New numbers from the Washington State Department of Health show that 61 percent of coronavirus deaths there are linked in some way to long-term care facilities while making up just 19 percent of the state’s overall cases.
There are currently 16,231 confirmed cases statewide and 891 deaths.
Health officials said the LTCF numbers include residents, staff and visitors. At least one case has been reported in 94 assisted living facilities, 76 nursing homes, 51 adult family homes and 30 supported living providers. Half of the 4,000 such facilities in the state have been tested so far.
Nursing homes nationwide have been especially hard hit as residents fall into two major at-risk categories – elderly and with underlying medical conditions that compromise their immune systems.
Officials in Walla Walla County have retracted their claim that some people there have been holding coronavirus parties “with the idea that it is better to get sick with the virus and get it over with.”
Meghan DeBolt, director of the county’s Department of Community Health, issued a statement saying her comments were incorrect and that “I formally call back my interview.”
Through contact tracing – tracking those who have been in recent contact with confirmed cases – the county discovered instead that a gathering was held where at least one person was infected and the other attendees were aware of it.
In Seattle, a proposal to increase taxes on certain businesses has been shelved due to a statewide proclamation limiting what public bodies can do during the pandemic.
Two council members in early April said they wanted to introduce legislation to place an additional tax on large corporations and use the money to give coronavirus relief payments to low-income families. The proposal would require companies like Amazon to pay 1.3 percent of payroll to the city.
Supporters wanted to borrow money to send $500 a month for four months to about 100,000 households, then levy the tax in 2021 or 2020 to repay the $200 million loan.
A March directive from Gov. Jay Inslee that temporarily suspended parts of the state Open Meetings Act, however, limits public bodies to only handling “routine and necessary” business and actions that directly deal with slowing the spread of coronavirus.
Also in Seattle, Mayor Jenny Durkan said Thursday that 20 miles of residential streets that have been temporarily closed will now be permanently closed. The streets have been closed to allow people more room to walk and bike while practicing social distancing.
The streets will remain closed to through traffic after Inslee’s “stay-at-home” order is lifted, with residents, delivery drivers, garbage and recycling crews and emergency response vehicles being the only traffic allowed on them.
