Washington Sees Progress In Latest Federal Coronavirus Report

OLYMPIA, WA — The federal government released its second batch of publicly-available coronavirus profiles this week, tracking each state's progress in the fight against COVID-19. While the White House provided such reports directly to state officials for months, it only began sharing them widely in late January, shortly after President Joe Biden took office.

The latest data, for the week ending Jan. 31, shows Washington made steady progress in lowering case counts and death rates, but more hospitals reported supply shortages and the number of tests performed continued to decline.

According to the federal data, Washington reported 11,552 new cases through Jan. 29, down slightly from the week before, and decreased its 7-day average. The report does not include the current week, and it's still too early to know the potential effects of the second reopening phase, which began Monday in seven Washington counties.

On Wednesday, the state added 1,645 coronavirus cases to its tally and confirmed 72 additional deaths — a higher figure that officials said was the result of a data backlog.

Here is a look at how the top 12 counties for infections have fared over the last three weeks:

While the signs of progress are welcome, health officials continue to urge vigilance in following safety precautions until transmission rates have fallen significantly and a sufficient percentage of the public is fully vaccinated.

A more contagious variant of the virus has now been detected in Washington's three largest counties, igniting public health concerns that a "COVID-19 volcano" could erupt should the strain become dominant and widespread amid already-high levels of transmission.

According to the state's risk assessment dashboard, Washington's two-week rate of cases remained at 314 per 100,000 as of Feb. 2, more than 12 times higher than the goal range.

Review the latest full federal report on the HealthData website.