The King County directive requiring face coverings be worn in public goes into effect Monday, May 18. Health leaders are asking everyone to keep in mind that face coverings should not be worn by everyone and are committed to ensuring that individuals who are unable to safely wear face coverings are not harassed or discriminated against.
Those who are exempt from wearing a face covering include someone who has a physical disability that makes it difficult to easily wear or remove a face covering; someone who has been advised by a medical professional to not wear one; someone who has trouble breathing or cannot remove a face covering without assistance; or someone who is deaf and uses facial and mouth movements as part of communications.
Approximately 33,000 King County residents have an intellectual or developmental disability that could affect their ability to wear a face covering.
Further details are all available in today’s update on the Public Health Insider.
Otherwise, this daily synthesis of the Public Health data is provided by Will Daugherty of Pacific Science Center. Thanks Will!
Public Health has updated the data dashboard. As of 11:59 pm yesterday, May 14, there were 7,360 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in King County, 53 more than the previous day. There have been 516 confirmed deaths in King County due to COVID-19, 7.0% of all confirmed cases.
The numbers that Public Health reports each day include delayed results from previous days.
Observations
The three graphs below chart new cases, total case count and the logarithmic trajectory of cases.
The first graph shows new cases (blue bars) and the 7-day average (red line). Of the 53 cases reported today, 52 were confirmed yesterday and the remaining 1 was confirmed in a previous day. The 7-day average of new cases per day peaked at 191 on April 1. The average for the last 7 days is now 58 new cases per day, down 26% from 79 one week ago. The 26% decline is the largest 1-week decline so far. If the 7-day average continues to decline 26% each week, it will be down to 17 four weeks from now.
The second graph shows the total case count. With 7,360 total cases as of 11:59 pm yesterday, the compound daily growth rate during the last 7 days has been 0.8%, slightly less than the 1.2% rate during the prior 7 days. If we start with 7,360 cases, a 0.8% compound daily growth rate (0.814% to be precise) yields 60 new cases in a day, 430 new cases in a week, and 1,875 new cases in four weeks. With 7,360 cases, the compound daily growth rate will must be less than 0.136% in order for the number of new cases per day to be less than 10.
The third graph shows the trajectory of cases in King County with the total number of cases on the horizontal axis and the new cases on the vertical axis. Each axis is on a logarithmic scale. Each blue dot represents a daily report. The dot farthest to the left is the February 28 report. Time passes from left to right as the total case count grows. The dot farthest to the right is today’s daily report. We can see a clear change in the trajectory since March 28, shortly after Governor Inslee’s “Stay Home, Stay Healthy” order on March 23.
Will Daugherty welcomes your questions and comments. His email is wdaugherty@pacsci.org