May 6, 2021 at 1:02 pm
Personnel eat in the cafeteria at Harborview Medical Center on Nov. 26, 2020 in Seattle, Washington. (Photo by David Ryder/Getty Images)
Washington has seen an increase in hospitalizations for COVID-19 across the state, though there could be hope on the horizon that a fourth wave that’s already started can still be turned around.
“We have definitely seen an increase in hospitalizations across the state, which is very worrisome,” said Cassie Sauer, president and CEO of the Washington State Hospital Association. “We had actually bee having hospitalizations decline pretty significantly, and were down to about 350 people hospitalized. And that was pretty steady for about five or six weeks throughout the end of February and March and early April. And then suddenly we start to see a pretty fast increase in the number of folks hospitalized, up to more than 600 people hospitalized at a time, so that’s been a really big concern for us.
WA Democratic lawmakers decry pause of Pierce County
RACHEL LA CORTE, Associated Press
May 6, 2021
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OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) Washington Gov. Jay Inslee is receiving criticism from lawmakers in his own party over his shifting economic reopening plan, with a group of Pierce County Democrats threatening the possibility of a special legislative session following the governor’s recent implementation of a pause that left their county stuck in a phase with tighter COVID-19 restrictions.
The letter, sent Thursday afternoon, was signed by eight Democrats in the House and Senate and four House Republicans. It comes the same day that the Washington Hospitality Association launched a petition to follow California’s lead and fully reopen the state on June 15. Dozens of other states have already set plans to fully reopen their economies, include including New York and New Jersey, which have set a May 19 goal.
In a portrait of progress, it almost looked like a missing tooth. While the U.S. overall was experiencing a significant decrease in new COVID-19 cases, and once-troubled California dropped to the lowest case rate in the nation, two Pacific Northwest states took an abrupt turn in the other direction.
It wasn’t subtle. In Oregon, weekly case counts of the virus more than doubled in a month, going from a seven-day rolling average of 419 on April 1 to 861 on May 1, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Washington state, meanwhile, saw its seven-day average shoot from 784 on March 22 to 1,405 just a month later.
AMD May 4, 2021 (11:09 am) sigh I feel like we all knew the rules were going to change to avoid rolling King County back. It sucks. I don’t want to roll anything back either, but the case and hospitalization rates in our area are unacceptable. I want to stay in Phase 3 because we’re getting it right, not because rollbacks are hard and we can’t handle it. smh
Tracey May 4, 2021 (11:35 am)
My thoughts exactly AMD. I will add that the US is the envy of the world with its domestic vaccine production. I hate to see where we would be today if we had to cope with the vaccine availability of some of our neighbors and allies.