Inslee: Extension of stay-home order in play, despite ‘glimmer of hope’

OLYMPIA — Washington has a “glimmer of hope” with some good news on efforts to fight the COVID-19 outbreak, but that doesn’t mean the current stay-home order won’t be extended past the original two weeks, Gov. Jay Inslee said Thursday.

Calculations by Johns Hopkins released by the governor’s office suggest a slight reduction in the rate of increase for positive COVID-19 tests in Washington, especially when compared with where some states are at this point in their outbreaks.

“It’s a glimmer of hope,” Inslee said, but offered some caveats. Because of the time lag between exposure and the signs of COVID-19, and the delay for results of those tested for the disease after the symptoms appear, the data being measured on the chart isn’t current.

“Whatever we are seeing today occurred 10 to 14 days ago,” Inslee said.

But the data suggests some of the state’s mitigation strategies have been able to slow the rate of increase, particularly in King, Snohomish and Pierce counties, the three hardest hit by the outbreak.

The rates are not dropping outside those three Puget Sound counties and in many areas, the state is not yet “bending the curve,” he said.

“We are not within 10,000 miles of champagne corks popping,” Inslee said.

Numbers released by the state Department of Health showed a higher rate of increase in positive tests between Wednesday and Thursday. A spokesman for Inslee said he would have to wait to see what health professionals have to say about the day’s numbers before speculating on their meaning.

“What they’re most concerned about is data over time,” Mike Faulk said. “Only time will tell what each day’s numbers mean in the big picture.”

At the morning news conference, Inslee said his stay-home order for people with nonessential jobs could be extended beyond its initial two-week period. That rate of increase is one of the factors state officials will study on a daily basis, along with the percentage of positive tests reported, the rate of hospital admissions for COVID-like illnesses and data that shows whether state residents seem to be staying home to avoid spreading or contracting the disease.

“We can’t allow (the virus) to spring back up. We’ve got to pound it down,” he said.

— The Spokesman-Review

California facing perilous two weeks as coronavirus cases, deaths surge

LOS ANGELES — Faced with a major jump in both coronavirus deaths and cases in California over the last two days, officials warned of significantly worsening conditions over the coming weeks as the virus spreads dramatically and hospitals fill up.

The number of coronavirus cases in California topped 4,000, but that number is expected to skyrocket as testing expands. Eighty-three people have died.

Confirmed cases in Los Angeles County rose by more than 50% in a single day, reaching 1,200. Nine new deaths were reported in the county, bringing the virus’s toll to 21.

Of the people in Los Angeles County who tested positive, 253 — or roughly 1 in 5 — were hospitalized at some point, said Barbara Ferrer, director of the L.A. County Department of Public Health.

If each person who has tested positive for the virus infected two others, Ferrer said, “within a few weeks, there could be over a million people that would be infected in L.A. County.” Los Angeles officials have ordered all those who have tested positive for COVID-19 to self-isolate, along with those in close contact with the infected.

“These are not numbers, these are neighbors,” Mayor Eric Garcetti said. “There is no projection in which a couple weeks from now, we’re doing fine. This will be tough.”

Garcetti and other officials said the next few weeks are going to be challenging.

“A week or two from now, we will have images like we’re seeing in New York here in Los Angeles.”

Silicon Valley could see a coronavirus-related death toll of 2,000 to 16,000 by the end of May, depending on how seriously people take the order to stay at home, according to projections presented at a San Jose City Council meeting this week.

The thinking behind the rough estimates illustrates why health and elected officials across California have sounded the alarm about the exponential rise in coronavirus cases reported since the beginning of March. Multiple officials in the state, including San Francisco’s director of public health, Dr. Grant Colfax, have warned about a surge in gravely ill coronavirus patients needing hospitalization in the next week or two.

“Even in the best-case scenario, we were looking at the order — in the next 12 weeks — of 2,000 potential deaths directly from COVID-19,” San Jose Deputy City Manager Kip Harkness said Tuesday of an estimate of the projected death toll for Santa Clara County, California’s sixth most populous county.

Nicholas Jewell, a biostatistics researcher at UC Berkeley who has been tracking the pandemic, said COVID-19 is spreading rapidly throughout the U.S., at a rate quicker than or on par with countries hit the hardest.

— Los Angeles Times

Mount Rainier National Park closes roads to public vehicles

Mount Rainier National Park is closing roads to public vehicles in response to Centers for Disease Control (CDC), state and county public health service guidelines for social distancing.

The closure went into effect Tuesday afternoon.

“This closure will prohibit all vehicles, including cars, buses, motorcycles and nonmotorized vehicles such as bicycles from entering the park. The park’s main gate near Ashford will also be closed,” according to a news release from the park.

The park will continue to maintain critical systems and infrastructure during the public closure. Updated guidelines for acquiring backcountry and climbing permits will be announced on the park’s webpage — www.nps.gov/mora.

The park will not conduct on-site educational programs, pick up trash or provide public restrooms.

The National Park Inn, gift shop and restaurant operated by Rainier Guest Services are also now closed.

The park’s backcountry will remain accessible to the public, but visitors are advised to follow public health guidelines on social distancing to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

— The Chronicle

Trump: Governors U.S. should rank counties by risk

WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Donald Trump told U.S. governors in a letter that he wants the government to rank counties according to their risk of a coronavirus outbreak, as he seeks to return Americans to work by his aspirational Easter deadline.

“My administration is working to publish new guidelines for state and local policymakers to use in making decisions about maintaining, increasing, or relaxing social distancing and other mitigation measures they have put in place,” Trump said in the letter, which followed a video conference with governors from the White House on Thursday.

“This is what we envision: Our expanded testing capabilities will quickly enable us to publish criteria, developed in close coordination with the nation’s public health officials and scientists, to help classify counties with respect to continued risks posed by the virus,” he wrote.

Parts of the U.S. may be able to relent on social distancing practices that have crippled the economy as the country fights the coronavirus outbreak, Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said in an interview.

“There are places in the country now where you want to look at carefully and say you know maybe you want to pull back a little bit on the restrictions so long as you don’t just say let it rip and say I don’t care what happens,” Fauci said in an interview Thursday conducted by NBA star Stephen Curry on Instagram. “So you treat New York City a little different than you treat Nebraska.”

Trump has said he would like to see social distancing relaxed and the economy re-opened by the Easter holiday, April 12. But many governors and public health authorities have warned that is too ambitious, and that ending social distancing early risks worsening the outbreak and causing more American deaths.

Fauci said in an interview with National Public Radio earlier on Thursday that he’s encouraged Trump to be flexible about his Easter goal. And White House counselor Kellyanne Conway said on Fox News Thursday that Trump is using Easter “as an example.”

“He’s listening to his health professionals,” she said.

— Bloomberg News

States seek food-stamp flexibility as pandemic limits options

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Most food stamp users can’t buy restaurant meals or hot or prepared foods with their benefits, but state officials have begun asking the Agriculture Department for authority to waive some federal restrictions on purchases as they try to provide more options to low-income people grappling with COVID-19.

Anti-hunger advocates say most requests are in line with past requests states make in times of disaster.

For example, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper has requested authority from the USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service to allow people enrolled in his state’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, to buy hot foods or prepared items at retail stores already approved to redeem other food stamp purchases.

Cooper, a Democrat, also is seeking authority to run Disaster SNAP, or DSNAP, which is possible if a presidential disaster declaration triggers individual assistance. Under DSNAP, that assistance can include food benefits for people who wouldn’t normally qualify, but have lost income, suffered injuries or otherwise been affected by disaster.

DSNAP also allows states to raise monthly benefits for current food stamp recipients to the maximum allowed for households based on their size.

Under current federal SNAP rules, there are limited exceptions in some states that allow elderly, disabled and homeless food stamp users to purchase restaurant meals. The rationale for these exceptions is that older people and those with disabilities may find it difficult to prepare meals and the homeless have no place to make meals. Restaurants that participate in these programs are under contract to charge lower meal prices to SNAP customers.

A spokesperson said in an email that the Food and Nutrition Service is “committed to providing all program flexibilities and contingencies available under the law. FNS has been receiving and reviewing requests from states on a continual basis.” The spokesperson called the situation unprecedented and said: “We are working quickly and closely with states to best serve program participants.”

Stacy Dean, vice president for food assistance policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, said Abbott’s request is novel but she doesn’t know how practical it will be if approved.

“The SNAP benefit is still a very basic, bare-bones benefit. The average benefit per meal per person is still $1.40. Meals at restaurants would be very unaffordable based on the benefit,” Dean said.

She said some governors are making use of provisions in recent coronavirus response legislation to request authority from the USDA for emergency increases in monthly benefits to give families more purchasing power. The Food and Nutrition Service website shows waiver approvals for Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Michigan, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.

Dean said more than 40 states have received authority for flexibility in managing SNAP cases as employees operate remotely because offices are closing to stem the pandemic. The District of Columbia and the U.S. territories of Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands also have flexibility for their programs.

Officials expect a surge in SNAP applications even though many have closed offices to reduce the likelihood of COVID-19 infections. Dean said the steep increase in unemployment insurance claims to 3.28 million for the week ending March 21 is an indicator of the uptick to come in SNAP applications. The latest unemployment insurance report exceeds the weekly record of 695,000 set in October 1982 and the 665,000 peak in March 2009 during the Great Recession.

— CQ-Roll Call

China bans entry of foreigners in move to curb the spread of virus

BEIJING — China said it will suspend the entry of foreign nationals holding valid visas and resident permits in a move to curb the number of imported cases of the coronavirus.

The ban becomes effective on Saturday, according to a statement posted late Thursday on the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s website.

The ministry added that entry with diplomatic, service and courtesy visas will not be affected, while foreign nationals coming to China for economic, trade, scientific or technological activities, or out of emergency humanitarian needs, may still apply for visas.

The move comes as China has reported almost no new locally transmitted coronavirus infections over the past week, while so-called imported cases of the disease are rising.

— McClatchy News Service