3 years later: where we stand in Seattle with COVID

It has been three years since the primary recognized case of COVID-19 within the U.S. was reported in Washington state. State well being officers and native scientists say that whereas we’re in a much better place than we have been, COVID is not going away.

Driving the information: The brand new Omicron variant, XBB.1.5 — nicknamed “Kraken” —may develop into the dominant pressure within the state this month, based on UW Drugs.

• Scientists say it’s extra transmissible and — based on a examine printed in The Lancet Infectious Illnesses — exhibits a profound skill to evade antibodies even after vaccination.

Why it issues: Whereas epidemiologists say the virus is now endemic in our inhabitants, issues for weak populations stay. And past the well being impacts, in Seattle and elsewhere, the affect of distant work and sky-high costs of the early pandemic housing increase are nonetheless keenly felt.

By the numbers: Based on the latest state knowledge, the 7-day case charge in King County is about 80 new circumstances per 100,000 folks. In hospitals throughout the state, 8% of beds are occupied by COVID-19 sufferers and 70% of the inhabitants has been vaccinated.

• One 12 months in the past, the state reported a report variety of infections — 15,157 new circumstances in in the future — and COVID-19 hospitalizations at UW Drugs’s 4 hospitals have been increased than at every other level within the pandemic.

What’s subsequent: Dr. Jeff Duchin of Public Well being – Seattle & King County informed Axios that regardless that the state is in a a lot completely different place than it was three years in the past, “many challenges and vital unpredictability stay.”

• Among the many key points Duchin mentioned are being addressed by well being officers are a continued effort to spice up vaccination charges, safe public well being funding and handle the racial inequities in public well being techniques that led to a disproportionate affect of COVID-19 on Black, Hispanic, and Pacific Islander residents.

What they’re saying: Dr. Pavitra Roychoudhury, the director of COVID-19 sequencing on the UW Virology Lab, informed Axios that she feels “comparatively optimistic.”

• “We’re in a significantly better place when it comes to immunity, whether or not from vaccination or a latest an infection, than we have been. COVID-19 is unquestionably not gone, however we’re studying to take care of it and stay with it.”