Recap of COVID-19 news and updates

— from Emergency Operations Center, Camp Murray —

Numbers: As of 11:59 p.m. on April 22, there are 12,753 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Washington state, an increase of 259 cases in the last 24 hours. Visit the Department of Health’s website for cases by county, demographics, and more.

Statewide response updates

Epidemiological data summary: Our epidemiological data suggest that COVID-19 activity peaked in Washington at the end of March. While activity declined during early April, this decline may have slowed during the past week. Data from the past week are always preliminary and difficult to interpret so we will not fully understand these data for another week. The public health system in Washington is currently responding to outbreaks of COVID-19 in long term care settings, homeless shelters, food processing plants and among agricultural workers.

The Department of Health has convened an expert group of modelers to analyze our epidemiologic data. This group predicts with a high degree of confidence that relaxation of social distancing conditions to pre-covid19 levels will result in a sharp increase in the numbers of cases after 2 weeks. The group also believes that current diagnosis counts are still too high to lessen social distancing measures within the next two weeks.

Testing: Testing capacity continues to increase steadily. As a result of a decrease in seasonal flu activity we believe fewer people are experiencing symptoms that lead people to seek testing. For the week of April 11-17, 2,730 people were tested daily, on average. Officials estimate we will need to be able to test about 30,000 people per day initially to adequately identify those who have contracted the virus and prevent those individuals from spreading the virus. The primary constraint to testing continues to be access to swabs, viral transport media, specimen bags, and reagents that labs use.

PPE: The state continues its aggressive procurement of personal protective equipment (PPE) and has now ordered more than $300 million in supplies, most of which is still on the way. Less than 30 percent of the state’s PPE supplies come from donations or federal sources. Because PPE supplies remain limited, state officials continue to prioritize Tier 1 needs which include hospitals, long-term care facilities and first responders. So far, the state has delivered more than 11 million PPE items to local emergency agencies, which then distribute to individual facilities. Information about purchasing and distribution of PPE is available on the state’s coronavirus website.

Medical system planning and coordination led by retired Vice Admiral Raquel Bono: Washington state’s health care system continues to refine a common operating picture of readiness and surge capacity for treating patients who require hospitalization due to COVID-19 infection. By working collaboratively, hospitals and health care systems across the state have done an outstanding job of conserving PPE, postponing non-urgent procedures and employing other mitigation measures to enhance surge capabilities. Now hospitals are beginning to enter data into a new “WA HEALTH” portal that will provide a state-wide dashboard view of bed, ICU, PPE and ventilator availability.

Working with local health jurisdictions and county, state and medical leaders, the COVID-19 Health System Response Management team is working to ensure every Washingtonian has the right level of care should they need it. An integral part of creating and sustaining surge capacity is having broad situational awareness of COVID-19 outbreak and spread.

As the governor considers his recovery plan, the team is also working with the Department of Health on interpretive guidelines to allow additional elective care and procedures in facilities that have the capacity, PPE supplies and infection control processes to safeguard frontline health care professionals and patients.

Food security: Washington State Department of Agriculture has used state relief funds to procure 101,871 cases (roughly 2.7 million pounds) of shelf stable food for distribution in emergency food boxes next week. Demand continues to increase – based on anecdotal reports, we estimate an average 10 to 20 percent increase statewide with some larger food pantries reporting increases of 50 percent or more. More than 400 Washington National Guardsmen continue to assist local foodbanks. Over the last week alone, Guardsmen helped box more than 2.1 million pounds of food, which equals 427,481 meals.

Employment Security Department update: Late on Saturday, April 18, the Employment Security Department updated their unemployment system to enable several provisions of the federal CARES Act: expanding eligibility for unemployment benefits to those previously ineligible such as independent contractors, self-employed workers, and those with fewer than 680 hours; increasing weekly unemployment benefits by $600; and extending benefits by 13 weeks.

Since the launch of those updates, almost $900M has been sent to Washingtonians, bringing the total paid out since the crisis began to nearly $1.4B. Those dollars are having a tremendous impact within communities across the state, providing critical relief for people under incredible financial pressure as a result of the COVID-19 crisis.

During the week of April 12-18, there were 82,435 initial and 605,514 total claims for unemployment benefits, according to ESD. While initial claims declined 42 percent from the previous week, the total claims continued to grow.

During the week of April 12-18, ESD paid out over $177 million to 352,909 unemployed workers, a $51.3 million increase from the previous week. Since the week ending March 7 when COVID-19 job losses began, the department has paid out nearly $496 million in benefits to Washingtonians.