Case updates October 12, 2020; cases on the rise in King county; what does it mean for schools?

Cases of COVID-19 are on the rise again in King County, after two months of decline. As we move into the school year and into fall, a time when COVID-19 spreads more readily, it’s time to renew our commitment to fighting the spread of the virus in our community, for everyone’s sake. 

It’s more important than ever to mask up, stay distant and limit your contacts with people outside your household. We’ve driven the case count down before, and we can do it again. 

While daily case numbers fluctuate, public health experts look to longer, two-week snapshots as a more reliable way to gauge how the epidemic is growing or shrinking. Adjusting for population, we calculate a key “incidence” metric you may have heard of: cases over 14 days per 100,000 people. 

This number is a key measure that the Washington Department of Health (DOH) uses to determine whether COVID transmission in a community is high, moderate or low, as it relates to the relative risk of reopening schools.

The recent rise in cases has pushed that number onto the wrong side of an important benchmark. The DOH considers 75 cases or more over two weeks per 100,000 to be a marker of relatively high risk for in-person learning. In King County, after about six weeks under that threshold, the 14-day incidence rate per 100,000 has rebounded into the 80s.

What does this mean for schools? Read on...


Case updates October 12, 2020

United States

• cases 7,787,548 - 46,614 cases since yesterday
• deaths 214,446 - 338 deaths since yesterday

Washington state - DOH was not able to update the dashboards on Sunday, 10/11/20 or Monday, due to data processing issues.

• cases 94,775 - 1740 since last report
• hospitalizations 7,874 - 88 since last report
• deaths* 2,211 - 21 since last report

King county

• cases 24,330 - 125 since yesterday
• hospitalizations 2,458 - 17 since yesterday
• deaths 779 - 3 since last report

Shoreline - population 56,752 (2018)

• cases 620 - -2 since last report
• hospitalizations 106 - 0 new
• deaths 63 - 0 new

Lake Forest Park - 13,569 (2018)

• cases 71 - -1 since last report
• hospitalizations 3 - -1 since last report
• deaths 1 - 0 new