Health & Fitness
Washington's Coronavirus Death Toll Reaches 1,600
At least 1,600 Washingtonians have now died from the coronavirus and the state continues to see high daily case counts. The latest updates.
SEATTLE, WA — Washington state has reached a total of 1,600 deaths linked to the coronavirus, with health officials reporting four new deaths and 542 new infections of the coronavirus Monday.
The latest numbers mean a total of 58,715 cases of the coronavirus have been confirmed in the state since the outbreak began, and 1,600 people have died. Since the crisis began, 51 percent of deaths have been recorded among people aged 80 or older, 38 percent in people ages 60 to 79, 9 percent in people ages 40 to 59 and 1 percent among people ages 20 to 39.
As of the latest report, at least 1,008,822 Washingtonians have been tested for the coronavirus, meaning roughly 5.8 percent of tests returned positive.
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Catch up on the latest developments:
Washington changes guidance for reopening gyms
The state has announced new guidance on how gyms and fitness centers can reopen during the pandemic, including one new provision allowing individuals to return to gyms for solo work out sessions, but another that may severely limit the number of people inside at a time.
The new changes include:
- Allowing independent fitness training, formerly gyms were restricted only to group fitness classes.
- Increasing the distance requirement to 300 square feet per person inside a facility, except when practicing team sports. Large facilities are limited to 25 percent capacity. Formerly, the rule was to keep six feet apart from other gym goers.
- Requiring the use of masks or face coverings except when "engaged in strenuous exercise." Those who do remove their masks to exercise must put them back on right when they're done.
The rules also clarify some earlier guidance, reinforcing that indoor sports facilities should not have spectators and that outdoor training is strongly preferable to indoors and should be done whenever possible.
Read more: New Guidance Requires WA Gyms To Triple Distance Indoors
Employment security department begins work on second unemployment backlog
Washington finished wrapping up its first unemployment backlog on Friday of last week, now the Employment Security Department says they're working on the second. The first backlog was all unemployment applications in Washington filed between March and June, which at one point crew to more than 81,000 unresolved claims.
The backlog grew from a number of factors including record unemployment claims when the first wave of job losses hit at the start of the pandemic, as well as a massive disruption in claims processing when an international fraud ring was found to have siphoned hundreds of millions of dollars from Washington by filing bogus unemployment claims. That discovery forced the ESD to halt all payments, increase security measures and spend time recovering what they could of the stolen money. In total, it's estimated that between $550 and $650 million was stolen, and $340 million has been recovered.
Now that's mostly resolved and the initial backlog is cleared, the ESD has set their sights on the latest backlog of unresolved unemployment claims, but they have not released a timeline for finishing. Instead, ESD Commissioner Suzi LeVine says their goal is to resolve more cases than they receive, and shorten the amount of time it takes to resolve a claim from the current average of four weeks, to three weeks.
“Resolved does not mean approval for everyone,” LeVine told the AP. “With the historic number of applications, there are also a large number of denials and there will be a large number of appeals. We know our work is nowhere near done.”
Read more: Washington Working Through Second Unemployment Backlog
Total coronavirus cases, hospitalizations and deaths by county:
| County | Confirmed Cases | Hospitalizations | Deaths |
| Adams | 400 (+4) | 19 | 4 |
| Asotin | 24 | 1 | 2 |
| Benton | 3,514 (+13) | 313 (+1) | 110 |
| Chelan | 1,177 (+44) | 47 (+3) | 10 |
| Clallam | 94 | 4 | 0 |
| Clark | 1,620 (+10) | 158 | 42 |
| Columbia | 13 | 3 | 1 |
| Cowlitz | 446 | 39 | 5 |
| Douglas | 830 (+22) | 33 | 7 |
| Ferry | 18 | 0 | 0 |
| Franklin | 3,325 (+16) | 250 (+3) | 47 |
| Garfield | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Grant | 1,294 (+18) | 81 (-5) | 12 (-1) |
| Grays Harbor | 99 (+2) | 11 | 1 |
| Island | 239 | 33 | 11 |
| Jefferson | 53 | 10 | 0 |
| King | 15,603 (+102) | 2,033 (+7) | 658 (+1) |
| Kitsap | 658 (+13) | 56 (+2) | 4 |
| Kittitas | 348 | 16 | 17 |
| Klickitat | 106 | 9 | 3 |
| Lewis | 189 (+3) | 22 | 3 |
| Lincoln | 13 | 0 | 0 |
| Mason | 163 (+6) | 10 | 1 |
| Okanogan | 771 (+16) | 22 | 2 |
| Pacific | 40 | 3 | 2 |
| Pend Oreille | 36 | 5 | 0 |
| Pierce | 5,216 (+89) | 607 (+14) | 129 (+2) |
| San Juan | 28 | 1 | 0 |
| Skagit | 826 (+11) | 83 (+2) | 21 |
| Skamania | 53 | 5 | 1 |
| Snohomish | 5,159 (+16) | 690 (+3) | 190 (+1) |
| Spokane | 3,909 (+46) | 283 (+7) | 61 (+1) |
| Stevens | 92 (+3) | 9 (+1) | 1 |
| Thurston | 640 (+2) | 63 (+1) | 8 |
| Wahkiakum | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| Walla Walla | 454 (+34) | 35 (+1) | 3 |
| Whatcom | 936 (+14) | 80 (+1) | 38 |
| Whitman | 87 (-1) | 1 | 0 |
| Yakima | 10,047 (+30) | 704 (+6) | 205 (+1) |
| Unassigned | 188 (+29) | 5 (+1) | 1 (-1) |
| Total | 58,715 (+542) | 5,744 (+52) | 1,600 (+4) |
The above numbers are provided by the state Department of Health, and some numbers differ from the totals provided separately by county health agencies.
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