Another recap of recent COVID-19 news and updates

— from Emergency Operations Center, Camp Murray —

Newest numbers. The Department of Health reported a total of 74,939 confirmed cases as of 11:59 pm on August 31. There have been 1,931 COVID-19 deaths in Washington.

For the most recent tally of cases by county, demographics, and more, visit the Department of Health’s dashboard and the state’s COVID-19 risk assessment dashboard.

Community testing gets big boost from several teams ready to help. The Washington State Department of Health (DOH) is working to increase the availability and accessibility of testing across the state of Washington, and is doing so with the help of several organizations, volunteers and health practitioners.

While testing has met with challenges in parts of the state, it is leading to creative solutions like partnerships with organizations that can help increase statewide access to testing. As we move into the fall, it’s a core statewide goal to increase testing availability, and to increase the number of people requesting tests. Read the full news release here. 

Weekly JIC media briefing tomorrow at 2:00 p.m. The JIC’s weekly media briefing with leaders from the governor’s office and DOH will be tomorrow at 2:00 p.m. TVW will livestream the briefing here.

AmeriCorps helps during COVID-19 pandemic, gets more funding. Many AmeriCorps Washington members have safely engaged in a wide variety of COVID-19 related emergency relief activities such as food distribution/security, educational support/enrichment, volunteer management and senior services. Gov. Jay Inslee announced that Serve Washington, the state’s service commission, received $15.8 million in AmeriCorps funding. More information here.

Inslee announces additional federal funding to be distributed to local governments. Gov. Jay Inslee announced on August 31 that nearly $190 million will be awarded from the state’s federal stimulus funding to local governments that did not receive direct distributions under the CARES Act.

The new funding includes nearly $126 million that will be distributed to cities and counties and about $62 million to local health jurisdictions. The governor’s budget office approved the distributions, in consultation with legislative leaders.

“Our local public health jurisdictions, cities and counties have worked tirelessly since the first confirmed case of COVID-19 appeared in Washington to protect their communities,” Inslee said. “This much needed infusion of funds will help sustain their efforts to stop the spread of this virus.”

The new funding for cities and counties comes on top of nearly $300 million that was distributed last spring to cities and counties with populations under 500,000 that were ineligible to receive direct funding from the federal government under the CARES Act.

Read the full news release here.

Inslee updates agritourism and agricultural industry guidance. Gov. Jay Inslee announced updated guidance for agritourism and the agricultural industry as part of Washington’s Safe Start phased reopening plan on August 28.

Agritourism

The guidance has been updated to allow for additional activities: 

• Animal viewing
• Hay/wagon/train rides
• Children’s play equipment/games
• Private firepit/bonfires

Read the full updated guidance here.

Agricultural Industry

This update builds on proclamation 20-57.1 concerning the health of agricultural workers, and on the relief funds announced on August 10.

The updates specify what types of licensed health professional can monitor workers during isolation, and clarify that employer-provided monitoring of symptoms is not synonymous with healthcare covered by workers’ compensation.

Read the full updated guidance here.

Find a full list of current reopening guidance here. 

Kreidler extends two emergency orders on coronavirus. Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler has extended two emergency orders. His order requiring health insurers to waive copays and deductibles for any consumer requiring testing for coronavirus (COVID-19) and his order protecting consumers from receiving surprise bills for lab fees related to medically-necessary diagnostic testing for COVID-19 are both extended until Sept. 27. Read the full news release here.

Are there any new guidance documents or updates to existing documents this week? Yes! 

Indoor Fitness (update): This updated document has clarified that capacity limits for Phase 2 counties will be measured using 300 square feet per person and 200 square feet per person in Phase 3 counties. For large facilities (>12,000 sq ft), capacity is still limited to 25 percent of the facility’s occupancy limit. Members are encouraged to keep as much distance from each other as possible, but there is no longer a required distance greater than six feet. Squash and racquetball are also now allowed under certain circumstances. Please see the updated FAQS on Fitness here.

Agritourism (update): This updated guidance allows for additional activities, including animal viewing, hay/wagon/train rides, use of children’s play equipment, private fire pits/bonfires and outdoor corn mazes/haunted houses in Phase 2 and 3 counties. Read the full guidance here. Read the attached memo here. 

Personal Services (update): The title was changed on this document to clarify that it applies to both Phase 2 and Phase 3 counties.

Museums, bowling alleys and outdoor recreation guidance documents were also recently released or updated.

Want to stay up to date on the latest Safe Start guidance updates? Sign up for the weekly business and worker newsletter here.