UPDATES ON THE ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND OVERALL HEALTH IMPACTS OF COVID-19 MITIGATION MEASURES IN KING COUNTY, WA

How are you using the data? Share your feedback via this brief survey.                      May 19, 2021

Boxes contain highlights from our detailed Economic, Social, and Overall Health Impacts dashboards. Click on the titles above the boxes to be connected to the topic-specific dashboards. 

ECONOMIC:

 Unemployment: slow and steady decrease

Traffic: slowly increasing 

 93,700 King County workers received unemployment benefits the week of April 18, about 6.1% of King County workers.

Traffic volumes on major highways remain about 10% lower on May 2, 2021 compared to the same day in 2019.  Transit, ferry, and toll trips are starting to increase. 

SOCIAL:

Food insecurity: slight decrease in households receiving food assistance

Family violence: domestic violence protection orders have remained steady

116,700 households received basic food assistance in April 2021, 900 fewer (1% lower) than March but still 18,700 more (19% higher) than January 2020.

In April 2021, there were 234 domestic violence protection orders filed in King County Superior Court. These filings have remained relatively steady across the pandemic and similar to numbers in 2019.

HEALTH:

Deaths: 6% increase in non-COVID-19 deaths among working age residents

Deaths: death rate changes in certain occupations

There were 2,695 deaths among working-age King County residents that were not due to COVID-19 between March-December 2020. See the graph below for shifts in non-COVID-19 deaths by occupation.  

In 2020, among workers in food preparation and serving occupations, overdose death rate increased 73% and unintentional injury death rate increased 67% compared to 2017-2019. Read our new brief for more information. 

King County occupation-specific death rates shifted in 2020 compared to 2017- 2019:

• 31% increase among food preparation and serving related workers
• 14% increase among production, transportation, and material moving workers
• 15% decrease among management, business, and financial workers 

This work is funded by Public Health — Seattle & King County, the Washington State Department of Health, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’ s (CDC) Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity for Prevention and Control of Emerging Infectious Diseases ( ELC) Cooperative Agreement (CK19 - 1904 ).

For questions, please write COVIDevaluation@kingcounty.gov

To sign-up for this newsletter please click here.