UW Medicine Reports Least COVID-19 Patients Since Outbreak Began

SEATTLE, WA — UW Medicine says they're now treating the lowest number of coronavirus patients they've seen since the outbreak began months ago.

Friday, officials for UW Medicine confirmed that, across all of their hospitals and clinics, they were treating just 18 coronavirus patients. Some hospitals reportedly don't have any patients at all, and others just have one.

Hospital leaders say it's a great sign of progress, and want to tell everyone that, if they've been afraid to seek treatment because of the pandemic, it's a good time to go out and see a doctor.

"This is the right time to come in if you have been delaying care. We have many measures in place to keep it safe," said Lisa Brandenburg, President of UW Medicine Hospitals and Clinics. "We test all patients before surgical procedures. We test all inpatients."

Brandenburg says their hospital system is about 80 percent back to pre-pandemic volumes. At the peak of the pandemic, most hospitals were limited to treating the most urgent cases. As the curve has flattened however, elective surgeries returned and treatment is easier to get.

UW Medicine isn't the only group seeing progress: most counties across Washington have been making progress curbing the number of new daily coronavirus cases. It's one of the key metrics used to determine whether a county can move to the next phase of Gov. Inslee's Safe Start plan. Last week King County was approved to enter a modified "Phase 1.5" and reopen some businesses in limited capacity. Meanwhile, the states two other largest counties, Pierce and Snohomish, were approved to enter full Phase 2 because of their success slowing the spread of the coronavirus.

Despite the progress the state has made, health care officials say everyone should remain cautious, keep practicing social distancing, wearing masks and keep getting tested, or risk another spike in new cases.

"It’s very important that we continue to stay vigilant. The measures that we put in place helped us flatten the curve in Washington state and have given us these good results, so we have to continue them," said Brandenburg.

As the pandemic wanes the state has managed to receive a more stable supply of coronavirus testing kits, and they're now urging everyone with coronavirus symptoms to get tested immediately. Earlier, the state had asked that high-risk patients be prioritized for testing when tests were scarce.

To make getting tested easier, King County has announced the opening of 15 new free testing sites from Seattle to Auburn.

A full list of all 15 locations can be found here.