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Spoiler alert: Coronavirus isn’t just coming from one place.
We get it at home.
We get it in nursing homes, clinics and hospitals.
We put it to work.
We get it in meetings with friends and family, in restaurants and in our place of worship.
And we get it by connecting with others with Covid-19 – wherever they are.
Covid is everywhere, in other words. This marks a change from the start of the pandemic, when outbreaks mainly occurred in nursing homes and health care facilities. But nine months later, where you’re most likely to get the virus depends on your age, race, and what part of the county you live in.
Public Health – Seattle & King County today released a report detailing where most of the 37,482 people who have had a confirmed case of Covid-19 likely contracted the disease in the county, as of November 20.
KUOW has been requesting these data from Public Health since September.
The report is one more clue in the complex thriller of coronavirus transmission in the Puget Sound area.
What this report tells us is “where”, but not necessarily “who”, “how” or “why” the virus is spreading.
Where we get Covid in the county changes depending on who you are and where you live, according to an analysis of the report covering data from September 22 to November 20.
For example, nearly a third of Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders with a confirmed case of Covid-19 have contracted the virus at home.
For Alaskan natives and American Indians, their workplace was the largest place they contracted the virus.
The home and workplace were also thought to be the most common places Latinos / X’s had contracted the virus, each accounting for over a quarter of cases.
While household was the largest transmission site for blacks, transmission of Covid in healthcare settings had a disproportionate impact – more than one in seven blacks with Covid likely got it from a place like a hospital, clinic or long-term care facility, more so than any other racial or ethnic group.
One in four white people infected with Covid contracted the virus while socializing, going to a restaurant, a place of worship or a store, including grocery stores.
Essential workers accounted for 29 percent of the cases.
Social and community settings were the places where 18 to 24 year olds most often contracted Covid – more than a third of their cases.
And for people aged 75 and older, healthcare facilities – such as hospitals, home health agencies, clinics, and long-term care facilities – were where they contracted them the most. often.
“This virus spreads very quickly before people know they have symptoms,” said health officer Dr Jeff Duchin. “Just the few days that it takes for the case to realize it’s sick, to request a test, to get that result, for us to contact them, has already spread to several members of the household. “
When a person tests positive for Covid, they should receive a call from a health worker who asks them where they have been for the past two weeks and who they have been in contact with.
Despite these contact tracing and investigation efforts, public health officials are unsure where exactly over 10,000 people in the county have had Covid – 28% of cases – because they could not be interviewed , or public health officials have identified two or more. places where they have been exposed to the virus, or no place at all.
Other factors also come into play: Companies may not know when customers are getting sick, and it takes a person infected with Covid days or weeks to show symptoms and they may not share – or even remember. – all the details of their location.
The places where we receive Covid are different today from where the pandemic started in March and April.
Workplaces outside of healthcare absorb a larger share of cases – 38% since the end of September compared to 28% since the end of February.
In March, more than half of people who contracted Covid were patients, healthcare workers and visitors to places like a nursing home or other healthcare facility. Today, less than one in ten cases results from it.
The picture is different depending on where you live.
More than a third of residents of northern Seattle and Shoreline have gotten Covid as a result of social gatherings or community travel – the biggest source of exposure in those areas. Meanwhile, in southern Seattle and in cities such as Renton, Auburn and Kent, the most common site where people contracted the virus was their homes.
Trends show that elective activities are sources of Covid infection among whites and people who live in north Seattle and Shoreline. Meanwhile, the places where Blacks, Indigenous people and people of color get Covid are places they need to be – workplaces and their homes.
“Many people of color live in large or multi-generational households, which makes it more difficult to limit exposure,” Matias Valenzuela, director of public health actions – Seattle & King County.
If you’re wondering what you can do to help these communities, stay home and improve your social distancing, Valenzuela said.
“The more we can get everyone to follow the restrictions, avoid gatherings, that sort of thing, it will reduce the amount of disease in the community that affects everyone.”
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