Coronavirus updates: State passes 305k cases
Updated at 9 a.m.
The Washington state Department of Health reported 1,825 new cases of COVID-19 and 44 deaths Wednesday.
Pierce County reported 212 cases Wednesday and four new deaths. Pierce County has a total of 390 deaths likely caused by COVID-19 as of Wednesday, according to the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department.
Statewide totals from the illness caused by the coronavirus are 305,289 cases and 4,211 deaths. Those numbers are up from 303,464 cases and 4,167 deaths Tuesday. The case total includes 13,588 cases listed as probable. DOH revises previous case and death counts daily.
Washington’s population is estimated at about 7.6 million, according to U.S. Census figures from July 2019.
As of Jan. 8, the date with the most recent complete data, 126 people with confirmed cases of COVID-19 were admitted to Washington state hospitals.
Preliminary reports indicate average daily hospital admissions were 94 in mid-January.
Out of the state’s total staffed intensive care unit beds (1,208), approximately 80.5% (973) were occupied by patients Wednesday. Of those staffed ICU beds, 16.3% (197) held suspected and confirmed COVID-19 patients.
Hospital apologizes for giving donors early access to COVID vaccines in Washington
Updated at 9 a.m.
A Washington hospital apologized for prioritizing donors to receive a COVID-19 vaccine.
Overlake Medical Center in Bellevue, Washington, sent an email to more than 100 donors, telling them vaccine slots were available and providing an “access code” to register for appointments, The Seattle Times reported.
“We’re pleased to share that we have 500 new open appointments in the Overlake COVID-19 vaccine clinic,” the email from Overlake Medical Center said, according to The Seattle Times.
The email, which appeared to be favoring people who had donated to the hospital, sparked backlash.
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said at a Tuesday news conference that it “is not acceptable” if the hospital was truly giving them priority.
“If in fact they were giving preference to some VIP list, that’s not the way to do it,” Inslee said at the news conference. “That is not acceptable for us. We need to give everybody a fair shot.”
In Washington, the vaccine is available to people 65 and older — and people 50 and older who live in a multigenerational household, according to the state’s Department of Health. Health care workers, first responders and people who live or work in long-term care facilities are also eligible to get the COVID-19 vaccine in the state.
Overlake Medical Center CEO J. Michael Marsh said in a statement Wednesday that the hospital sent emails to about 4,000 people, “including volunteers, retired nurses and physicians, all employees and about 100 donors from our Foundation database.”
He said that all people would’ve needed to show proof that they were eligible under the state’s guideline to receive the vaccine.
Will COVID vaccines need a booster shot to combat variants? Here’s what to know
Updated at 9 a.m.
There are now three coronavirus variants of concern spreading in the U.S., federal health officials say — one from the U.K., another from Brazil and a third from South Africa.
Scientists are paying extra attention to the last one.
Both authorized COVID-19 vaccines in the U.S. appeared to protect against the new variants in laboratory tests, but further research by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna have confirmed that its shots showed significantly weaker responses against the South African variant.
Experts say this suggests immunity gained from either coronavirus vaccine may dwindle earlier against the variant from South Africa compared to other variants.
Both companies recently announced they will begin testing what they call booster shots to amp up immune responses to the variant, which seems to spread more easily between people.
Booster shots are just repeat vaccinations, typically after a first series of shots as a child, experts at Harvard Medical School said. A common one is for the tetanus vaccine, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends every 10 years to ensure constant protection from serious disease.
That’s what Pfizer and Moderna hope to accomplish for COVID-19, although it’s unknown if the coronavirus will need updated vaccines each year to tackle new strains, like the flu does.
“In the event that this virus continues to mutate in this direction, and a year from now is still circulating in some way, we think it’s prudent that we have tools like a booster vaccine to address that,” Moderna President Stephen Hoge told The Wall Street Journal.
During laboratory tests, Moderna said there was a “sixfold reduction” in the antibodies’ effectiveness against the South African variant, called B.1.351, while there was no “significant impact” on protection against the U.K. variant.
“Out of an abundance of caution,” Moderna is developing a new booster “with strain-specific spike proteins” against the South African variant that could be administered after two doses of the original shot. The decision was made in an effort to get ahead of the virus if it does change enough to render the vaccine useless.
This story was originally published January 28, 2021 at 9:02 AM with the headline "Coronavirus updates: State passes 305k cases."
