SEATTLE — Public health officials urged residents Friday to make long-term behavior changes as coronavirus cases continue to increase in Washington state.
"We all need reboot our attitude about this disease," Dr. Jeff Duchin, health officer for Public Health – Seattle & King County, said during a briefing Friday.
Over the last seven days, King County averaged 171 new COVID-19 cases per day, according to Duchin. This is more than four times higher the new case rate at the beginning of June when Duchin said the county averaged about 40 new cases per day.
Between July 12-18, King County reported 1,117 new cases.
DOH warned in a situation report last week that Washington was in the early stages of an “exponential statewide outbreak.” While most of the recent cases have been concentrated among young adults, health officials worried the virus would spread to older, more vulnerable populations as was seen recently in states like Florida.
The majority of new King County cases are among adults 20-39 years old, according to Duchin. However, cases have gradually increased among older groups. The median age of cases rose from 26 years old in early June to 36 years old now.
To dampen the number of new cases, Duchin encouraged people to commit to "long-term, fundamental changes," such as minimizing contact with others outside their household, limiting group gatherings and wearing masks in public.
Duchin said he hoped these behavior changes would help flatten or decrease the number of new cases, but the virus' incubation period made it hard to predict what will happen next.
“Its very difficult to predict what’s going to happen in the future, because the cases we see today are reflecting the behaviors of people two weeks ago,” Duchin said.
From July 4-17, there were 133.4 new coronavirus cases per 100,000 residents in Washington, according to the Washington State Department of Health (DOH). That’s the highest rate of disease activity that Washington has seen so far.