King County's Delta Surge Is On The Decline
SEATTLE King County's top health official hosted his first COVID-19 briefing in a few weeks Friday and came bearing promising signs that the worst of the summer surge has passed. While transmission rates remain stubbornly high, all metrics have kept up declines since at least mid-September, including case counts, hospitalizations and deaths.
Dr. Jeff Duchin, health officer for Public Health - Seattle & King County, said the county averaged 445 cases each day over the last week, representing a decrease of about 8 percent from the week before. The rate of new cases by population has kept up a gradual descent, now down 26 percent from an Aug. 11 peak.
Duchin said case counts have fallen among all age groups but continue to run highest among younger adults and in the south and southeast portions of King County. Hospitalization rates have fallen similarly, with just under 100 new COVID-19 admissions in the last seven days, down another 10 percent from the week before. Overall, the number of active COVID-19 patients is down substantially from the highs of last month.
"Hospitals throughout the county and the region continue to experience stress from very high patient volumes and high acuity cases with longer patient stays," Duchin said. "However, overall COVID hospitalizations are declining and that's helping. Currently, there are 192 hospitalized, confirmed COVID-19 patients in King County health care facilities, and that's down 40 percent from the recent peak of 320 on Sept. 9."
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