West Seattle, Washington
15 Sunday
Two weeks ago, we reported on the PCC Community Markets CEO’s letter to the mayor opposing the new Seattle law that was about to take effect mandating $4/hour hazard pay for most grocery workers in the city. Then the day after the law took effect, PCC said it was negotiating with UFCW Local 21 to extend that pay to workers throughout its chain. Earlier this week, another city in which PCC operates, Burien, passed a hazard-pay mandate for $5/hour. Then tonight, PCC and the union have announced an agreement on the chain-wide $4/hour. From the union announcement, received via email:
PCC agrees to extend $4 per hour hazard pay to all PCC workers in all stores through June 5th, 2021, expanding on the Hazard Pay ordinances won by UFCW 21 workers in Seattle and Burien.
*We have a commitment from PCC to bargain over extending this agreement, including hazard pay, at least 30 days before it expires.
*The agreement provides for Quarantine Pay for workers who get diagnosed with COVID 19 as well as other safety provisions.
*PCC will begin a curbside pickup program that captures work for union members instead of giving it away to the gig economy.
*We also reviewed our continued commitment to discuss new technologies in the stores with the Union before implementation.
PCC’s announcement is on the chain website here. Six of its 15 stores are outside Seattle/Burien and therefore wouldn’t be paying the extra money if not for the agreement.
The vaccination situation was explored at two City Council committee meetings today, and that’s where we start tonight’s roundup:
VACCINATION SITUATION: The day began with the Public Safety and Human Services Committee, chaired by West Seattle/South Park Councilmember Lisa Herbold, talking with city and county reps:
This discussion included what Herbold has already announced, that the city has committed to a mass-vaccination site in West Seattle – when there’s enough vaccine supply. When might that be? Entirely up to the feds and state, it was said again and again. If the current supply pace doesn’t pick up, it would take almost a year to vaccinate everyone in our area. However, health authorities expect it will pick up – maybe with wide availability by April or May. If they had enough vaccine, they could be vaccinating 31,000 people a day, and that would get the city to “herd immunity” within a month.
In the afternoon, the Governance and Education Committee, chaired by Council President Lorena González, focused on vaccination equity – vital because of how COVID-19 is disproportionately affecting communities of color:
This meeting included intense stories from community health organization operators about trying to get vaccine and trying to help their most-vulnerable clients navigate the system. They argued that equity isn’t just their job – it needs to be front and center for all providers, as well as for the county and state.
NEWEST KING COUNTY NUMBERS: Here’s the update from today’s daily summary from Seattle-King County Public Health – the cumulative totals:
*78,981 people have tested positive, 118 more than yesterday’s total
*1,300 people have died, 1 more than yesterday’s total
*4,919 people have been hospitalized, 10 more than yesterday’s total
*863,266 people have been tested, 297 more than yesterday’s total
One week ago, the totals were 77,186/1,270/4,821/835.640.
STATEWIDE NUMBERS: See them here.
NATIONAL/WORLDWIDE NUMBERS: 106.9 million cases worldwide, 27.1 million of them in the U.S. – see other nation-by-nation stats by going here.
HELP FOR HOSPITALITY WORKERS: Next Monday is the deadline to apply for a grant from the emergency fund for low-income hospitality workers.
BRIEFING TOMORROW: The weekly briefing by state health officials is at 1 pm tomorrow. You can watch the live stream here.
THINK YOU’RE A MASK EXPERT? Read this.
GOT SOMETHING TO REPORT? westseattleblog@gmail.com or 206-293-6302, text/voice – thank you!
The nightly numbers check tops tonight’s pandemic roundup:
NEWEST KING COUNTY NUMBERS: Here are the key points of the daily summary from Seattle-King County Public Health:
*78,863 people have tested positive, 177 more than yesterday’s total
*1,299 people have died, unchanged from Saturday’s total
*4,909 people have been hospitalized, 7 more than yesterday’s total
*862,969 people have been tested, 7,224 more than yesterday’s total
One week ago, those totals were 77,017/1,264/4,815/832,970.
STATEWIDE NUMBERS: See them here.
WORLDWIDE NUMBERS: 106.4 million cases, 2,324,000+ deaths. See the other stats – nation by nation – here.
VACCINATION SITUATION: No major news today. No local sites added to the state’s “where to find it” map. We are likely to hear a lot tomorrow, though, when two City Council committees devote the bulk of their meetings to vaccination discussions – the city response during the Public Safety and Human Services Committee meeting at 9:30 am (agenda/viewing/commenting info here), equity and distribution roundtables during the Governance and Education Committee meeting at 2 pm (agenda/viewing/commenting info here).
VACCINE FACT-CHECKING: Public Health has launched a new page to try to clear up some misinformation.
ECONOMIC RECOVERY BILL: Gov. Inslee signed legislation today affecting both unemployment benefits and the taxes businesses pay to fund them. Here’s the announcement.
NEED FOOD? This week’s nearest Food Lifeline distribution is 2-5 pm Friday (February 12th) at 815 S. 96th … Also on Friday, “snack packs” will be distributed in a free drive-up event at Highland Park Elementary, 3-5 pm, 1012 SW Trenton.
GOT SOMETHING TO REPORT? westseattleblog@gmail.com or 206-293-6302, text/voice – thank you!
Two months ago, Endolyne Joe’s in Fauntleroy announced it would close until “this nightmare is at least close to over.” Now that our area is in Phase 2 and indoor dining is allowed at 25 percent capacity, the restaurant at 9261 45th SW has decided to reopen next week, starting Tuesday, February 16th. The restaurant’s announcement says, “We have been freshening up our dining room and are having our wood floors refinished this upcoming week in anticipation of us giving indoor dining another roll of the dice!” Hours “for both in-house dining and low-contact curbside pickup” will be Monday-Friday 11 am-8 pm, Saturday and Sunday 8 am-8 pm.
Pandemic updates, as February’s first week concludes:
KING COUNTY’S NEWEST NUMBERS: Tonight’s numbers from the King County daily-summary dashboard appear to have balanced out last night’s two-digit case count and five-digit testing count:
*78,686 people have tested positive, 537 more than yesterday’s total
*1,299 people have died, unchanged from yesterday’s total
*4,902 people have been hospitalized, 12 more than yesterday’s total
*855,745 people have been tested, 692 more than yesterday’s total
You might recall the county had no update last Sunday – so we’ll just note that two weeks ago, the King County totals were 74,562/1,215/4,725/813,111.
STATEWIDE NUMBERS: See them here.
WORLDWIDE NUMBERS: 106.1 million cases and 2,317,000+ deaths, 463,000+ of them in the U.S. – see the nation-by-nation breakdown here.
VAX FACTS: Two City County committees will dive into the state of the vaccination situation on Tuesday – the Public Safety and Human Services Committee at 9:30 am, Governance and Education at 2 pm. Find the agendas – which include information on how to watch/comment – here.
NEED FOOD? 3-5 pm Friday (February 12th), Highland Park Elementary (1012 SW Trenton) will be the site of a drive-up event to hand out food “snack packs” – they’ll contain milk, cheese, yogurt, 2 kinds of meat, sour cream, and onions
GOT SOMETHING TO REPORT? westseattleblog@gmail.com or 206-293-6302, text/voice – thank you!
Pandemic toplines from the first half of the weekend:
NEWEST KING COUNTY NUMBERS: First, the cumulative totals from Public Health‘s daily-summary dashboard:
*78,149 people have tested positive, 59 more than yesterday’s total
*1,299 people have died, 7 more than yesterday’s total
*4,890 people have been hospitalized, 25 more than yesterday’s total
*855,053 people have been tested, 10,866 more than yesterday’s total
One week ago, those totals were 76.650/1,264/4,787/827,183.
WEST SEATTLE TRENDS: Here’s our weekly check of this stat, with numbers shown in two-week increments via the “geography over time” tab on the daily-summary dashboard, combining the totals from the West Seattle and Delridge “health reporting areas” (HRAs). For the past two weeks, 105 positive test results; 238 in the 2 weeks before that; 262 in the two weeks before that. … We also are noting WS death totals each week; using the HRAs, since they are the most precise count. The total deaths for the entire pandemic in the two HRAs comprising West Seattle: 59, three more than a week ago.
STATEWIDE NUMBERS: See them here.
WORLDWIDE NUMBERS: 105.7 million people have tested positive, and more than 2,309,000 people have died; U.S. deaths exceed 462,000. Most cases: U.S., India, Brazil, UK, Russia (same as last week). See the breakdown, nation by nation, here.
FINDING VACCINE: Again tonight, none of the nearby locations on the state website have availability. St. Anne Hospital in Burien had advised eligible people to check back yesterday for possible appointment availability but now says it did not release any appointment availabilities because of vaccine supply, and its new suggestion is to check that link after 10 am next Friday (February 12th). The two local Safeway pharmacies that are expected to eventually get vaccine aren’t making appointments yet; same goes for the QFC Junction pharmacy.
SIGN OF THE TIMES: Thanks to Marty for the photo from Fauntleroy:
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49 weeks have now passed since the Friday night announcement of the first King County case of COVID-19. Here are tonight’s updates:
KING COUNTY NUMBERS: From the Public Health daily-summary page, cumulative totals:
*78,090 people have tested positive, 249 more than yesterday’s total
*1,292 people have died, 13 more than yesterday’s total
*4,865 people have been hospitalized, 19 more than yesterday’s total
*844,187 people have been tested, 2,494 more than yesterday’s total
Now, our weekly check of key numbers on the COVID Vaccination Among King County Residents dashboard:
*239,821 people have received one dose
*63,655 people have received both doses
*296,225 doses have been allocated to King County
One week ago, the first four totals were 76,345/1,249/4,771/826,565, and the vaccination totals were 181,108/37,984/232,350.
STATEWIDE NUMBERS: See them here.
WORLDWIDE NUMBERS: 105.3 million cases, 2,299,000+ deaths – see the nation-by-nation numbers here.
SENIOR CENTER OFFERS TO BE VACCINATION SITE: Along with working to help its members navigate the maze of trying to find vaccination appointments, the Senior Center of West Seattle has offered to be a vaccination site. The county says vaccine supplies are too tight to do anything right now but put it on a list.
COUNTY HEALTH OFFICER’S BRIEFING: In his weekly briefing today, Dr. Jeff Duchin said that while decreasing case numbers “are great,” they are not anywhere near a “safe level.” And, given the variants’ ascent, he said he feels “we’re in the eye of a hurricane.” He also ran through other trends as well as the vaccination situation – you can watch the briefing here.
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Even though they’ve been prioritized for several weeks, more than 2 in 3 people 75+ in our county have yet to get vaccinated. Both availability and accessibility continue to be challenges for many who are eligible. It’s particularly challenging here in West Seattle, where no general-availability sites are available yet, neither government nor private. City Councilmember Lisa Herbold says the mayor’s office has committed to a site in West Seattle – when vaccine is available, and no one knows how long that’ll be. 
So what else is in the works? With so many seniors still waiting, we asked Senior Center of West Seattle executive director Amy Lee Derenthal what her organization is working on. First, SC-WS is trying to help members navigate the current challenges, she explained via email:
Our social workers are reporting a number of significant barriers for many seniors to schedule their vaccination, including:
– Many don’t have Internet access
– Many don’t have a computer
– Some have low vision and can’t read the busy web pages
– Some have limited experience signing up for things online, for example through a ‘MyChart’ program
– Many don’t text or know how to receive text alerts
– Many don’t have an email address
– And, many don’t have a family member nearby who can help them navigate these challengesThese barriers are in addition to trying to make sense of the disjointed process and lack of West Seattle locations available to get vaccinated. The Senior Center staff team is working hard to help as many of our 800 members as possible with technology issues, navigating scheduling and figuring out transportation to appointments. So our current main focus is to reach out to our electeds to help us get these seniors prioritized and an easy way for our Social Workers to get people signed up and to their vaccine appointments.
Second, Derenthal told us, she has been working to see if the Senior Center could serve as a mass-vaccination site, “possibly in conjunction with the Junction Association parking lot” right behind it. Public Health Seattle-King County replied to her offer, saying, in part, that “Additional high volume sites are being planned and senior centers will be considered as potential pop-up sites,” so they’ll add the West Seattle center to the list of possibilities. Otherwise, though, the Public Health reply recommended the state’s vaccine-location website … which to date remains completely devoid of West Seattle providers.
Stats and vaccination updates top tonight’s roundup:
NEWEST KING COUNTY NUMBERS: First, from the Public Health daily-summary dashboard, here are today’s cumulative totals:
*77,841 people have tested positive, 264 more than yesterday’s total
*1,279 people have died, 9 more than yesterday’s total
*4,846 people have been hospitalized, 3 more than yesterday’s total
*841.693 people have been tested, 3,522 more than yesterday’s total
One week ago, the four totals we track were 75,682/1,242/4,763/822,810.
STATEWIDE NUMBERS: Find them, county by county, on the state Department of Health page.
WORLDWIDE NUMBERS: 104.8 million cases worldwide, 26.6 million of them in the U.S. See the nation-by-nation breakout here.
VACCINATION UPDATES: Statewide, health officials say, progress is being made, but more vaccine is still needed. It was a major topic of the state Department of Health’s weekly briefing (see the video here). More than 770,000 people have been vaccinated – about a tenth of the state’s population – and the state’s latest daily average is 28,000 a day, on its way to the target of 45,000 a day. In his briefing later (see the video here), Gov. Inslee says the systems are in place to meet that 45,000/day goal, all that’s needed is enough vaccine. For example, the Health Department says, 612 providers requested 358,000 first doses for a recent week, but the federal allotment was less than a third that. … Also explained by the state today, its process of vaccine allocation:
We’ve received a lot of questions recently regarding the state’s allocation process. This week, DOH allocated 19% of vaccine to community health centers, federally qualified health centers, local health jurisdictions and private practitioners, 23% to hospitals, 36% to mass vaccination sites, 19% to pharmacies, and 3% to tribes and Urban Indian Health Programs. State allocations of vaccines go to sites that are locally run, as well as the mass vaccination sites.
Each week, the state allocates vaccine from our limited supply to enrolled providers through a multi-step process that starts Saturday and is completed by Thursday night to meet the CDC’s Friday morning ordering deadline. Enrolled providers place their requests through the state’s Immunization Information System (WAIIS) and DOH gathers information from Local Health Jurisdictions to help determine their priorities of where vaccine should go. Decisions are made based on several factors: proportional population of those eligible in the county, data from providers, provider’s current inventory and documented throughput, equity, and access at all provider types (hospitals, pharmacies, mass vaccination sites, and clinics).
The state has more than 1,000 enrolled providers so far.
RETURNING TO IN-PERSON LEARNING: Seattle Public Schools now says the first groups to return will be phased in, not all on March 1st as expected.
NEED FOOD? 2-5 pm tomorrow at Food Lifeline (815 S. 96th) HQ, emergency food boxes are available.
GOT PHOTOS/TIPS? 206-293-6302, text or voice, or westseattleblog@gmail.com – thank you!
5:40 PM: Seattle Public Schools says that the students returning to in-person learning will return in phases, with the first phase serving special-education students (in “intensive pathways”). That means the others, preschoolers through 1st-graders, won’t start until sometime after March 1st. Also from the briefing that’s under way now, the district says about 50 percent of eligible families have indicated their students will return for in-person classes. District officials are also describing the schedules – the special-education students would attend Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, while the preschoolers, kindergarteners, and 1st graders would be split into A and B groups – Mondays and Tuesdays for one, Thursdays and Fridays for the other. More details to come – families were repeatedly advised to check the district’s website, but it’s currently down again.
5:48 PM: The briefing’s over; we’ve added the recorded video above.
Midweek pandemic toplines:
NEWEST KING COUNTY NUMBERS: From the Seattle-King County Public Health daily-summary dashboard, the cumulative totals:
*77,577 people have tested positive, 391 more than yesterday’s total
*1,270 people have died, unchanged from yesterday’s total
*4,843 people have been hospitalized, 22 more than yesterday’s total
*838,171 people have been tested, 2,531 more than yesterday’s total
One week ago, the four totals we track were 75,289/1,241/4,763/822,897.
STATEWIDE NUMBERS: Find them, county by county, on the state Department of Health page,.
WORLDWIDE NUMBERS: See them, nation by nation, here.
VACCINATED: More than 281,000 doses have been administered in King County. Still no West Seattle locations on the state list. As of yesterday, Public Health/Seattle-King County tweeted, that included 87 percent of nurses, 79 percent of doctors, 31 percent of people ages 75 and up.
BRIEFING TOMORROW: State Secretary of Health Dr. Umair Shah and other state health officials will present their weekly briefing at 10:30 am Thursday. You can watch it here.
ALSO TOMORROW: Reminder that Seattle Public Schools plans a 5:15 pm Thursday update on its plan to offer some students the chance to return to in-person learning March 1st.
GOT INFO? Email us at westseattleblog@gmail.com or phone us, text or voice, at 206-293-6302 – thank you!
As noted here Friday, West Seattle/South Park City Councilmember Lisa Herbold says the mayor’s office has committed to a COVID-19 vaccination site in West Seattle. At the council’s Monday morning “briefing meeting,” she mentioned a meeting with the mayor’s staff was planned for the next day. So we followed up. As is the case right now for so many providers and potential providers, the bottleneck is vaccine access, Herbold says she was told, “Timing is dependent upon when there is an adequate supply of vaccines. King County is getting 25% of Washington State’s weekly dispersal. Most of Seattle’s vaccines are being given to health care providers, though Seattle Fire Department is still receiving a weekly allotment for its mobile teams and pop-up program.” But when sufficient supply becomes available, the city could set up the site in as little as two days. We’ll hear more about this next Tuesday (February 9th), when the committee Herbold chairs, Public Safety and Human Services, gets a pandemic briefing from SFD and Public Health Seattle King County. The county is currently running two mass vaccination sites, and the state has four, none in Seattle.
Tonight’s pandemic headlines:
NEWEST KING COUNTY NUMBERS: Here’s what’s in today’s daily summary from Seattle-King County Public Health – the cumulative totals:
*77,186 people have tested positive, 169 more than yesterday’s total
*1,270 people have died, 6 more than yesterday’s total
*4,821 people have been hospitalized, 6 more than yesterday’s total
*835.640 people have been tested, 2,670 more than yesterday’s total
One week ago, the totals were 74,901/1,240/4,736/817,432.
STATEWIDE NUMBERS: See them here.
NATIONAL/WORLDWIDE NUMBERS: 103.8 million cases worldwide, 26.4 million of them in the U.S. – see other nation-by-nation stats by going here.
VACCINATION UPDATES: Gov. Inslee says more than 700,000 people in our state have received at least one dose of vaccine … Certain pharmacies nationwide are going to start getting an allocation of vaccine – though not a lot for starters; from the White House announcement, the recipients will include SOME locations of these chains that have stores in our vicinity: Walgreens, Rite Aid, Kroger (QFC, Fred Meyer), Costco, Safeway. (We have previously mentioned that the two local Safeways and one local QFC with pharmacies were gearing up to offer vaccinations when supplies were available.) … Otherwise, no new word of local availability.
BACK TO SCHOOL: Seattle Public Schools announced an online event Thursday about planning for some students to resume in-person learning March 1st.
HAZARD PAY: The mandatory $4/hour for most Seattle grocery workers is supposed to kick in tomorrow. Meantime, one chain just implemented it for all its stores – far beyond Seattle.
GOT SOMETHING TO REPORT? westseattleblog@gmail.com or 206-293-6302, text/voice – thank you!
In less than four weeks, Seattle Public Schools plans to offer in-person classes for preschoolers, kindergarteners, first-graders, and special-education students on intensive pathways. How many will show up? The district surveyed families last month; we asked about results of that survey today, but the district says they’re not available yet. Meantime, district leaders plan to livestream an update on in-person planning this Thursday (February 4th) at 5:15 pm (you can watch here). And they’ve put together a video showing, among other things, the way classrooms will be reconfigured:
Just to our south, Highline Public Schools also plans to resume some in-person learning March 1st, with a plan covering more grades, eventually adding 2nd through 5th graders within a month
Tomorrow, Seattle’s new city-mandated $4/hour “hazard pay” for grocery workers takes effect. This past week’s most-discussed story on WSB was about a letter of opposition sent by the new CEO of Seattle-based PCC. Now another chain has taken action – Trader Joe’s has continued to pay $2/hour of what it calls “thank you pay” and as of yesterday, doubled that to $4/hour chain-wide. Meantime, other cities are pursuing or have taken similar action – Los Angeles took a major step today toward requiring $5/hour extra pay for grocery and drugstore workers; nearby Long Beach approved $4/hour extrq grocery pay two weeks ago, and megachain Kroger – which owns QFC and Fred Meyer in our area – has closed two “underperforming” stores there, blaming the mandate.
The first stats in two days top tonight’s pandemic roundup:
NEWEST KING COUNTY NUMBERS: No update yesterday – we asked why today, and the reply was that they were having technical trouble – “some SQL database issues.” But an update was posted today, and here are the key points of the daily summary from Seattle-King County Public Health:
*77,017 people have tested positive, 367 more than Saturday’s total
*1,264 people have died, unchanged from Saturday’s total
*4,815 people have been hospitalized, 28 more than Saturday’s total
*832,970 people have been tested, 5,787 more than Saturday’s total
One week ago, those totals were 74.727/1,227/4,726/815,985.
STATEWIDE NUMBERS: See them here.
WORLDWIDE NUMBERS: 103.4 million cases, 2,237,000+ deaths. See the other stats – nation by nation – here.
VACCINATION INDIGNATION: It was a big topic during this morning’s Seattle City Council briefing meeting, when councilmembers go around the table for individual updates. Council President Lorena González said she was deeply concerned that the most vulnerable community members, particularly those who are BIPOC, have even less access to the vaccine than others, and called for more outreach to help them navigate the system that is befuddling and frustrating most people who’ve tried to deal with it. Meantime, West Seattle/South Park Councilmember Lisa Herbold cited stats on the inequitable distribution of vaccinations, while expressing outrage at the continuing reports of preferential access; her comments are summarized here. She also repeated what she had said in her Friday newsletter, that the city would eventually have a mass vaccination site in West Seattle; her meeting to discuss this with the mayor’s office is scheduled for Tuesday.
NOTABLE NATIONAL STAT: Bloomberg News reports that the number of Americans who have received at least one dose of vaccine has now exceeded the number who’ve tested positive during the pandemic – 26.5 million to 26.3 million.
NEED FOOD? This week’s nearest Food Lifeline distribution is 2-5 pm Friday (February 5th) at 815 S. 96th.
GOT SOMETHING TO REPORT? westseattleblog@gmail.com or 206-293-6302, text/voice – thank you!
Here are tonight’s pandemic updates:
KING COUNTY’S NEWEST NUMBERS: No daily update here, and no explanation, but for the record: One week ago, the King County totals were 74,562/1,215/4,725/813,111.
STATEWIDE NUMBERS: See them here.
WORLDWIDE NUMBERS: 102.9 million cases and 2,227,000+ deaths, 441,000+ of them in the U.S. – see the nation-by-nation breakdown here.
PHASE 2 MONDAY: King County and six other counties are officially in Phase 2 of “Healthy Washington” as of tomorrow. That means, among other things, indoor dining can resume at limited capacity, indoor fitness offerings can increase, and indoor movies and bowling are allowed again. (If your business has a reopening update, please let us know!)
GOT SOMETHING TO REPORT? westseattleblog@gmail.com or 206-293-6302, text/voice – thank you!
Here are the mid-weekend pandemic toplines:
NEWEST KING COUNTY NUMBERS: First, the cumulative totals from Public Health‘s daily-summary dashboard:
*76.650 people have tested positive, 305 more than yesterday’s total
*1,264 people have died, 15 more than yesterday’s total
*4,787 people have been hospitalized, 16 more than yesterday’s total
*827,183 people have been tested, 618 more than yesterday’s total
One week ago, those totals were 74,214/1,215/4,687/812,614.
WEST SEATTLE TRENDS: Here’s our weekly check of this stat, with numbers shown in two-week increments via the “geography over time” tab on the daily-summary dashboard, combining the totals from the West Seattle and Delridge “health reporting areas” (HRAs). For the past two weeks, 142 positive test results; 310 in the 2 weeks before that; 247 in the two weeks before that. … We also are noting WS death totals each week; the HRAs are the most precise count. The total deaths for the entire pandemic in the two HRAs comprising West Seattle: 56, four more than a week ago.
STATEWIDE NUMBERS: See them here.
WORLDWIDE NUMBERS: 102.5 million people have tested positive, and more than 2,219,000 people have died; U.S. deaths exceed 439,000. Most cases: U.S., India, Brazil, UK, Russia (the last two have changed places since last week). See the breakdown, nation by nation, here.
‘MORE CONTAGIOUS’ VARIANT: One week after the more-contagious “UK variant” of the virus – aka B117 – showed up in our state for the first time, it’s been detected in King County.
FINDING VACCINE: None of the nearby locations on the state website have availability. However, St. Anne Hospital in Burien advises eligible people to check back next Friday (February 5th) for possible appointment availability.
GETTING VACCINATED? Don’t take a pain reliever pre-shot, a UW expert advises.
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ORIGINAL SATURDAY REPORT: Reopening plans have been announced by another West Seattle business that’s been totally shut down since new restrictions took effect in November. The historic Admiral Theater (2343 California SW) – West Seattle’s only movie theater – will reopen on Friday (February 5th). The movie lineup will be “News of the World,” “The Croods: A New Age,” “Marksman,” “Little Things,” and “Wonder Woman 1984.” Under Phase 2 of the “Healthy Washington: Roadmap to Recovery” plan, which takes effect Monday for seven counties including ours, movie theaters will be allowed to operate at 25 percent capacity or 200 people maximum, whichever is fewer. The Admiral is part of a small Bainbridge Island-headquartered chain, Far Away Entertainment, that also will be able to open three other theaters, in the U-District, Stanwood, and Ocean Shores. The Admiral was able to open for several weeks last fall before the newest restrictions were announced.
P.S. New here? The Admiral has almost 80 years of backstory, as noted in our coverage of its reopening celebration 4 years ago, after completion of the remodel that turned it back into a first-run moviehouse.
ADDED MONDAY: Admiral co-proprietor Jeff Brein says in a comment, “In an effort to be responsive to folks who are hesitant to visit our Theater because people may be taking off masks to eat … we are going to introduce “Mask Mandatory” shows each day – those starting between the noon and 1:00 hour. Masks will be required at all times and concessions will NOT be sold but we encourage you to purchase on your way home after the movie to help support the Theater. The “Mask Mandatory” policy will not be in effect for our afternoon and evening performances.”
48 weeks have now passed since the Friday night announcement of the first King County case of COVID-19. Here are tonight’s updates:
SITUATION REPORT: The state’s periodic “situation report” is out, and has some encouraging news. Here are its headlines:
*Declining COVID-19 transmission provides an opportunity to get case and hospitalization rates under control before the faster-spreading B.1.1.7 variant takes hold in the state.
*Case counts dropped sharply after the first week of January.
*Case rates are still high across the state but are moving in the right direction.
*Many counties saw sharp declines in case counts after the first week in January, returning to early to mid-November levels.
*Total hospital admissions flattened at a high level starting in late November, with a slight decline beginning in mid-January.
The full report is here; the news release summarizing it is here.
KING COUNTY NUMBERS: From the Public Health daily-summary page, cumulative totals:
*76,345 people have tested positive, 663 more than yesterday’s total
*1,249 people have died, 7 more than yesterday’s total
*4,771 people have been hospitalized, 7 more than yesterday’s total
*826,565 people have been tested, 3,755 more than yesterday’s total
And from the COVID Vaccination Among King County Residents dashboard, our weekly check:
*181,108 people have received one dose
*37,984 people have received both doses
*232,350 doses have been allocated to King County
One week ago, the first four totals were 73,801/1,214/4,683/810,109, and the vaccination totals were 126,474/21,910/214,425.
STATEWIDE NUMBERS: See them here.
WORLDWIDE NUMBERS: 102 million cases, 2,206,000+ deaths – see the nation-by-nation numbers here.
WEST SEATTLE VAX CLINIC – EVENTUALLY: In her weekly newsletter, West Seattle/South Park City Councilmember Lisa Herbold writes:
A couple weeks ago, I let you know that the Seattle Fire Department has begun COVID vaccinations starting with mobile teams that will vaccinate up to 1,000 residents and staff of adult family homes and some permanent supportive housing residences. I explained that the City has the infrastructure in place to quickly turn at least one of the existing COVID testing sites into a mass vaccination site – what we don’t have is access to the necessary vaccine supply. I’ve heard from many of you wanting to know what’s in store for West Seattle, given the closure of the West Seattle Bridge and ongoing restrictions on lower level bridge access and significant congestion on detour routes off of the peninsula.
This week, I received confirmation from the Mayor’s Office that the City is planning to stand up a West Seattle vaccination site as part of its overall testing strategy. I’ll meet with the Mayor’s Office next week to learn more about their plans. The timing is dependent upon when there is an adequate supply of vaccines; vaccines are in limited supply and the number and timing of doses that Seattle receives is determined by the state and federal government. I know there is a lot of interest in supporting West Seattle vaccination sites, and I will keep you updated about these plans as I learn more and continue to advocate for local vaccinations.
2 COUNTY CLINICS: King County is opening signups at 8 am Saturday for new vaccination clinics in Kent and Auburn but says they’re just for “residents of south King County who 1) are age 75 or older, OR 2) are age 50 or older and cannot live independently, or live with and care for kin, OR 3) are providing care (paid or unpaid) for someone age 50 or older who cannot live independently.”
VACCINATION CELEBRATION: Aegis Living-West Seattle says 95 percent of its residents and 75+ percent of staff are vaccinated. Most recently, the memory-care fac held a Cupid-themed clinic this past Tuesday. Aegis sent photos, including this one of resident Albertha Dorsey, quoting her as saying, “I feel blessed, and I feel protected. I look forward to the day when my children can feel as protected as I do.”
Awgis has two more clinics planned “to allow us to get closer to 100% for both populations.”
PCC OPPOSES HAZARD-PAY MANDATE: Vaccination should be the city’s focus rather than compensation, PCC‘s CEO said in a letter to the mayor, who says she’ll sign the $4/hour bill and that it’ll take effect next week.
COUNTY HEALTH OFFICER’S BRIEFING: Dr. Jeff Duchin provided his weekly video briefing – see it here.
GOT INFO OR PHOTOS? westseattleblog@gmail.com or text/voice 206-293-6302 – thank you!
The city says that the new law requiring $4/hour “hazard pay” for most grocery-store workers will take effect next Wednesday (February 3rd). It mandates the extra pay for workers whose employers have at least 500 workers worldwide. That includes PCC Community Markets, whose 15 stores include one in West Seattle. The chain’s new CEO Suzy Monford has sent a letter to the mayor and city council arguing against the mandate. The letter is published on the PCC website and was called to our attention by several West Seattle store employees, one of whom wrote, “As we read the letter today, many of the staff felt betrayed and belittled by our CEO’s words.” In the letter, Monford writes:
… *Our collective focus should be on vaccination. Grocery workers need expanded access to vaccines to keep them protected from COVID both at home and at work. PCC Community Markets has had only 36 of our 1710 staff contract COVID since last February. No infections were determined to be contracted at work and 33 of those infections were determined to result from infection at home or outside of work. Our staff should be protected throughout their day – including at home – so that we can keep them on the job and healthy. PCC is offering a $25 gift card to our staff members who get vaccinated to move our workforce in that direction. …
*Washington grocery stores are safe places to work. It is safer to work in a grocery store than work in goods production or government. According to a Washington State Department of Labor and Industries report issued in November 2020 (see attached), only 5% of all non-health care COVID workplace outbreaks occurred in grocery stores, and grocery stores accounted for less than 2.8% of all workplace outbreaks. …
*Independent grocers are proactively acting to protect our staff members from COVID. The low outbreak rates reported by the State of Washington are due to grocers’ effort and should be acknowledged. When COVID hit, independent grocers began to meet and share safety best practices through the Washington Food Industry Association. We proactively instituted controls, in many cases, before they were released by local health officials. We deployed mask mandates, instituted extensive new cleaning protocols, increased air filtration in our stores and rolled out barriers between customers and staff prior to the availability of guidance from health departments. …
*Independent grocers have a slim profit margin. Large scale grocers may see a decent profit margin, but most independent grocers have less than a 0.5% profit margin, according to the Washington Food Industry Association. The cost of COVID response, including the safety controls that we have committed to in order to keep our staff safe and the additional pay, have cut our margins to the bone. A growing contingent of our customers (about 4% of all transactions and growing) use third-party online delivery services to whom we have to pay a significant percentage of each purchase for use of the service. This ordinance disproportionately harms local, independent grocers like PCC Community Markets, which in 2019 had $1.7M in net income. That may sound like a lot, but to put that in context, PCC spent $3M – or nearly 2X 2019 net income — in COVID-related expenses in 2020, including staff member appreciation pay, bonuses and in-store safety protocols, since the start of the pandemic. …
You can read the entire letter here. In conclusion, Monford tells the mayor, “We hope, given local business concerns, you’ll consider not signing the bill, or alternatively, modify it to exclude the smaller, local grocers who will be deeply damaged by this ordinance.” A PCC worker who emailed us counters, “We have been coming to work every day in the face of real threats to our health, and we just want to be fairly compensated for that risk.”
Side note: To the point of focusing on vaccination, the city announced today that the SFD Mobile Vaccination Teams will vaccinate 400 high-risk grocery workers “in the coming days.” The announcement doesn’t say where and when – only that it’s in partnership with UFCW Local 21, which represents 46,000+ grocery workers.
(Photo courtesy West Seattle Bowl)
Advancing to Phase 2 in the state’s “Healthy Washington: Roadmap to Recovery” plan means some businesses can reopen for limited capacity after two months of total closure. Among them, West Seattle Bowl. They’re planning to reopen the 39th SW/SW Oregon bowling center next Thursday (February 4th), 3 pm-9 pm, with the same hours on Friday (February 5th), then noon-8 pm on Saturday, February 6th, but they’ll be closed on Super Bowl Sunday, After that, says WS Bowl’s Jeff Swanson, “We will resume similar hours to what we were doing in September-November.” (Here’s our story from September.) The WS Bowl website should be updated soon with new info.
The phase-change news tops tonight’s roundup:
PHASE CHANGE: Gov. Inslee says our county and six others can advance to Phase 2, as of Monday. That means changes primarily for restaurants, fitness facilities, and indoor entertainment/recreation. Also, among other tweaks to the reopening policy, the state will review metrics every two weeks from here on out rather than weekly.
NEWEST KING COUNTY NUMBERS: From the Public Health daily-summary dashboard, here are today’s cumulative totals:
*75,682 people have tested positive, 393 more than yesterday’s total
*1,242 people have died, 1 more than yesterday’s total
*4,763 people have been hospitalized, unchanged from yesterday’s total
*822,810 people have been tested, 513 more than yesterday’s total
One week ago, the four totals we track were 70,547/1,165/4,495/782,951.
STATEWIDE NUMBERS: Find them, county by county, on the state Department of Health page.
WORLDWIDE NUMBERS: 101.4 million cases worldwide, 25.7 million of them in the U.S. See the nation-by-nation breakout here.
WHERE TO GET VACCINATED – WHEN SUPPLIES ARE IN: Some QFC pharmacies will be sites – we checked the list today and the West Seattle Junction store is scheduled to be one of those sites. They join the Safeway pharmacies (Admiral and Roxbury) as places to watch. But those locations don’t have vaccine right now. And none are on the state’s location list, yet.
NEED FOOD? 2-5 pm tomorrow at Food Lifeline (815 S. 96th) HQ, emergency food boxes are available.
GOT PHOTOS/TIPS? 206-293-6302, text or voice, or westseattleblog@gmail.com – thank you!
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