The Department of Health and Welfare and the Public Health Districts have been working hard to get us the best possible information in this crisis. You can review updated data about cases and tracking on DHW’s website. The data on this site includes confirmed lab cases as well as probable cases and showing the date of onset, which is more accurate on an epidemiological level.
 Remember this is a highly contagious virus; since there is no vaccine yet, it is essential to follow the CDC guidelines such as social distancing, hand-washing, and wearing masks in public to keep you and others safe.
The Health Working group is staying focused on making recommendations based on science; Dr. Christine Hahn, the state epidemiologist, is in constant contact with infectious disease doctors throughout the state and maintains contact with hospitals to keep communication and information flowing.
As this working group makes recommendations, the top three considerations are 1) hospital capacity, 2) testing, and 3) contract tracing.
Hospital capacity - Currently, bed space is not a constraint and we are still doing well in this area; DHW will publish bed capacity numbers next week. The biggest concern is still in protecting health care workers and staff, since PPE is hard to come by. Over 200 health workers have been infected and PPE is essential for these workers. The Department of Emergency Management is working hard to procure PPE for our state, but there are still many challenges in the supply chain and it is very hard to get all the supplies we need. On the call today, General Brad Richey emphasized once again to visit the Governor’s Website and learn how you and business can help in this crisis.
Testing - We need a robust system of testing. The state lab is maxed out, but the good news is that hospitals and businesses are increasing their capacities to help out. We are starting to turn the corner with increased testing supplies which is what we need. DHW is creating a testing task force with clinical experts, state lab, and public health districts that will help us with charting the course of testing moving forward to ensure public health and safety standards.
Some good news:
- St Luke’s has a high volume testing machine that will add 3,500 tests per week in the state; this allows them to run a test in 4 hours and relieves pressure on the state lab and creates more capacity
- The VA lab has the same high volume machine and they are going to become operational this week and could add 300 - 400 tests per day to help in the state.
- Rite aid has just opened drive up testing - I got a text today!
- Crush the Curve has been increasing capacity and have been able to work with Univ of. Washington’s labs
- Antibody testing using CDC guidance is increasing, but it is not useful for determining if someone is currently contagious. These tests are experimental and reliability is somewhat questionable; it’s best to use this test for surveillance and larger population questions as we move forward.
Looking forward, we should be watching surveillance data and epidemiological data around cases and the trajectory over the last 14 days. If the percentage of positive cases goes down then that is good news. They also do contract tracing, where they trace and monitor contacts of infected people, notify them of their exposure, and support quarantine of contacts to prevent the spread of transmissions. This is a practice they have always done with other infectious diseases and viruses.
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