Calling the situation “extraordinarily urgent,” Washington state health officials Tuesday urged Washington residents to do their part to reduce the statewide increase in COVID-19 cases — including rethinking how they plan to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday.
During a media briefing, officials said that the safest Thanksgiving is one celebrated with people in your immediate household. Ideally, socializing should be avoided altogether for the next several weeks, and if you must socialize, limit those contacts to no more than five people outside your household per week.
“In Snohomish County, we’ve seen a shocking increase in our two-week case rate,” said Snohomish Health Officer Chris Spitters. “Holding gatherings is a threat to all. Stop it. Plain and simple, just stop the gatherings. Make a bubble of the same five or fewer social contacts outside of your household and stick to that.”
“If we don’t taken action immediately, even more painful and difficult interventions are inevitable,” Spitters added.
To highlight the latest statistics, the health department released the latest statewide situation report on COVID-19 transmission, which shows disease transmission is happening at an accelerated pace across the entire state.
Report findings include:
- Disease is spreading rapidly across Washington. The best estimates of the reproductive number (how many new people each COVID-19 patient will infect) are 1.29 in Western Washington and 1.36 in Eastern Washington as of Oct. 30. The goal is a number well below one, which would mean COVID-19 transmission is declining.
- From mid to late-October, case counts and hospitalizations have increased in both Western and Eastern Washington. Although some of the increase in cases through early October is related to increased testing volumes, more recent case counts in both Eastern and Western Washington have increased, despite testing volumes being flat.
- Hospitalizations will continue to rise in Western Washington even if cases start to plateau. Hospital admissions in Western Washington have been increasing since the start of October. Because patients may stay in the hospital for up to several weeks, hospital occupancy will continue to rise for some time after hospital admissions level off.
“I am extremely concerned about what seems to be an accelerating trend in the spread of COVID-19. Immediate action is needed from all of us to avoid new restrictions and prevent our hospitals from becoming overwhelmed.” said State Health Officer Dr. Kathy Lofy. “This situation is extraordinarily urgent, and we’re running out of time to change direction. We need everyone in Washington state to take action now to stop the spread of COVID-19.”
Health officials advised wearing a mask around people you don’t live with (even close friends and family), to stay home as much as possible, to limit the number, size and frequency of gatherings, and only attend gatherings that are essential. People who want to visit family for Thanksgiving should limit themselves to only the most essential activities now, and essentially quarantine for two weeks before even a small outdoor gathering, the health department said.
They also offered tips for safer gatherings and ideas for alternative celebrations here.
You can watch the entire news briefing here.
Just stop all of this please. Covid is not going away and having people do things ( mask, hyper sanitize & etc. ) only serves to put their “immune systems” to sleep. “Medical science” has not been able to eradicate the common cold or the seasonal flu so why does anyone believe covid will be “conquered” as the “medical experts” keep harping on. Screaming about full hospitals is also bogus as hospitals are a business and unless operating at pretty full capacity are losing money. All of this panic inducing headline pandering is doing nothing but perpetuating the socio-economic destruction of our communities and peoples lives. You cannot save your town by burning it down.
This is like saying “we are in the middle of a serious hurricane, but no problem, only a few thousand of our older and less competant sailors will be killed, so let’s go ahead with the regatta as planned.”
According to the CDC as of 11/12/20 there have been 223,984 deaths with Covid of a total of 2,452,180 total deaths.
Their projection (which trends out to 2050) was to have 2.88 million death this year.
We are on path (without weighting) to have 379,044 more total deaths this year, bringing our total to 2,831,223.
That means we are on a path to have LESS deaths for the year than the experts predicted before Covid.
If you believe the experts and the science that means a huge percentage of the “Covid deaths” are double counted with something else and/or people that were going to die this year without Covid happening.
Ah, but medical science has been able to contain smallpox, polio, measles, chicken pox, tetanus, and many more ailments that once devastated, crippled or killed people.
If people took precautions, and got the vaccinations as they were developed, the ravages of these diseases were dramatically reduced.
I’m willing to take precautions—-to protect myself and others—-and wait for a Covid-19 vaccination.
Susan. Look up “Leaky Vaccines”. The standards you’re wanting to apply to CV-19 don’t apply. With those other diseases we also quarantined the sick, not the healthy.
Mr. Demme, you just touched my last nerve with this post…
I agree with Susan, well said. Science is asking us to do the right thing to protect our selves and our neighbors. I’m sick of the whiners who just can’t stand to put a mask on and socially distance for the time being and do the right thing to curb the pandemic until a viable vaccine comes out. A bit of sacrifice for the greater good? Generations before us did just that. So why can’t we do it now. Our children and grandchildren will either thank us for doing the right thing or condemn us for being weak and unable to handle a crisis when faced with one.
And to address the full hospitals? It is not a normal hospital environment to be using their beds for the care of more critically ill people than they can handle. ICU beds usually number around 10 in most hospitals. So the overflow ICU patients are now being cared for on Med/Surg floors, maternity wings and the ER for lack of ICU beds. This strains the supply chain, staffing and the need for critical care staff that is stretched beyond belief. I would bet that hospitals are losing money right now, they are stepping up to face the crisis head on because that’s what they do. The general population is having to put off elective surgeries, hip replacements, knee surgery etc. We all are being called on to make sacrifices. So don’t tell me about full hospitals. I’ve worked in ICU, CCU and ER for 35 years. The strain is real and unlike anything we’ve experienced in our lifetimes.
Wearing a mask and socially distancing seems like such a small price to pay.
We should stop bringing people with the same communicable disease (CV-19) into hospitals. We also shouldn’t put them into nursing homes like some cities did (like NYC). A real CV-19 Quarantine needs to be established, at facilities that only treat CV-19.
I’m not a doctor or a hospital administrator, but this seems like a very basic measure if CV-19 is a legitimate pandemic. From what I understand, because the death rate is so low, CV-19 isn’t a pandemic by the medical definition.
CV-19 is just an epedemic, not a pandemic.
https://www.webmd.com/cold-and-flu/features/what-is-pandemic#1
Since a “case” does not necessarily mean “infection” thanks to 40x PCR tests, whats the point aside from exactly what Jay Demme states above. Don’t be sheep. Masks don’t work, heard immunity does. Lockdowns don’t work either and I refuise to comply, so my hope is that every small business in town stands against the dictator in olympia and keeps their doors open.