Covid updates: Covid hospitalizations rise in King County

Updated news about the coronavirus pandemic in Seattle and Washington state.

As of Wednesday, May 18, 2022, the King County and Washington state departments of health report:

• Covid cases have risen 8% in King County over the last seven days, with a daily average of 1,118 new cases.
• Hospitalizations in King County have decreased by 37% in the past week, with an average of 15 people hospitalized each day.
• Covid deaths have increased by 107% over the past week in King County, with an average of two people dying each day.
• 85.1% of eligible King County residents are fully vaccinated; 72.1% of eligible Washingtonians have been fully vaccinated; 58.6% of eligible Washingtonians have received a booster shot.
• 1% death rate across Washington state since the beginning of the pandemic.
• 208 Covid cases per 100,000 people across Washington state.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 25

Masks recommended as cases and hospitalizations rise

As summer approaches, many people are ready to be done with the pandemic. But Washington state health officials stress that it's not over.

Cases and hospitalizations remain below the peak seen during the winter surge, but continue to rise in the state.

The state’s data dashboard shows an average of more than 2,600 new reported cases per day in mid-May, up from around 600 at the start of April.

New hospitalizations in the state rose from an average of about 50 per day at the start of May to just under 70 per day in mid-May.

Covid-19 deaths remain low in Washington and do not appear to be rising at this time.

Officials are now strongly recommending that people go back to taking precautions.

“We are not returning to any broad mask requirement at this time, but we are strongly recommending that masks be worn in crowded or confined indoor spaces, or in areas where there may be poor ventilation or air quality,” said Lacy Fehrenbach, the state’s deputy secretary of prevention, safety health.

During a media briefing Wednesday, Fehrenbach said she's returned to asking her kids to wear masks all day in school.

Officials are also urging people to get up to date with vaccines and booster shots, and use tests before gathering with others.

— Kate Walters

TUESDAY, MAY 17

FDA authorizes first Covid booster for children ages 5 to 11

The Food and Drug Administration Tuesday authorized the first Covid-19 vaccine booster for children ages 5 to 11.

The authorization makes all children in that age group who received their second shot at least five months ago eligible to receive a third shot of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

The companies requested the authorization based on a small study that the companies and FDA said demonstrated a third shot is safe and can significantly boost antibody levels, countering waning immunity and providing added protection against the virus, including the more contagious omicron variant.

Until now, only children ages 12 and older and adults were eligible for a booster.

"While it has largely been the case that Covid-19 tends to be less severe in children than adults, the omicron wave has seen more kids getting sick with the disease and being hospitalized, and children may also experience longer term effects, even following initially mild disease," said FDA Commissioner Robert M. Califf in a statement.

"The FDA is authorizing the use of a single booster dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 Vaccine for children 5 through 11 years of age to provide continued protection againstCovid-19," Califf said. "Vaccination continues to be the most effective way to prevent Covid-19 and its severe consequences, and it is safe."

It remains unclear how much of a demand there will be for the boosters. Less than a third of children ages 5 to 11 are fully vaccinated, and only about a quarter of adolescents have received a booster.

Read more here.

— Rob Stein, NPR

US Postal Service giving out more free Covid tests

The United States Postal Service is mailing out another round of free Covid tests to all Americans who want them.

The test can be ordered through COVIDtests.gov. Each household is able to get eight free rapid antigen tests. The tests will come in two shipments.

Covid cases are on the rise in the United States and locally in King County. Taking a Covid test before mingling with others is one great method of prevention.

The Covid tests can have a relatively short shelf life. There's been some confusion over how long they are good for. The expiration date can be a moving target. It's best to use them as you need them.

Read more here.

— Dyer Oxley

MONDAY, MAY 16

How Covid vaccines have boosted the development of an HIV vaccine

About a year ago, Dr. Jesse Clark was taking care of people hospitalized with Covid when he met a man he'll never forget.

"I thought he was sleeping," says Clark, who's an infectious disease specialist at the University of California, Los Angeles. The man was lying still in the bed. "But when I got around to the other side of the bed, he looked up at me and said, 'My mother just died of Covid. My cousin brought this into the family. She said she was wearing a mask, but she didn't. She got Covid. Now she's dead, too. She has two kids. What's going to happen to them?' "

Then the man says, "Am I going to die of Covid?"

The man was doing well enough to fight off SARS-CoV-2, Clark says. And eventually he recovered. But that moment lingered in Clark's memory because it reminded him of another incredibly sad – and scary – moment in his life.

It happened when he was a young man during the early stages of the HIV pandemic.

"I am a gay man who grew up in the '80s and '90s, long before we had an effective treatment for HIV. And friends, colleagues, people were dropping dead left and right. And there was nothing you could do about it," Clark says, with a lump in his throat. "And the question was always, 'Am I next?' "

At that time, many people in the LGBTQ community had a constant fear of losing their life, Clark says. "You're trying to help take care of people around you, but you're also wondering, is this going to happen to me?"

But many people outside that community didn't understand the fear prompted by HIV, he says – at least not until early 2020 when Covid hit. "Covid brought that feeling home to a lot of people in a way that HIV had not."

That shift in perspective – or that new understanding – has reignited the fight against HIV, which still kills about 700,000 people each year. "It has spurred people to try to end the HIV epidemic again," Clark says.

Read more here.

— Michaeleen Doucleff, NPR

Representative Pramila Jayapal tests positive for Covid

She made the announcement Friday, saying she's experiencing flu-like symptoms and has been isolating. herself. She said she will return to Washington, D.C. once she tests negative.

Jayapal also said she's vaccinated and double-boosted, and encouraged others to get a second booster if they're eligible.

—Angela King

FRIDAY, MAY 13

Covid wastewater data missing for nearly a month

An early-warning system for Covid outbreaks has gone dark for nearly a month in western Washington even as known cases have been spiking to some of the highest levels of the past two years.

Tracking of Covid concentrations in sewage can reveal outbreaks and viral variants before they show up in the nasal-swab tests that public health officials rely on as a key indicator of the pandemic’s severity.

A wastewater tracking website managed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has published some—though far from all—of that data since earlier in 2022.

But results from most western Washington locations blinked out in mid-April as the CDC’s contract with Canadian testing firm LuminUltra expired on April 15.

“It's really hard to assess transmission risk right now!” Seattle resident Philip Ries, one of several KUOW readers who noticed the data stoppage, said by email.

Sewage-testing results from 17 locations in Clark, King, and Snohomish counties have gone unpublished since mid-April. Results from six sites in eastern Washington have continued uninterrupted.

When asked why the information was no longer available, CDC spokesperson Brian Katzowitz said the agency was switching to a new testing firm for sites that weren’t being handled directly by local health authorities. He said the missing results should be back online the week of May 16.

— John Ryan