Updated news about the coronavirus pandemic in Seattle and Washington state.

As of Monday, April 25, 2022, the King County and Washington state departments of health report:

• Covid cases have risen 21% in King County over the last seven days, with a daily average of 701 new cases.
• Hospitalizations in King County have increased by 86% in the past week, with an average of eight people hospitalized each day.
• Covid deaths have declined by 19% over the past week in King County, with an average of one person dying each day.
• 84.9% of eligible King County residents are fully vaccinated; 72% of eligible Washingtonians have been fully vaccinated; 58.5% of eligible Washingtonians have received a booster shot.
• 1% death rate across Washington state since the beginning of the pandemic.
• 91 Covid cases per 100,000 people across Washington state.

MONDAY, APRIL 25

Pierce County business fined $56k over failure to enforce masking, leaving one employee dead

The Washington State Department of Labor and Industries fined a fish processing plant after the company failed to enforce indoor masking rules during a meeting last fall, leaving 16 people sick, including a person who died.

Shining Ocean Inc. has paid a $56,000 fine for allowing employees to go without masks during a Nov. 4, 2021 meeting attended by 23 people, despite state and local mask mandates being in effect at the time. The company did not have a vaccination verification process in place at the time, according to a press release published by the Department of Labor and Industries.

Officials say money collected from the fine will go into the state workers’ compensation supplemental pension fund for workers and the families of people who have died on the job.

—Liz Brazile

Covid-19 cases continue to climb in King County

While Covid cases remain far lower than they were during the peak of the winter omicron surge, they’ve risen from an average of roughly 165 new cases per day in mid-March to 692 new cases per day.

As more people test at home, it’s harder to get a full picture of exactly how many new are emerging in the community.

But those that are recorded have reached levels that have pushed the county over the threshold into the CDC’s “medium” community levels category. However, officials say they’re not ready to tighten Covid restrictions again.

“The CDC ‘medium’ risk category is not a magic threshold meaning the Covid-19 pandemic locally is suddenly or fundamentally different, or that we’re approaching a crisis level. But it does tell us that Covid-19 infection risk is increasing for individuals and for our community,” Dr. Jeff Duchin, health officer with Public Health – Seattle & King County, said during a media briefing Monday.

The county was in the “low” community levels category for weeks as cases and hospitalizations declined sharply following the winter surge.

Duchin stressed that it’s important for community members to remember Covid is still present.

He said precautions can be taken to help lower risk, like staying up to date with all vaccines and boosters, wearing good quality and well-fitted masks, improving indoor air quality, and using rapid tests.

“We are in a much better place than we have been in the past couple of years during the early days of the outbreak with respect to the severe impacts, hospitalizations, and deaths,” Duchin said.

However, he said a lot remains to be learned about what’s known as “long Covid,” and even a minor infection is worth avoiding.

Along with increasing cases, the county’s data dashboard on Monday appeared to show an increase in hospitalizations. However, Duchin said the current numbers may be inflated as staff are still going through the process of filtering cases from new admissions to weed out any cases where someone is admitted for an unrelated reason and happens to test positive for Covid while in hospital. He said Covid-19 hospitalizations have remained steady at low levels in recent weeks. Deaths in King County continue to decline.

Duchin said the county is not issuing new recommendations or restrictions at this time, citing a more steady rise in Covid cases than in previous waves, fewer hospitalizations, and an increase in the number of high-risk people who are vaccinated.

However, he said an increase in severe disease and hospitalizations could trigger the return of measures like indoor masking mandates in the future.

Covid-19 cases have been rising across Washington state, but hospitalizations statewide remain steady at low levels.

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Originally Appeared Here