American Elephants

COVID-19 update from King County and Seattle WA Public Health:
Updated 3/28/2020 3:13 PM

Summary of counts since yesterday:

2,077 positive test results (13.2% of all results) an increase of 249

Deaths due to COVID-19: 136 (6.5% of positive results) an increase of 11

Greater  Seattle King County reported its first case of COVID-19 on January 21st

COVID-19, as we have quickly learned, is a tricky disease. Some people display prominent symptoms. Others, barely any at all. As a result, it’s hard to estimate the total number of cases or track how it’s moving through the community.

But King County is fortunate in at least one key respect: we have leading researchers based right here, already working on better ways to track the spread of respiratory diseases.

Originating as a small pilot program in 2018, the Seattle Flu Study had not anticipated the need to track COVID-19. The disease was completely unknown until this past December, when it was recognized in China. But once the first case in the U.S. was confirmed in Snohomish County, researchers realized they could adapt their existing study to help learn about this new virus.Seattle

Seattle had researchers already at work on a Flu Study. They have now partnered with Public Health and King County to launch the greater Seattle Coronavirus Assessment Network (SCAN for short) to allow Public Health  to see how the virus is spreading through the community, By conducting focused, representative testing from a sample of people across the area they will gain information that allows them to better respond to the epidemic.

You can play an important role in SCAN. We’re asking people—whether they show symptoms or not—to visit scanpublichealth.org and sign up. You’ll answer a few questions, starting with your zip code. We’ll send swab kits to those we can, focusing on the people needed to get the most representative picture possible of what’s happening in our region.

The article from which I extracted this information is much longer, and can be accessed at the previous link.

From the Washington Post:

At Evergreen Health Medical Center, two miles from the shuttered Lifecare nursing home where 35 patient deaths were linked to the virus, officials say their rate of new covid-19 cases has remained steady for two weeks, leveling off at a trickle. On some days, doctors here see just one new case and haven’t seen more than four in a single day since mid-March. Few need admission to the intensive care unit, which is now half full, two weeks after overflow necessitated transfers to nearby hospitals.
“We don’t know if this last two weeks has been a calm before the storm or if the social distancing and all those things that are being practiced are working,” said Evergreen Health CEO Jeff Tomlin, whose hospital has handled 40 of Washington state’s more than 130 virus-related deaths.

From Red State.com
Long before New York City became the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S., a 35-year-old man who had recently returned from visiting family in Wuhan, China, walked into an urgent care clinic in Snohomish County, WA on January 19. He presented with a four-day cough history. The next day, this man would become the first person in America to test positive for COVID-19.