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Dear Friends and Neighbors,
This afternoon, Governor Inslee, King County Executive Constantine and Seattle Mayor Durkan held a press conference earlier today. You can watch it here (skip to the 3:50 mark) and read the Seattle Times’ report on it.
The officials were there primarily to welcome the 300 soldiers deployed here to open the 148-bed field hospital in the CenturyLink Field Event Center. This facility will only be for non-COVID patients in order to free up space in our existing hospitals for COVID patients. Governor Inslee also loosened the ban on funerals, now allowing them under extremely strict limitations. Read more about that here.
New Order and Directive from Department of Public Health
The COVID-19 outbreak is ongoing in King County, with new cases and deaths reported each day. To re-emphasize the need for all King County residents to prevent new cases, Dr. Jeff Duchin, Health Officer for Public Health – Seattle & King County signed a new order and directive on March 28.
The order makes it mandatory for people with a positive COVID-19 test to follow isolation protocols at home or at a recovery facility, and the directive requires everyone with COVID-19 symptoms (fever, cough, and/or difficulty breathing) who has a test pending to stay quarantined.
Dr. Duchin released the following statement:
“Many steps we are taking as a community are helping to decrease the number of people who get sick, need hospital care and who die. However, we cannot stop the outbreak completely and our community will likely remain at risk for months to come.
“Through my health order and directive today, I am re-emphasizing the requirement for people who are infected with COVID-19 to follow our existing recommendations to prevent the spread of COVID-19 to others in the community by staying isolated from others while ill, and to stay quarantined with symptoms while test results are pending.
“Each of us need to do whatever we can to prevent others from becoming ill. Everyone -- young and old, whether you have been diagnosed with COVID-19 or not -- should stay home and avoid all non-essential contact with others.”
To protect the public, if an individual with active COVID-19 is not voluntarily remaining isolated, or if an individual who has COVID-19 symptoms (fever, cough, and/or difficulty breathing) with a test pending is not remaining self-quarantined, they may be subject to enforcement actions, which could include legal actions for involuntary detention. The order is posted on the Public Health COVID-19 website.
Support For People Experiencing Homelessness While Diagnosed
With more intensive testing of individuals living homeless, and more positive cases expected, King County will open isolation and quarantine beds at a former hotel in Issaquah on Sunday, March 29, in addition to facilities already operational at a Kent motel and modular units set up on Aurora Ave. N. in Seattle.
Individuals living homeless who test positive and need isolation will be provided transportation to one of these sites and supported in the following ways:
- Medical personnel will provide monitoring, and social workers will ensure that any behavioral health or other services continue. The King County Facilities Management Division provides 24-hour security.
- People at these facilities will receive meals prepared by FareStart and snacks delivered to their door. In addition, they may receive incentives including a cash value card upon discharge, so long as they have complied with all medical orders and social distancing practices.
- Once they recover, they are provided free transportation from the site back to their city of origin.
Before staying at the facilities, individuals must read and agree to abide by directives issued by the Health Officer requiring that they remain separated from others and comply with instructions to neither leave the facility nor have visitors. If not voluntarily compliant, Public Health will take enforcement action, up to and including seeking a court order and involuntarily detaining the patient to protect the public.
King County continues to develop additional sites for isolation and quarantine to provide different settings that can serve the full spectrum of county residents who will require publicly provided isolation and quarantine.
Before all facilities are fully operational, some who test positive may also experience behavioral conditions that require additional supports that county facilities are not yet ready to provide. As possible, the Healthcare for the Homeless Network and other community programs will monitor the welfare of these county residents.
COVID-19 Prevention Support For Shelters
Public Health continues to provide support for settings where there is greater risk of transmission and higher risk of severe COVID-19 illness, including long-term care facilities and shelters for people experiencing homelessness.
Response teams have been working with homeless service providers to reduce the potential for widespread transmission. This includes onsite assessment, infection control guidance, and connecting homeless service providers to options that reduce the number of people in any particular shelter.
To create more physical space between individuals, which can help to prevent the spread of COVID-19, the King County Department of Community and Human Services is renting hotel rooms across the region for people currently staying in high-capacity shelters. This is in addition to creating new spaces for people experiencing homelessness.
Ballard Comes Together Online
We live in a wonderful county full of lively neighborhoods, one of which is Ballard. I’m very pleased to inform you that the Ballard Alliance has created a way to help maintain the vitality of its local business community. My Ballard reports on a new website created to help small and family businesses continue to generate revenue. Go shopping here!
Latest Statistics on Confirmed Tests, Deaths, and Recoveries
Locally, Public Health—Seattle & King County is reporting the following estimated positive cases and deaths due to COVID-19 through 3:13 p.m. on 3/28/20. More details and a range of information can be found on Public Health’s dashboard.
- 2077 estimated positive cases (up 249 from yesterday)
- 136 estimated deaths (up 11 from yesterday)
Washington state saw an overnight increase of 610 more confirmed cases, bringing the total to 4,310. You can find this data, as well as statistics from around the world here.
Local Non-Profit with Global Impact in Desperate Straits
I have mentioned before the many non-profit organizations that are facing dire circumstances. Today, I am highlighting SightLife (www.sightlife.org), the world’s leading and largest eye bank with 95 employees in Washington state and a network of cornea tissue recovery and sight restoration specialists around the world. Last year alone, SightLife provided a record-breaking 37,456 donor corneas for transplant. Among the enormous and growing effects of COVID-19 is at least $5 million in lost revenue for Sightlife due to the cancellation of elective surgeries. They operate with extremely slim margins because it is unethical and illegal to profit off the recovery and distribution of human organs and tissue.
I will work to include non-profit organ, tissue, and blood donation organizations in COVID-19 relief legislation as its advanced by the County. And I urge those of you who are able to do so to please consider donating to non-profits, particularly organ, tissue, and blood donation organizations, such as Sightlife and Bloodworks Northwest.
How Will the Coronavirus Crisis End?
This sobering article from The Atlantic offers an educated prediction and fleshes out what the high costs of any response will be. It’s a long read, but I recommend it:
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/03/how-will-coronavirus-end/608719/
Outdoor Options Continue to Close
While we are all suffering from cabin fever, the call of the wilderness rings louder than ever. Unfortunately, crowds in remote places have still been an issue and resulted in the closure of many of our parks and natural lands.
Yesterday, Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie Forest just closed its trailheads, campgrounds, visitor centers, OHV staging areas, viewpoints, boat launches, interpretive sites, picnic areas, and associated parking lots. Read their alert here.
As I previously shared, Olympia announced the temporary closure of all state-managed parks, wildlife areas and water access areas for at least two weeks starting Wednesday, March 25.
King County Parks also closed effective Wednesday, March 25, and gated parking lots and trailheads are closed, and restrooms are locked. Visitors will still be able to walk into parks and back-country trails and walk and bike on the regional trail network.
Entertaining Yourself While Staying at Home
This video made my day and I hope it puts a smile on your face, too. This gentleman has taken the Rube Goldberg machine to all-new heights…
Keep in Touch
Thank you again for taking the time to read my daily update. Feel free to forward them to others who can subscribe by clicking here. You can also visit my Facebook page for the latest info.
Finally, to prevent these updates from going straight to spam or junk folders, I encourage you to whitelist these emails by adding the email address to your contacts or address book. And be sure to check your spam folder if you think you may have missed an update.
Be well, and please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
Jeanne
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