The latest charts and graphs from the Washington Department of Health, the Washington COVID Risk Assessment Dashboard and Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center show that while the situation in Washington state regarding the rising incidence in COVID-19 cases is not as severe as other notable national hotspots, the overall trends show a similar pattern.

The latest overview tables from the Washington DOH provide a snapshot as of July 4 showing the critical measures of cases, deaths, hospitalizations and testing in our state.

New cases per day according to the DOH Dashboard show a continuation of the resurgence in daily reported COVID cases. Note that the gray bars on the left indicate preliminary data and do not necessarily reflect the final numbers.

This is further fleshed out by a similar chart from Johns Hopkins, which folds in timelines for major policy changes and includes a seven-day rolling average trendline. Note that daily new cases remained relatively stable in the weeks following the first counties to reopen, but within four weeks the numbers began rising, until as of July 5 the state set a new record daily high of 592 cases.  The interactive version of this chart provides additional details on associated policy changes (e.g., which counties have opened on which dates) and numbers of new and cumulative cases. View it here.

Interestingly, numbers of COVID-related deaths are not following a similar pattern, as shown in the State DOH chart here:

The corresponding chart from Johns Hopkins includes a seven-day rolling average trendline, which also bears this out.

Hospitalizations are also trending slightly upward statewide, as the current DOH chart of daily numbers of hospitalized COVID patients shows.

Comparing demographics, patterns of the past few weeks continue to hold with the total case count skewed strongly toward younger age groups, deaths disproportionately hitting older age groups, and hospitalizations in between.

Testing activity in Washington State has been on the rise. The two charts below from the State DOH and the Washington Risk Assessment Dashboards respectively show that our testing numbers show 4.8 percent positive, well in excess of both the 2 percent target and the Phase 2 guideline of fewer than 25% per 100,000 over two weeks.

Another view of these numbers is provided by the following chart from Johns Hopkins showing a major surge in positive cases during the last weeks of June, and also comparing positive with negative test results.

Due to the limitations of our web-based publishing system, we can provide only static snapshots of these charts. Interested readers are urged to examine the interactive versions online, which provide a wealth of additional in-depth information. Find them on the Washington Department of Health Dashboard, the Washington COVID Risk Assessment Dashboard and the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center.

Look for our next COVID update highlighting trends in Snohomish County this weekend.

— By Larry Vogel