The buttons sit on a table ready to be handed out to the first volunteers to receive a COVID-19 vaccine at UW Medicine on Tuesday, December 15, 2020 in Seattle. (Photo by AP / Elaine Thompson)
Washington State ranks among the top five with the lowest coronavirus rates in the country.
“We’re 46 below the line,” Dr. Francis Riedo said Monday at EvergreenHealth Medical Center in Kirkland. “There are only a small number of states that do it a little better than us.”
Dr. Riedo specializes in infectious diseases in the hospital, which saw patients with coronavirus at the beginning of the pandemic. Many patients arrived at the hospital in the Kirkland area from the nearby Life Care Center, a nursing home considered one of the first epicenters in the United States.
Kirkland nursing home, which was the first epicenter of the U.S. COVID outbreak, is vaccinated
Dr. Riedo says the ranking is determined by the number of cases per 100,000 residents.
He says comparing Washington’s case indices with other states tells him that the precautions being taken in Washington are working and that they should continue until a significant drop in new positives occurs.
“I think it’s a grandstand that we do as well as we are,” the doctor said. “Can we do it better? You bet. And we have to do it better for a little longer until we control it. “
Riedo says hospitalization rates in Washington are close to the highest figures in history and that many health care providers are already struggling to get enough people to show up for work. But better treatment means there are more people surviving COVID-19.
In fact, the New York Times ICU tracker indicates that there is an average occupancy rate of 71% in Washington state hospitals. This number is higher in populated cities like Seattle.
Riedo believes vaccines remain the best hope to control the pandemic.
Washington state is expected to receive more than 100,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine this week. This includes 57,000 doses of Pfizer vaccine and 44,000 doses of Moderna. To date, more than 30,000 doses have been administered statewide.
Diane Duthweiler of KIRO Radio contributed to this report.