WA hospital admission data (cases with COVID-19-like symptoms)

[pat_k]

Seattle Times
More than 250 people in Washington hospitalized last week with COVID-19-like symptoms

Reporting based on admissions from 84% of WA emergency departments.

Numbers are number of admissions with COVID-19-like symptoms. Data doesn't include numbers of cases that were later confirmed to be, or not to be, COVID-19.

02/23-02/29 61
03/01-03/07 126
03/08-03/14 229
03/15-03/21 254

As of 6:25 PM PT 03/25
Confirmed cases: 2,469
Deaths: 123

[KY_EnviroGuy]

1. Looks like that curve is flattening out for them.....

thanks to WA Democrats and NO thanks to tRump.

From the article....

Inslee, in a March 17 letter to President Donald Trump, said that “we anticipate our hospitals will be in crisis by the end of the month,” and hospitals have scrambled to increase space for these patients as they cancel — under Inslee’s orders — many elective surgeries.

That scenario has started to play out in New York, a state with more than 25,000 cases, and the prospects of a big surge in Washington in part spurred Inslee’s stay-at-home order announced Monday.

“It’s time to hunker down in order to win this fight,” Inslee said as he announced the new measures.

Keep it up, Washington, we need to learn from your example.......

[pat_k]

2. Yes. I'm proud of the way University of Washington virology and infectious disease labs have...

.. stepped up from the start.

Long before the FDA got around to exercising its power to grant emergency use authorization for labs to go ahead with their own tests on 2/29 (an authority that should have been exercised mid-Jan, but that's another topic), UW had developed a test and was ready to go.

The way they have leveraged an ongoing flu study infrastructure (including coordination with DOH) to shift to detection and reporting of COVID-19 is pretty incredible. They also commenced testing samples submitted for analysis in the flu study early. This identified early cases that would not have otherwise been detected. There's been some regulatory back and forth about this action, and Feds ultimately put a stop to testing of flu study samples for COVID-19, but I'm glad they took the initiative. It's hard for me to imagine an instance where a person who consented to have their sample analyzed for various strains of the flu as part of a statewide study would object to having that sample checked for the strain of coronavirus that causes COVID-19, but, I suppose, in the strictest interpretation, the participants did not explicitly consent to tests for anything other than influenza strains.

I can only hope that there are forward thinkers like this at institutions across the country -- folks that will find ways to use the resources at their disposal to meet the seemingly insurmountable challenges this crisis presents.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

3. Indeed, I was very impressed from the article....

especially using existing systems and methods for tracking. Perhaps they can get permission from participants to include COVID-19 tests.

Also impressed with their system for analyzing distribution of resources around the state. Washington probably has the best expertise and computing power for the job.

I fear many other states are just putting out fires and doing a lot of cover-up. This disaster needs strong Federal leadership to coordinate resources and to share knowledge and data among all states. Solving this will be a very slow grind if states all act independently.

Thanks for sharing!......

[Captain Zero]

4. between 3/8 and 3/15 they really slowed the rate. Still a lot of sick people.

And with lack of testing any of those numbers could be off significantly.