King County opened a mass vaccination site at the ShoWare Center in Kent (King County) in February
While cases of COVID-19 have been declining since the holidays, King County health officials warn that the emergence of a variant and flawed behavior could send us all backwards quickly.
MyNorthwest COVID updates
Dr. Jeff Duchin at Public Health – Seattle and King County, says the county has seen a decrease in the number of cases in recent weeks, but the seven-day rate is still more than 200 per 100,000. That’s seven times the amount in June and three to four times the amount we saw in September.
“About two people died every day last week, that’s less than 8-9 a day during December,” Duchin said.
He pointed out that areas in South King County see high rates compared to other areas in the country. Kent, Auburn, Federal Way, followed by Burien, Tukwila and Sea-Tac, are about three times higher than downtown Seattle. The hospitalization and mortality rates are also three to four times higher in those areas.
Fewer people have been searching since the holiday tests, but Duchin says testing is an important tool to prevent the spread of COVID to others.
The variant
As for the variant, Duchin says studies from other countries indicate that it doubles every week. He said that small numbers of the variant can go unnoticed for a while, but the numbers can grow really fast.
“I feel like we’re in the eye of a hurricane and want to remind everyone that we should expect the variety to spread widely here,” Duchin said. “And that it will make our outbreak much harder to control.”
He said we need to remember that as we increase our activities, it increases the opportunity for the virus to spread. He recommended using the same strategies we heard: mask, wash your hands, spread out and increase indoor ventilation. But we need to improve our consistency.
“The end result is that these variants represent a game changer,” Duchin said. “They are faster and more dangerous.”
Weekend Warning
Duchin congratulated the Seattle Seahawks on being the NFL team for not reporting any positive COVID matters before warning NFL fans to be careful this weekend while watching the Super Bowl.
“Ventilation is important,” Duchin said. ‘The best Super Bowl advice is, please do not meet indoors with non-domestic members, otherwise everyone could end up on the injured list of COVID-19. If you do watch with others, open windows and increase ventilation and wear masks. Eat outside. Outside is always safer than inside. And remember, just eating and talking puts the virus in the air … Up to half of the COVID-19 infection spreads from people who look and feel good. They do not know they have COVID-19 and do not appear to have symptoms. ”
Duchin said if the ventilation is poor, the virus can build up like cigarette smoke in the room. Singing, talking loudly and screaming can cause even more virus in the room.
“Try to limit loud cheers, especially for Tampa Bay,” Duchin said.
Vaccination statistics
Duchin said the allocation of vaccines in King County remains stable, but it is not enough. The state of Washington receives only less than a third of what healthcare providers charge. The first doses received only 107.00 this week and there is a greater demand for second doses.
Duchin explained for perspective that King County received just over 43,000 doses this week, and half of them were allocated for the first doses. At the end of January, 300 healthcare providers were enrolled for vaccination programs. This week, only 25% of providers received doses.
According to Duchin, King County administered nearly 300,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine as of Thursday. Of these, 232,000 people (13% of King County’s population) received the first dose and 60,000 people were fully vaccinated with both doses. Among the two, about two-thirds of the province’s eligible health workers in phase 1A received at least one dose of the vaccine.
Duchin said they administered at least one dose of the vaccine to nearly 40% of King County’s population, who are 75 years or older. . They vaccinated more than a third of those between 65 and 74 years of age with at least one dose. That age group is at least 90 times more likely to die than 18-29 year olds.
Regarding the breakdown of race and ethnicity, Duchin said that those who received a dose of COVID vaccine are 10% who identify themselves as white, 8% who identify themselves as Asians, 5% who identify themselves as black and 4 % who identify them as Spanish. .
“The impact of this outbreak is excessively difficult for people of color,” Duchin said.
Kind County is updating a demographic dashboard to study the breakthrough.
Appointments at the two mass vaccination centers that opened the country on Feb. 1 in Kent and Auburn were discussed until February, according to Duchin. The province also manages eight mobile units to vaccinate high-risk populations, in partnership with local firefighters. They hope to get two more mobile units soon.
Look at Dr. Duchin’s latest update on COVID-19 in King County.