Seattle Washington Update for Monday March 9th

On February 26th, the Seattle and King County area discovered its first two cases of the Coronavirus in the area when two people died from the disease. These events along with testing from UW revealed that the virus had likely been spreading in the area several weeks already. That was two weeks ago. Today, UW virology estimates that there are roughly 1000 cases in the area. Those cases double every week. Even though testing has ramped up, only 162 cases have been found and are being dealt with. Today Seattle public health officials have announced possible next steps of mitigation to slow the spread of the virus. Officials, including the Governor have hinted in the past few days that movement to higher levels might be coming very soon. Gov. Jay Inslee had this to say: “When you double whatever that number is and you double it every week, these things can explode,” Inslee said. “And as I’ve indicated, if it’s 1,000 people today, it will be 64,000 people in week seven. “And so that’s why all of us have to be dedicated to making decisions earlier in this epidemic, even when it may not seem overwhelming at the moment,” Inslee added. “And that’s what we’re working through right now.”