King County Coronavirus Levels Remain High Heading Into Christmas

SEATTLE — Despite the arrival of vaccines and case counts trending lower than peak levels, King County health officials are warning of a long road ahead to get the virus under control.

Dr. Jeff Duchin, the county's health officer, hosted his final coronavirus briefing of the year on Friday, sharing the latest data and urging all to stay the course through Christmas, New Year's and beyond.

"The COVID-19 wildfire continues to consume and disrupt too many human lives," Duchin said. "We continue to see too many cases; hospitalizations and deaths are rising, and the threat to our health care system remains hazardous. For the next few months, we'll need not only to sustain but to increase our efforts to prevent COVID-19 spread in every aspect of our lives."

While the number of new cases has fallen below peak levels reached in late November and early December, Duchin said daily infections remain more than twice as high as the spring, with an average of 500 reported each day over the last week. The county's 14-day rate of cases has also shown improvement but is still 16 times higher than the target range.

"I again want to remind everyone that reported cases are just the tip of the iceberg," Duchin said. "Our colleagues at the Institute for Disease modeling estimate that there are about 10,000 active cases of COVID-19 currently in King County. What gets reported...is just a fraction of all the cases that are occurring."

The strain on the county's health care system is a primary area of concern, with hospitalizations rising across age groups. Duchin said patients between 40 and 69 years old occupy the most beds, followed by people over 70, then those between 20 and 39 years old.

Currently, there are about 400 patients with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 illnesses in King County hospitals. According to health officials, nearly 90 percent of acute care and ICU beds are occupied, with 1 in 10 acute beds and 1 in 5 ICU beds hosting COVID-19 patients.

"Although the rise in reported cases has slowed over the past two weeks, our situation remains truly hazardous," Duchin said. "Our hospitals are stressed and are canceling surgeries, they're working on emergency staffing and preparing for a worsening crisis. We continue to need to do all we can to ensure life-saving medical care remains available to all who may need it for any reason."

An increase in deaths since mid-November has continued, with an average of six per day, compared to less than two over the prior six months. November also reached a record 224 outbreaks, Duchin said, increasing 42 percent over October and exceeding the early pandemic peak. One third were in long-term care or supportive living facilities, and one fourth in non-healthcare workplaces, including food and retail establishments.

As thousands of vaccines make their way across Washington, Duchin said there is reason for hope, but the full rollout will take many months.

Related: With Vaccinations Underway In WA, Need For Precautions Remains

"This has been a terribly difficult year in so many ways," Duchin said. "With the availability of vaccines, we're all looking at the potential to begin a gradual recovery from our COVID-19 nightmare. Even with highly effective vaccines on the horizon, we're not close to out of the woods."

An added roadblock, Duchin said, is limited federal funds available for facilitating vaccine programs on the state and local level, leading to some staff needing to be reassigned.

"We've had to redeploy many public health workers who have been working on other public health areas of the COVID response to take care of this priority right now, and we are really running on fumes," Duchin said. "We're hoping to be able to get additional resources from the federal government imminently to help us bolster our ability to build our vaccination implementation program."

In the first round of shipments, Public Health Seattle & King County received 3,900 doses of the Pfizer vaccine. Duchin said some of that supply was put to use Thursday when the county offered its first clinic for paramedics. Those who are immunized can then help administer the vaccine in the future.

Washington hopes to have more than 222,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine by the end of December, along with 183,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine. Both products require two doses for full effectiveness.

On Thursday, Gov. Jay Inslee said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had cut the number of doses expected next week by 40 percent. Governors across the nation reported similar news. On Friday, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services told Patch it was a "misunderstanding," and allocation numbers for the month would be unaffected.

The statement reads in part:

“There was some confusion between planning and training numbers provided in mid-November and actual official weekly allocations, which are only available the week prior to distribution shipping because they are based on the number of releasable vaccine doses available. We are working on clearing up any misunderstanding up with the governors and jurisdictions. Operation Warp Speed allocation numbers locked in with states have not been changed or adjusted.

Only three official allocations have been provided to states: Week 1 Pfizer allocations were provided Friday, Nov. 20; week 1 Moderna allocations were provided Friday, Nov. 27; and week 2 Pfizer allocations were provided Tuesday, Dec. 15. Those are the only official allocation numbers that have been provided.

Reports that jurisdictions’ allocations are being reduced are incorrect. As was done with the initial shipments of Pfizer vaccine, jurisdictions will receive vaccine at different sites over several days. This eases the burden on the jurisdictions and spreads the workload across multiple days. This same process was successfully used for the initial distribution of Pfizer’s vaccine, and we are simply applying lessons learned. Operation Warp Speed is committed to delivering jurisdictions’ allocated vaccines according to their plans safely, quickly and efficiently.”

Those eligible for initial vaccines are limited to frontline health care workers, at-risk first responders, and residents and staff at long-term care facilities. On Sunday, a CDC advisory panel is scheduled to discuss recommendations for the next tiers, which is likely to include essential workers and people in at-risk groups.

"The supplies of vaccine are coming out in small amounts initially, and they will gradually increase," Duchin said. "We've always understood that this is a long-term endeavor, talking about vaccination timelines in months. Perhaps by summer, we'll have vaccine available to anyone in the community who would like to get vaccinated."

On a final note, Duchin thanked those who kept to public health guidelines over Thanksgiving and successfully prevented a surge and urged all residents to continue the fight through the winter holidays and into the new year.

"The virus is not going to relent over the holiday or in the next few months, and we can't either," Duchin said. "Please limit your gatherings with people outside the home, continue to take all precautions, pay special attention to improving indoor ventilation this winter, and please remember the significant risk of being exposed to COVID-19 during travel in the United States."

Helpful links for the holidays

• How to coronavirus risk as we spend more time indoors for fall and winter
• Tips for safer gatherings