SEATTLE — Coronavirus cases and hospitalizations continue to rise across Washington, and if early November transmission rates persist, hospitals could see record admissions, according to a situation report from the Washington State Department of Health.
Meanwhile, Thanksgiving 2020 looked different. In many households, tents and heaters sat next to the traditional sides as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Gov. Jay Inslee urged against holiday travel, instead calling for small intimate gatherings.
It was all in an attempt to flatten a curve of coronavirus cases that is once again spiking upward.
The state’s Department of Health issued a statewide situation report Wednesday. The claim: Both eastern and western Washington are seeing exponential growth in cases. The average daily number of cases shot up from 488 cases on Oct. 24 to 1,283 cases on Nov. 13.
Case growth is "widely distributed" across Washington with accelerating growth in a majority of counties, according to the DOH.
Hospitalizations are up too. In western Washington, the seven-day rolling average of daily hospital admissions increased from 15 per day on Oct. 3 to 50 on Nov. 13.
The DOH warned if Nov. 1 transmission levels of the virus continue, hospital admissions could reach "record levels." Considering this trend, the report said "drastic action" was warranted, and forecasted that if the new restrictions implemented earlier this month are as successful as the stay-at-home order was in March, the trend in hospitalizations could be reversed by December.
The report did note that hospitalizations are slightly lower than the peak levels in March, and deaths are "substantially lower." The DOH pointed to advances in treatment and data that shows the infected patients are younger than they were in the spring as potential causes for those differences.
On the vaccine front, the DOH announced it’s "hopeful" to begin administering the vaccine by mid-December, securing 200,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine by the end of the year.
Although, experts reminded the public that this will not be a silver bullet. Expect social distancing and masks to remain into 2021.