We have added a new feature to our bar charts Friday. Each now includes a dotted trendline, also referred to as a line of best fit, that shows the general pattern or overall direction of the data over the full reporting period. With daily variations and fluctuations, it is sometimes difficult to see long-term trends, and we hope that you, our readers, find the trendline useful in this regard.
The Friday, May 8 data from the Snohomish Health District continues the upward trend in total active cases (red chart), following the long-term trend over the full reporting period (trendline). Active COVID-19 cases in the county now stands at 1,033, the highest single-day count over the reporting period for the third day in a row.
But as we have cautioned in the past, these could be due to increased testing identifying more cases of people who have been infected for some time, and do not necessarily mean that COVID-19 is on a sharp upswing in our area.
At this time the Snohomish Health District is not providing numerical testing numbers for Snohomish County on their daily COVID Case Count site, but we have requested access to these and will report them here as soon as they become available. For reference, the Washington State Department Of Health COVID-19 Information website reports that 235,835 Washingtonians have been tested to date (3.0% of the total population of 7.8 million), of which 93% (219,447) were negative and 7% (16,388) positive. As testing becomes more universal, the results should shed additional light on the various COVID tracking numbers.
By contrast with active cases, Thursday’s one-day spike in new cases added per day (yellow chart) was not repeated Friday, with the figure of 29 new cases more in line with the pattern of the previous two weeks. Note that the overall trend (dotted line) over the full reporting period indicates a steadily dropping rate of daily new cases.
Recovered cases (green chart) shows one fewer than Thursday’s count. While no explanation is provided, it could suggest a relapse, the person moving out of the county, or another scenario. The good news is that the overall trend over the reporting period (dotted line) shows steady increase in recoveries from COVID-19. The number of Snohomish County residents currently under hospital care for COVID-19 (purple chart) increased by four since yesterday, with 59 currently receiving hospital care .
No additional COVID-related deaths (gray chart) were reported in the past 24 hours, contributing to the overall downward trend in the death rate over the reporting period (dotted trend line). Over the full reporting period 115 have died in Snohomish County as a result of the virus, bringing the countywide death rate from the virus to 3.94%.
Note that the Snohomish Health District is no longer providing daily data updates on the weekends, so we will have to wait until Monday for next fresh data set which will fold in the numbers from over the weekend. Our next report will be compiled from these data, and will be available here first thing Tuesday.
— By Larry Vogel
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