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Dear Friends and Neighbors,
Two new modeling reports have found that the variety of social distancing measures in place in King County have reduced the spread of COVID-19, but officials also made clear during a Monday press call that those measures must continue to decrease and delay the peak of the outbreak.
The Bellevue-based Institute for Disease Modeling (IDM) worked with Public Health using state Department of Health and Facebook data to look at the reduction in mobility in response to local and state social distancing measures. IDM researchers found significant reductions in mobility beginning in early March. IDM researchers then looked to see if that reduced mobility could be related to reductions in COVID-19 transmission.
Using a simulation of COVID-19 testing, diagnosis and death data for King County, they found that a measure of transmission, called the effective reproductive number, dropped by about half – from about 2.7 in late February to roughly 1.4 on March 18. This number represents the number of new transmissions stemming from each infection. However, to sustain a drop in new cases, that number need to be less than 1 – meaning each person must infect fewer than one person, on average.
Speaking to reporters Monday, Dr. Jeff Duchin from Public Health and Dr. Daniel Klein from IDM said there is still a lot of uncertainty and warned against taking these findings as a sign that individuals could ease social distancing strategies.
Dr. Jeff Duchin tweeted the following to make sure we continue to be cautious in light of these findings: “The findings are based on relatively few persons tested, and therefore a great deal of uncertainty. No one should take these findings as an indication to relax our social distancing strategy. Stay the course.”
You can read the full summary from Public Health here, and find the two reports here and here.
Latest numbers from Public Health
Public Health is reporting the following confirmed cases and deaths due to COVID-19 through 11:59 p.m. on 3/29/20.
- 2330 confirmed positive cases (up 171 from yesterday)
- 150 confirmed deaths (up 9 from yesterday)
Inslee, state leaders stress importance of of ongoing stay-at-home order
During a press conference Monday afternoon, Gov. Jay Inslee, Attorney General Bob Ferguson, State Patrol Chief John Batiste and Bellevue Police Chief Steve Mylett stressed the importance of ongoing compliance with the stay-at-home order to reduce the spread of COVID-19 and said officials are ready to take steps to clamp down on violators.
Inslee outlined three tiers of response to complaints of suspected violation of the order. The first tier is simply to educate the suspected violator about how to comply with the order. For those who don’t comply at that point, the state could issue citations or suspend permits, including revocation of business licenses. At the third tier, for continued violators, cases could be referred to the Attorney General for either civil or criminal charges.
People who suspect a business is violating the order can visit the state’s coronavirus site to report online or can contact local law enforcement through non-emergency numbers. Inslee and other officials stressed that people should not call 911 to report such violations.
KC postpones property tax payment for individual property owners
Earlier today, King County Executive Dow Constantine announced that he is postponing the tax payment deadline to June 1 for individual property taxpayers. Individual residential and commercial taxpayers who pay property taxes themselves, rather than through their mortgage lender, can delay payment until June 1, 2020 due to the COVID-19 (coronavirus) outbreak. Banks and other financial institutions that pay property taxes on behalf of their lending customers will still need to meet the original April 30 deadline.
Included in the Executive’s press release was a quote from me, as the Council Budget Chair, supporting this decision: “I support the Executive's order, as this is a very challenging time for many of our residents to pay their property tax bills, especially for those who have lost their jobs, and for small business owners who have had to close down - hopefully only temporarily. We also have to be responsive to our cities and towns and special districts - such as schools, fire districts, hospitals and libraries - who depend on the property tax revenue. Postponing the due date until June 1 seems a fair balance for all when we consider our daunting crisis.”
You can read more about this decision by clicking the following link: https://www.kingcounty.gov/elected/executive/constantine/news/release/2020/March/30-property-tax-extension.aspx
Some weekday bus trips restored to better promote social distancing
To better support the health of passengers and drivers and to promote social distancing, Metro is restoring some weekday bus trips on specific routes based on ridership:
https://kingcountymetro.blog/2020/03/28/covid-19-update-some-weekday-bus-trips-restored-to-better-promote-social-distancing/
If your route was cut on March 23, here are some alternate routes to consider: https://kingcountymetro.blog/2020/03/29/alternate_routes/
Additionally, for routes that experienced service cuts (i.e., fewer hours and/or frequency of trips), there’s an interactive web tool listing specific trips cut for each route: https://kingcounty.gov/depts/transportation/metro/schedules-maps/reduced-schedule/canceled-trips.aspx
Additional helpful and informative links
I will survive! Remix edition
Special thanks to one of my constituents who sent me her own clever recreation of the Gloria Gaynor song “I will survive.” This time it’s we will survive, and it is a hopeful and positive message to get through this unprecedented time:
Based on "I Will Survive” by Gloria Gaynor (first section only) Covid 19 version – “We Will Survive”
At first we were afraid, we were petrified
Kept thinking we could never live unless we run and hide
But then we spent so many days learning how to wash our hands
We’re growing strong
Although all events are banned.
And now you're here
From coast to coast
We woke up to find you spreading, turning people into ghosts
We would have sped up all the tests
We would have staffed the CDC
If we had known for just one second there’s a cost to apathy
Go on now, go
Walk out the door
Just turn around now Cuz you're not welcome anymore
Weren’t you the one who emptied all the grocery shelves?
You think we’d crumble?
You think we’d just think of ourselves?
Oh, no, NOT US
We will survive
As long as we know how to love we’ll keep ourselves alive
Older neighbors got to live
We all have help to give
We will survive We will survive, hey, hey
Keep in touch
Thank you again for taking the time to read my update. You can expect ones to continue being sent out on a daily basis. Feel free to forward them to others who can subscribe by clicking here.
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.
And please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or concerns and, most importantly, be well.
Sincerely,
Jeanne Kohl-Welles
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