Data Snapshot
UW Medicine Hospitals:
King County: The county reported 29 new positive cases and 3 new deaths on June 9.
Washington: The state reported 24,354 cases and 1,176 deaths as of June 8. A total of 415,054 people have been tested and 5.9% of those tests have been positive.
United States: The CDC reports 1,956,421 cases and 110,925 deaths as of June 9.
Global: WHO reports 7,039,918 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 404,396 deaths as of June 9.
*Numbers update frequently, please follow links for most up-to-date numbers.
UW Medicine in the News
KUOW: Physician Balances Pandemic and Activism: ‘We need to think of racism as a disease’
Featuring: Estell Williams, MD, Department of Surgery
Photo caption: Hayden Hamilton, Family Medicine; Jennifer Hamilton, Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine
“Thousands of nurses, doctors, and health care workers came together to protest police violence over the weekend in Seattle. One of the organizers shares what motivated her so speak out. My name is Estell Williams. I am a general surgeon at the University of Washington, where I work in emergency general surgery. The march was really to address police violence as a public health emergency. And we thought what better way to amplify that message then as healthcare workers coming together. A lot of times we don’t share all of our experiences with our white colleagues because it feels like it’s a burden to try to explain it.”
Crosscut: The New Normal: When Your Lab Becomes a Center of Hope in a Pandemic
Featuring: Jesse Erasmus, Fellow, Microbiology
“Molecular virologist Dr. Jesse Erasmus is part of a team at UW Medicine developing a vaccine for COVID-19. The team works around the clock in the race to produce an effective vaccine at record speed. More typically, that work would take an average of 10 to 20 years. For Erasmus, focusing on a solution is a way of coping as the world shifts around him.”
The Seattle Times: With More Test Supplies on Hand, Inslee Announces Expanded Testing for New Coronavirus
Featuring: UW Medicine, UW Virology Lab
“The city of Seattle and the state of Washington are expanding testing for the coronavirus, the governor and mayor’s office announced Thursday. The state now has enough supplies for COVID-19 tests that it would expand testing to new populations, Gov. Jay Inslee said Thursday. In a news conference, Inslee said the shift marked a “significant broadening of our testing strategy” that could better detect the new coronavirus around Washington. The expansion also would allow health officials to better monitor Washington’s 39 counties as they lift restrictions on businesses and activities under his four-part reopening plan, the governor said.”
Patch: UW Medicine Reports Least COVID-19 Patients Since Outbreak Began
Featuring: Lisa Brandenburg, President of UW Medicine Hospitals and Clinics
“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.’”
Best Life: Here’s Why This Popular Face Mask Alternative Isn’t Really Effective
Featuring: Paul Pottinger, MD, Allergy & Infectious Diseases
“The CDC recommends wearing a mask made of tightly woven cotton because the fibers are less likely to let anything pass through them. Most neck gaiters are made of polyester and spandex, however, and not super tightly woven. This means that they could potentially let viral droplets through. Additionally, these materials tend to hold onto virus particles for a long period of time.”
