The Friday, April 17 data from the Snohomish Health District marks the end of the second full week of flattening numbers of new cases and steadily declining numbers of active cases. The total caseload grew by 38 in the past 24 hours, the smallest daily gain since March 25. Friday’s total stands at 2,219 Snohomish County residents who have contracted the virus over the reporting period.

While Friday’s figures add only nine cases to those who have had the disease and recovered, the total for the Monday-Friday period ending today stands at more than 200.

The New Cases per Day bar chart focuses on this single metric, providing a clear visual snapshot of the steadily decreasing numbers of newly infected individuals. Similarly, the Active Cases by Day bar chart tracks the numbers of individuals sick with the virus on each day over the reporting period, and despite daily fluctuations shows these numbers steadily declining. The Number of Hospitalizations chart also shows declining numbers, particularly good news for our healthcare workers. These three charts reinforce the picture of a slowly but steadily retreating epidemic, and provide solid evidence that our efforts to halt the spread of COVID-19 through social distancing are having a positive effect.

The local numbers for April 17, 2020:

— By Larry Vogel

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From Washington State Department of Health

Reopening after COVID-19

We are all looking forward to the state opening up again. We miss our family, our friends, and our way of life. But what exactly happens when the state reopens? It’s too early to know exactly what will happen, but we know we will need to reopen gradually. The governor described the release of the physical distancing interventions as a dial that we will move up and down in response to what the data show us is happening with COVID-19 in the community. It will not be an on/off switch. This means we can anticipate some amount of physical distancing to continue even as we slowly begin to open.

The COVID-19 disease curve has flattened in Washington. This is important because if the disease had spread more quickly, without the physical distancing interventions, we would not have had the hospital beds or ventilators to help everyone who would have needed care. Because of the success of our collective efforts, we have been able to send ventilators and other resources to places in the country that need them more.

But a flattened curve doesn’t mean the epidemic is over in Washington. It just means that we are able to help our very sick people with the amount of resources that we currently have within our health care system. And we have to be very careful, as we open the doors to businesses and our homes, that we don’t send that curve skyrocketing again.

Now that it has flattened, we need the disease curve to go down. We need to see fewer people catching (and spreading) the virus. The less of the virus there is circulating, the safer we will be at work, at school, and hanging out with our friends and families.

As we slowly move to having less community-wide physical distancing, we will need to get really good at identifying the individuals who need to be isolated. The state is working to purchase many more test kits. And then many more of us will need — and be able — to get tested. We will need to stay at home while we wait for results. If we are positive, we will need to remember and be able to report all the places we have been and all of the people we have had contact with over the last several days. And we will need to stay at home until we are well again.

This is a long, slow road, and hard work, but we will open our doors again.