Data Snapshot
UW Medicine Hospitals:
King County: The county reported 65 new positive cases and 1 new death on Sept. 21.
Washington: The state reported 82,548 cases and 2,037 deaths as of Sept. 19.
United States: The CDC reports 6,786,352 cases and 199,024 deaths as of Sept. 21.
Global: WHO reports 31,132,906 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 962,008 deaths as of Sept. 22.
*Numbers update frequently, please follow links for most up-to-date numbers.
UW Medicine in the News
Seattle Met: A Navy Vet’s Miraculous, Indefinite Recovery from COVID-19
Featuring: Aaron Bunnell, Rehabilitation Medicine; Henry Giang, Occupational Therapist
“Some patients, dubbed ‘long-haulers,’ report symptoms of extreme fatigue, brain fogginess, and chills months after their positive test. And Covid-19 patients are particularly susceptible to post-intensive care syndrome, an umbrella term for persistent physical, cognitive, and psychological complications born from prolonged ICU stays. ‘My concern is that a lot of these patients will not necessarily bounce back, and that you get this infection in your 30s and your entire life is now changed,’ says Dr. Aaron E. Bunnell of UW Medicine’s Department of Rehabilitation Medicine. Inpatient clinics at Harborview Medical Center and UW Medical Center have marshaled expertise in treating critical illnesses and brain injuries to help post-Covid patients achieve some degree of recovery. Many exercises focus on retraining lungs compromised by acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS)—a hallmark of Covid-19 that profoundly affects survivors’ endurance, according to Bunnell. Telehealth appointments often keep those breathing regimens on track.”
The Seattle Times: Coronavirus in Washington: At last, encouraging declines
Featuring: David Pigott, IHME
‘“Everything that is happening that you’ve seen with the Washington state Department of Health is repeated all over the world,’ said David Pigott, an assistant professor at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington School of Medicine, who works on data intake from all over the world. ‘These different data systems are being stressed in a totally unprecedented way — the demand for the frequency of information and the detail of information is something I’ve never seen really required before.’ Pigott said it will be essential — once COVID-19 was ‘settled down’ — to interrogate the systemic problems with data systems worldwide and make pre-emptive changes before the next pandemic so coordination between health departments is easier.
KOMO News: UW researchers discuss effects of COVID-19 on the heart
Featuring: April Stempien-Otero, Cardiology ; Video soundbites from the UW Medicine Newsroom
‘“We do know that the heart contains a receptor, the ACE-2 receptor, that the COVID virus can bind to,’ said Dr. April Stempien-Otero of the Heart Institute. ‘We know in studies, autopsy studies of very sick patients that approximately 50 percent of them have been shown to have virus in their hearts.’ Researchers are trying to figure out how much direct infection COVID-19 is going to affect future cardiovascular disease. In years where there have been higher amounts of influenza, there are higher amounts of heart disease deaths. They say anybody with diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease or artery disease has twice the death rate from COVID-19.”
Tweet of the Week
Results suggest a need to routinely test homeless populations for #COVID19, including those who are asymptomatic, in non-clinic settings.https://t.co/qVBpJyBReB
— UW Medicine (@UWMedicine) September 18, 2020
Also featured in The Seattle Times: COVID-19 testing in King County homeless shelters shows need to create safer conditions in crowded settings.
