in Congress.

The region’s strug­gle with COVID-19 these past few days has become a top sto­ry in the nation­al media, as this screen cap­ture of nytimes.com shows.

The New York Times pub­lished a use­ful Q&A that explains what is cur­rent­ly known about how the virus spreads and how to mit­i­gate the risk of exposure.

We expect a num­ber of fresh devel­op­ments tomor­row and will pub­lish anoth­er install­ment of COVID-19 Update here on the Cas­ca­dia Advocate.