Data Snapshot
UW Medicine Hospitals:
King County: The county reported 326 new positive cases and 8 new deaths on Sept. 28.
Washington: The state reported 579,684 cases and 7,591 deaths as of Sept. 27.
United States: The CDC reports 43,051,429 cases and 689,534 deaths as of Sept. 28.
Global: WHO reports 232,075,351 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 4,752,988 deaths as of Sept. 28.
Numbers update frequently, please follow links for most up-to-date numbers.
UW Medicine COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution Update
Total Vaccine Doses Administered: 368,927
As of Sept. 28, 2021.
UW Medicine in the News
The Seattle Times: Low influenza activity in Washington so far, but don’t skip your flu shot
Featuring: Helen Chu, MD, MPH, Allergy & Infectious Diseases
“Even though students are back in classrooms and some COVID-19 restrictions have been relaxed, there is a chance the season will be mild, said Dr. Helen Chu, an infectious-disease expert and professor of medicine at the University of Washington who leads the Seattle Flu Study. All the COVID-19 mitigation efforts in place — including masking, distancing and new air-filtration systems — will likely go a long way in preventing the transmission of other viral infections in classrooms, Chu said. ‘Also, the fact that kids that are sick are staying home,’ she said. ‘The threshold of what constitutes a healthy child is a different benchmark than what we’ve ever had before.’ Students with any sort of COVID-19 symptoms are being sent home, Chu said, marking a ‘sea change from anything we’ve done in the past.’ The Pacific Northwest could also face an easier flu season compared to other parts of the country because of stricter COVID-19 restrictions, which will likely provide more flu protection for residents here, Chu said.
Q13 FOX: Rare access: A look inside Harborview Medical’s somber COVID-19 ICU
Featuring: Janelle Downey, BSN, RN, CCRN-CMC, Harborview ICU; James Town, MD, Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine; John Lynch, MD, MPH, Allergy & Infectious Diseases
“FOX 13 News got rare access inside the ICU where nurse manager Janelle Downey talked about the desperate fight to keep people alive. ‘If a person’s oxygen starts decreasing, we hear alarms,’ Downey said. During the two hours inside, FOX 13 News saw teams of doctors and nurses congregating and strategizing in the hallways. When we asked Downey how tired she was, her answer is simply that everyone is exhausted. ‘We are working extra hours. We have nurses working 16-hour shifts,’ Downey said. We also happened to run into Dr. James Town as he made his rounds. Town stepped into a room that he’s been going to for weeks now with the same patient inside. It’s one thing to see the sick on a TV screen, but it’s another level of emotions when you witness a human being in person, lifeless. Tubes are sticking out of their throats because they can’t breathe for themselves.”
Tweet of the Week
“Making a protein from scratch on a computer to neutralize a virus sounds like science fiction,” says David Baker, director of @UWproteindesign. But that’s exactly what he and his lab have done in an effort to thwart COVID-19. @nautilusmag @UWMedicine https://t.co/s4zuEBB8LL
— UW Medicine Newsroom (@uwmnewsroom) September 27, 2021
