Daily recap of COVID-19 news and updates

— from Emergency Operations Center, Camp Murray —

Newest numbers. DOH experienced an outage with its reporting system today which caused interruptions in several functions. The data reported today is preliminary and only include cases through 7 p.m. on 7/30 (not 11:59 p.m. as is usual).

DOH anticipates negative tests will be behind for a few days which will impact DOH’s ability to report out tests and percent positivity. Data dashboard visualizations will be impacted for a short time. DOH hopes to be back to normal by early next week.

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.

COVID-19 still rising in Washington; no turnaround yet. DOH released the latest statewide situation report today which outlines similar trends to last week’s report.

Transmission continues to increase overall in eastern and western Washington. Best estimates place the reproductive number (the estimated number of new people each COVID-19 patient will infect) above one across the state. The goal is a reproductive number below one, which would mean the number of people getting COVID-19 is declining.

Case numbers continue to trend upward in many counties, while King County has remained flat near its historical peak. Pierce County cases have hit a new peak since the last report. Yakima’s rates continue to decline, but Okanogan now has the most cases per capita in Washington. It’s difficult to tell whether delays in testing are impacting numbers. Daily new case counts in other counties, including Benton, Franklin, Spokane, and Grant, have seen decreases or plateaus, which hopefully reflects improved adherence to masking and physical distancing guidelines.

Read DOH’s release here for other key takeaways from this week’s report.

Inslee extends more than two dozen pandemic-related proclamations. Gov. Jay Inslee announced the extension of 25 proclamations today in response to the continuing COVID-19 pandemic. The extensions were approved by the state Legislature. Extensions include the waiver of job search requirements, the moratorium on utility disconnects and late fees, and more.

You can read the full list here and read the July 30 letter from the Legislature extending the proclamations until September 1, 2020. 

Clarification to restaurant guidance and new summer camp guidance available. The governor’s office today released updates to the July 24 guidance for restaurants, taverns, breweries, wineries and distilleries as part of Washington’s Safe Start phased reopening plan.

Changes include clarification about which establishments can offer indoor seating, temporary outdoor seating guidance and counter-style seating clarifications. Read the full restaurants, taverns, breweries, wineries and distilleries guidance document here and attached memo here. 

The office also released additional guidance related to overnight group summer camps. Read the full overnight group summer camps guidance here and the attached memo here. 

Find a full list of reopening guidance here. 

“More than numbers: A field of flags represents the lives affected by COVID-19 in Yakima County” “More than 8,000 red and black flags marked with a silhouette lined the edge of Chesterley Park Tuesday evening. Each red flag represented a Yakima County resident who tested positive for COVID-19 from mid-March to a few weeks ago, when the materials were ordered. The black flags clustered in one group represented those who had died of the virus.”

Read the full story in today’s Yakima Herald-Republic about how the Yakima community is helping people see the human stories and loss behind the data. The project, which includes signs in both English and Spanish, was overseen by the Yakima Health District with funding from DOH.