New COVID-19 cases flattening in ‘virtually every county’ in Washington

Washington recently received some good news, with the latest update from the Department of Health indicating that the state’s COVID-19 outbreak is starting to move in the right direction.

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“The flattening of the number of new cases is seen in virtually every county,” reads the most recent DOH report, produced in tandem with the Bellevue Institute for Disease Modeling and Fred Hutchinson.

The number of breeding animals, the number of people a person infected with the virus would be likely to infect, has now fallen below 1.0 in the east (0.98) and west of the state Washington (0.97). Typically, getting this number below 1.0 is the mark of an epidemic that is beginning to be brought under control. The exception to this increase is in Spokane, where new cases are “on the rise again due to a sharp rise in older groups”.

As to how Washington managed to start mitigating its outbreak, the DOH attributes this to “statewide policy changes,” including cover-up warrants and the suspension of reopening phases for the counties.

Despite recent improvements, however, Washington’s success in controlling the spread of the virus also remains tenuous.

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“While a number of trends are moving in the right direction, Washington is not out of the woods,” the DOH noted. “It is imperative that we remain compliant with the masking and distancing policies that have likely helped us out of the situation of the out-of-control epidemic we found ourselves in just three weeks ago.”

Until a vaccine can be produced and distributed, state officials warn that “coexistence with the virus requires continued mitigation measures, and the recognition that a return to normal will not be possible in the future. all spheres of activity ”.

As of Monday morning, Washington had 67,461 cases of COVID-19 in total, as well as 1,781 deaths. The last peak in new cases began in early July, before starting to decline again in early August.