A total of 3,180 cases of COVID-19 were reported across Washington state in the past seven days, approaching weekly totals seen at the previous height of the outbreak in the state nearly three months ago.
The latest state total represents a 14% increase from the previous week, according to GeekWire data analysis from the Washington State Department of Health. It’s a 150% jump from the state’s weekly low of 1,252 confirmed cases of COVID-19, which occurred in the week ending May 23, just over a month ago.
On Sunday morning, Washington Governor Jay Inslee, who appeared on CBS ‘Face the Nation, emphasized the importance of wearing masks and criticized President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence for their recent comments on the crisis.
“When I heard the vice president talk about how things are just good, it’s crazy,” Inslee said. “The situation is critical in many places in the United States, and all the happy conversations and illusions in the world are not going to eliminate that.”
He added: “So we are taking very strong measures to make people dress up. We know that this is the solution from the point of view of health, and the way to reopen our economy.”
Inslee instituted a state-mandated face-covering order that began Friday, and on Saturday took steps to curb the reopening of the economy in some counties.
Speaking on CBS, Inslee said that messages from President Trump have not helped.
“Instead of tweeting the other day about the importance of the masks, he tweeted about the monuments. We need a president who cares more about living Americans and less about dead Confederates. This has a huge impact. And if we can get everyone to wear MAGA hats to wear a mask, we are going to tame this virus. “
The increase coincides with increased test availability, with more than 10,000 tests conducted in the state on some days. (Updated from original post with test numbers. Thanks to Gregg Daugherty for pointing out the omission.)
In the Seattle region, numbers also continued to rise, with more than 600 cases reported across King County during the past week, an increase of 45% from the previous week.
The latest weekly total is more than double the total in King County two weeks ago, when the weekly count bottomed out in 241 cases after a period of constant declines.
However, the latest weekly count of 607 cases remains less than half of the more than 1,300 weekly cases reported in early April, the peak of the outbreak in the region.
The biggest difference in this latest increase: a relatively low number of hospitalizations and deaths, compared to previous peaks in the region and state. Public health officials and researchers have noted an increase in transmission among younger populations as one of the main reasons for declining death and hospitalization rates.
Washington state reported a total of 34 COVID-19 deaths last week, 32% less than the previous week, and the lowest total in the state since mid-March. One death was reported in King County, the lowest weekly total since public health officials began tracking the disease in late February and early March.
Seattle and King County saw a total of 11 new hospitalizations in the past week, a fraction of the numbers seen in late March. Washington state is seeing about 20 new hospitalizations per day, on average, down from more than 80 per day at the previous peak of the outbreak.
A key statistical indicator of COVID-19 transmission remains above the threshold necessary to further slow the spread of the pandemic, according to the latest situation report released by state officials on Friday afternoon, based on research by the Institute of Disease Modeling, Microsoft and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.
Washington, the original epicenter of COVID-19 in the country, is now among the 31 states where cases are on the rise, according to the New York Times.
