The situation at the state level:
The state of Washington reported 825 new COVID-19 cases over the 24 hour period ending Wednesday, bringing the total number of cases to 55,803 as of July 29 at 11:59 p.m. The total number of deaths was 1,564; hospitalizations 5,568.
Viewed over time, the following chart from the Washington Department of Heath illustrates how after backing off in May and early June, cases again surged through July (note that the grey bars denote incomplete data and do not indicate a verified trend).
Deaths in Washington state are also on the rise, as the higher numbers of newly diagnosed cases that began several weeks ago now are moving through the progression of the illness, with recent fatality numbers now reaching the levels of early June as the two charts below illustrate.
While the numbers continue to shift slightly, there has been no change in the demographic patterns of the virus that continue to show the highest incidence of cases among younger groups while older age group show disproportionately high numbers of hospitalizations and deaths.
Statewide testing activity continues to intensify, with almost a million tests administered to date. But positive tests continue to exceed the goal of 25 newly diagnosed cases per 100,000 over a two-week rolling period.
The county situation:
While the latest statistics at the county level generally reflect those of the state as a whole, they differ in several notable ways.
The overview below provides a snapshot of the numbers as of July 29.
Viewed over time, the daily case count continues to rise, but unlike the state has not yet reached record levels, although it continues to move further from the Phase 2 reopening caseload target as the second chart below illustrates. We met this target in early June, which contributed to Snohomish County qualifying for Phase 2 reopening at that time.
The county death count, unlike that of the state, continues to remain stable despite the increased caseload of the past several weeks.
Countywide testing continues to ramp up, reflecting the overall state trends.
The following table provides the latest test result numbers in Snohomish County.
Like the state, the Snohomish County numbers for positive test results have been on the rise since early June, when we achieved the target level of fewer than 25 new confirmed cases per 100,000 over a two-week rolling period.
The local situation:
Locally, the conditions in our southwest Snohomish County home cities reflect the larger trends state and countywide.
Numbers of total cases, currently active cases and deaths are all rising at increasing rates through June and July, as the following charts for the full county, Edmonds, Lynnwood, and Mountlake Terrace illustrate. Note that these figures are through July 25, as the more recent numbers are still being verified. Also note that death and active case data are not available for Mountlake Terrace for the June 6, 13 and 20 reporting periods — the zeros have been substituted in the bar chart as placeholders only and do not reflect actual numbers for these dates.
The numbers for our local communities are summarized in the table below. Note that death and active case numbers are not available for Brier and Woodway.
These data are taken from the COVID-19 Weekly Update report from the Snohomish Health District, which summarizes verified data as of the end of the previous week.
Some more recent, but as yet unverified, current data are available on the Health District’s COVID Case Count page here.
The data, tables and charts in this report are taken from the following:
- The Snohomish Health District COVID Count web page
- The Snohomish Health District weekly COVID report, July 31 update
- The Washington State Department of Health COVID Dashboard
- The Washington State COVID Risk Assessment Dashboard
- The Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center
— By Larry Vogel
This testing is extremely flawed. It isn’t being conducted in a controlled environment and there are an overwhelming number of false positives. There are several different tests. These are not new cases, they are new test results that show up positive. Testing has increased dramatically. Why do you think so many people have zero symptoms? A prior flu shot or virus will trigger the test results because of what these tests are actually testing for. They don’t just pick up on a live or active virus. Look around, no one is sick.
I agree there are a lot of problems with the testing system but this virus is in the vast majority of cases not going to present with noticable symptoms to others so “not seeing them” is not really an issue. Many people have died, many people go to the hospital, the exact numbers of each being FROM Covid are debatable but it is happening.
Scary thought of the day…
The CDC says more excess suicide deaths have occured this year in under 20’s because of the shutdown than of Covid. Because of politics much of the country is going to keep kids home to “keep them safe” which is going to result in more deaths than if we let them go back to school.
…a lot of people are going to pat themselves on the back thinking they did a good thing because standing up to Trump is more important than saving kids lives.
“Look around, no one is sick.” That’s because the sick people are home or in the hospital.
If you could look around and see who was sick you wouldn’t need testing. Just avoid everyone who looks sick. Louie Gohmert (the great Texas statesman and avid Trump supporter) claims he probably caught the virus because it was stuck in the mask he wore against his better judgement. In other words we all just see and believe what we want to see and believe about most things. All I know for sure is my Edmond’s friend, John Reed (ACE activist, Housing Commission Member, and all around good guy) died from the disease, which does, I think, prove that people get sick and die from it. RIP John.