Coronavirus In Bellevue: The Week In Review

BELLEVUE, WA — Washington has once again broken its record for single-day coronavirus case counts, reporting 1,691 new coronavirus cases on Friday alone. The previous record had been set on Wednesday, when state health officials logged 1,469 new cases in one day.

Those two record-breaking days contributed to the total 7,668 new COVID-19 cases reported over the past week. The state has now seen 114,241 coronavirus infections since the pandemic began in spring.

The latest release Friday afternoon from the Washington State Department of Health, also confirmed 73 deaths over the past week, for a total of 2,439 Washingtonians dead due to COVID-19.

Washington's latest spike in infections is driven in large part by rising rates of transmission in the state's most populous counties. King County alone has reported more than 500 infections for three consecutive days.

In Bellevue, Public Health - Seattle & King County recorded 26 new cases Friday, with 132 illnesses, seven hospitalizations and no deaths resulting from the coronavirus over the past two weeks. The city's 14-day testing positivity rate is at 3.3 percent, while King County's overall positivity rate has risen to 4 percent. The county's rate of new cases remains in the highest bracket, with 148 cases reported per 100,000 residents over 14 days — nearly six times the target threshold.

Catch up on the latest developments:

Officials share concerns over rising transmission rates

State health officials had warned that coronavirus infections may rise again as the seasons changed and residents spent more time indoors- and were proven right when twice this week the state broke its record for single-day coronavirus infection case counts.

A similar surge can be seen across the country: Wednesday also marked the first time the United States logged more than 100,000 new illnesses in a single day, helped along by sharp increases in the Midwest and Great Plains. That record was broken again on Friday, when the country logged 121,000 more cases.

Locally, health officials say if Washington continues down this path, coronavirus infections could overwhelm the state's health care system.

"Across the country, we're seeing surges in serious illnesses that are stressing hospitals," King County Health Officer Dr. Jeff Duchin said. "Wisconsin and Texas are setting up field hospitals, and Utah hospitals are talking about the need to ration life-saving care. We don't want to go there."

To combat infections, Duchin stresses that residents should avoid social gatherings, even during the holidays, until transmissions decline again.

"If we see people continue with their usual Thanksgiving plans and gather in groups, we will undoubtedly have a very unmanageable situation coming out of that," Duchin said at a news conference Friday. "We really need people to think about this holiday, and think about how to make sure that next year everybody in the family is at the dinner table, and we don't lose people that would have been able to celebrate with by acting responsibly and doing everything we can this Thanksgiving."

Read more:

King County Coronavirus Levels Reach New Highs

Washington Breaks Daily Coronavirus Record, Adding 1,469 Cases

Report clarifies how students can safely return

A new study from the Bellevue-based Institute for Disease Modeling may shed new light on how coronavirus transmissions work in school settings— and how Washington schools could safely put more students back in the classroom.

The report is the third the IDM has put together on coronavirus transmission risks in schools, but this latest study includes promising projections for infections which may allow more students to return to school, if the state can lower the transmission rate.

"The report supports our guidance that full in-person learning is not wise in places where COVID-19 transmission levels remain high," said Lacy Fehrenbach, the state's deputy secretary for COVID-19 response. "However, the findings of this modeling indicate that it is possible to carefully resume some in-person learning for some students, especially younger students, while keeping the risk of transmission in our schools relatively low if strong health and safety measures are in place."

The DOH identified a few key takeaways from the IDM report:

• If schools can implement countermeasures consistently and community transmission is low, it would decrease the need for rapid COVID-19 testing among students and staff.

• Transmission rates would be greatly reduced through hybrid schedules or phased-in scheduling.

• The report reaffirms the need to reduce community transmission rates before reopening K-12 schools for in-person learning.

However, while this report does present a path forward to in-person instruction, community transmission rates remain much too high.

"We are concerned about the rise in cases we are seeing generally in Washington state and across all age groups," Fehrenbach said. "When we are in a status where we are seeing a rise in cases, that's not the ideal time to be expanding learning."

Read more: Washington Releases New Report On Coronavirus And Schools

Patch reporter Charles Woodman contributed to this story.

Total coronavirus cases, hospitalizations and deaths by county:

Editors note: Patch is now updating these totals on a weekly, rather than daily, basis. Readers should keep in mind that the increases below represent infections, hospitalizations and deaths over a seven-day period.

The above numbers are provided by the state Department of Health, and some numbers differ from the totals provided separately by county health agencies.

This article originally appeared on the Bellevue Patch