Practice Social Distancing:
Changing our behavior is never easy. But keeping more space between yourself and others can help keep disease from spreading. While this is going around, you should stay at least six feet away from other people. Depending on what kind of work you do, you may be able to telecommute or come into the office at a different time than usual to avoid the morning rush. Look at spacing people further apart and having fewer people in a room. It might make sense for you to meet with people individually instead of as a group. You may be able to cancel or postpone large events or offer distance or online options. Limit travel, and, of course, avoid close contact with those who are sick.
Who has to quarantine themselves at home?There’s a lot of information on who has to quarantine at home and when. It can be confusing, but let’s walk through it:
You have a cough and a fever
Get and spread reliable information on COVID-19This blog update is current as of the day it is posted, but information changes rapidly. Please check our website for the most up-to-date info on Washington’s response to COVID-19 at www.doh.wa.gov/coronavirus.
Fight stigma, public panic, and misinformation by getting your information from trusted sources. Listen to guidance from the World Health Organization, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, and your local health department.
Changing our behavior is never easy. But keeping more space between yourself and others can help keep disease from spreading. While this is going around, you should stay at least six feet away from other people. Depending on what kind of work you do, you may be able to telecommute or come into the office at a different time than usual to avoid the morning rush. Look at spacing people further apart and having fewer people in a room. It might make sense for you to meet with people individually instead of as a group. You may be able to cancel or postpone large events or offer distance or online options. Limit travel, and, of course, avoid close contact with those who are sick.
Who has to quarantine themselves at home?There’s a lot of information on who has to quarantine at home and when. It can be confusing, but let’s walk through it:
You have a cough and a fever
- AND you have had a test and actually been diagnosed with COVID-19, you need to stay home away from people for 7 days or until 72 hours after your fever and symptoms are gone, whichever is longer.
- AND you have NOT had a COVID-19 test, but you have had close contact with someone who has had a test and been diagnosed with COVID-19, you should isolate yourself at home for 7 days OR until 72 hours after your fever is gone and your symptoms get better, whichever is longer.
- AND you have NOT been around anyone who has been diagnosed with COVID-19, you should stay home away from others until 72 hours after the fever is gone and symptoms get better. You may have COVID-19 or you may have any number of other respiratory diseases circulating in our communities.
- BUT you have had close contact with a sick person who has been diagnosed with COVID-19. Please monitor your health for fever, cough and shortness of breath during the 14 days after the last day you were in close contact with the sick person with COVID-19. You should not go to work or school, and should avoid public places for 14 days.
- BUT your kid or someone else in your household has a cough and a fever, but has NOT been tested for COVID-19. The sick person needs to stay home until their fever and symptoms have been gone for 72 hours. You and the rest of the household can continue to go to work and school as long as you feel well. There are many potential respiratory diseases that can cause cough and a fever.
- BUT a friend of a friend of yours has COVID-19. You can continue to go to work and school as long as you feel well. If you have not had close contact with someone with COVID-19, you are at low risk of COVID-19.
- BUT you are worried about your older or medically fragile friends and relatives. This is a time to practice social distancing. Refrain from shaking hands, high fives, and hugs, stand 6 feet or more away from other people. See if you can work from home. Wash your hands frequently.
Get and spread reliable information on COVID-19This blog update is current as of the day it is posted, but information changes rapidly. Please check our website for the most up-to-date info on Washington’s response to COVID-19 at www.doh.wa.gov/coronavirus.
Fight stigma, public panic, and misinformation by getting your information from trusted sources. Listen to guidance from the World Health Organization, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, and your local health department.
Learn more about the
2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak
in Washington State.
3/23/2020 updated proclamation
COVID-19 Update, March 22, 2020
Stay Home to Conserve Hospital Resources
Over the last three weeks, we’ve seen a sharp increase in the number of people hospitalized for fever and respiratory symptoms. This week, we saw an increase in the number of adults hospitalized for pneumonia—more even than in the peak of the flu season last year. There are only so many hospital beds. Already, hospitals are postponing elective surgeries so that there is more room for people who get very sick from COVID-19 or who need hospital care for other, unrelated things like heart attacks or injuries. It is so important that we stay home and away from other people. We must stop the spread of COVID-19 before we have more people needing care than we have hospital beds to put them in.
Vroom!
While you are at home, are there young kids in your life who you could reach out to? Babies are born ready to learn. And you have what it takes to help them! Even a few minutes count!
Have you checked out www.Vroom.org? Vroom is a great resource for families of kids up to the age of 5 to make the most of their time with their children, even if all you are doing is staying at home! Vroom has tips to add early learning into the new daily routine - and to remind everyone with a child in their life that YOU already have what it takes to create a bright future for this child!
Here’s a great tip from Vroom: Take a minute today to watch your child. Pay attention to what they look at. How do they move? What do they sound like? What are they learning? Even when you’re busy, responding to what they are learning deepens your connection with them.
Numbers. The latest numbers are on our webpage, which we update daily. As of today’s web refresh, 30,875 people in Washington have been tested for COVID-19. Of those, 1,996 people in Washington have tested positive for COVID-19, and 95 have died of the disease.
Practice compassion. Remember—we’re isolating ourselves to protect our communities and people we love. This is hard, but our friends and families are worth it!
Stay home and stay safe,
Stay Home to Conserve Hospital Resources
Over the last three weeks, we’ve seen a sharp increase in the number of people hospitalized for fever and respiratory symptoms. This week, we saw an increase in the number of adults hospitalized for pneumonia—more even than in the peak of the flu season last year. There are only so many hospital beds. Already, hospitals are postponing elective surgeries so that there is more room for people who get very sick from COVID-19 or who need hospital care for other, unrelated things like heart attacks or injuries. It is so important that we stay home and away from other people. We must stop the spread of COVID-19 before we have more people needing care than we have hospital beds to put them in.
Vroom!
While you are at home, are there young kids in your life who you could reach out to? Babies are born ready to learn. And you have what it takes to help them! Even a few minutes count!
Have you checked out www.Vroom.org? Vroom is a great resource for families of kids up to the age of 5 to make the most of their time with their children, even if all you are doing is staying at home! Vroom has tips to add early learning into the new daily routine - and to remind everyone with a child in their life that YOU already have what it takes to create a bright future for this child!
Here’s a great tip from Vroom: Take a minute today to watch your child. Pay attention to what they look at. How do they move? What do they sound like? What are they learning? Even when you’re busy, responding to what they are learning deepens your connection with them.
Numbers. The latest numbers are on our webpage, which we update daily. As of today’s web refresh, 30,875 people in Washington have been tested for COVID-19. Of those, 1,996 people in Washington have tested positive for COVID-19, and 95 have died of the disease.
Practice compassion. Remember—we’re isolating ourselves to protect our communities and people we love. This is hard, but our friends and families are worth it!
Stay home and stay safe,
COVID-19 Update, March 19, 2020
Good evening!
The state Department of Health wants to keep you as informed as possible about continuing developments surrounding COVID-19, as well as to provide guidance and resources you can share with employees, clients, or customers. If you want to manage your e-newsletter subscription preferences, you can do so here.
Testing for COVID-19
Today we got 8,000 more test kits from the federal government, along with the protective equipment needed to conduct the tests. We are working to send these new supplies to the areas of the state hardest hit by the COVID-19 virus. This will help us test more people who are at high risk of serious disease, like people over age 60 and people with chronic illness. Once the sample is collected by a health care provider, it can be tested by the state Public Health Lab, the University of Washington’s Virology Lab, or commercial labs. Limited supplies to collect samples from people who need to be tested continue to be the major barrier to increasing testing in the state.
Today's Frequently Asked Questions:
Can I get COVID-19 from opening mail or packages? COVID-19 is mostly spread person to person, which is why we are socially distancing ourselves and staying at least six feet away from each other. The virus can live on hard surfaces for a while, but would be very unlikely to live on paper or cardboard for long enough to infect you through the mail.
What all is closed? I can understand how this is hard to track—you are staying home as much as possible, so how would you know what is open and what is closed? For the curious, this website has the full list: https://coronavirus.wa.gov/whats-open-and-closed. But here are the things we get asked about the most:
Practice compassion. Check in on your most extroverted friends! We all need to stay home as much as possible, and some of us need a bit more support in this than others!
Good evening!
The state Department of Health wants to keep you as informed as possible about continuing developments surrounding COVID-19, as well as to provide guidance and resources you can share with employees, clients, or customers. If you want to manage your e-newsletter subscription preferences, you can do so here.
Testing for COVID-19
Today we got 8,000 more test kits from the federal government, along with the protective equipment needed to conduct the tests. We are working to send these new supplies to the areas of the state hardest hit by the COVID-19 virus. This will help us test more people who are at high risk of serious disease, like people over age 60 and people with chronic illness. Once the sample is collected by a health care provider, it can be tested by the state Public Health Lab, the University of Washington’s Virology Lab, or commercial labs. Limited supplies to collect samples from people who need to be tested continue to be the major barrier to increasing testing in the state.
Today's Frequently Asked Questions:
Can I get COVID-19 from opening mail or packages? COVID-19 is mostly spread person to person, which is why we are socially distancing ourselves and staying at least six feet away from each other. The virus can live on hard surfaces for a while, but would be very unlikely to live on paper or cardboard for long enough to infect you through the mail.
What all is closed? I can understand how this is hard to track—you are staying home as much as possible, so how would you know what is open and what is closed? For the curious, this website has the full list: https://coronavirus.wa.gov/whats-open-and-closed. But here are the things we get asked about the most:
- Casinos: Non-tribal card rooms are already banned under the Governor’s order. Tribal casinos are governed and managed by federally recognized tribes and as such are not subject to the Governor’s proclamations. However, many of our tribal partners are taking similar steps to reduce the spread of this disease including the closure of casinos, restaurants, and retail shops, etc.
- Massage services: Currently, massage services are not banned by the Governor’s proclamation; however, nothing prohibits a local public health district from implementing stricter measures.
- Athletics and workout classes: Group exercises, practices, and games are banned.
Practice compassion. Check in on your most extroverted friends! We all need to stay home as much as possible, and some of us need a bit more support in this than others!
COVID-19 Update, March 18, 2020
Good evening! The state Department of Health wants to keep you as informed as possible about continuing developments surrounding COVID-19, as well as to provide guidance and resources you can share with employees, clients, or customers. If you want to manage your e-newsletter subscription preferences, you can do so here.
Many parents are trying to find child care options for their children since the Governor ordered the closure of all Washington schools to increase social distancing measures to prevent the coronavirus from spreading. As much as you can, please try to keep your children at home and postpone play dates for a while. If this is not possible for your family, many child care facilities remain open. We have information on our website to help child care facilities keep kids and families safe from COVID-19. We are asking child care facilities to increase social distancing and maintain their cleaning and disinfection procedures.
Today's Frequently Asked Questions:
Is it true that if you gargle/deep breathe/drink water you can keep yourself from getting coronavirus? No. We can all use a good deep breath and a drink of water right now, but there is a lot of misinformation on social media. You can find good information from the Washington State Department of Health website, the CDC, and the World Health Organization. The best way to keep yourself and others from getting COVID-19 is to stay home as much as possible, wash your hands frequently, and don’t touch your face.
Um, I’m out of toilet paper. Thank you for not hoarding! The short supply in the grocery stores is because we have bought too much and overstocked. Toilet paper will be back as grocery stores re-stock and we all purchase just what we need. In the meantime, use something else and then throw it in the trash. “Flushable” wipes, facial tissues, and paper towels were not designed to break down the same way as toilet paper, and they can cause blockages in treatment plants, plumbing, and septic systems. Please do not flush anything besides toilet paper and what came out of you.
Are we still short on health care supplies? Yes. There continues to be a worldwide shortage of the masks, gloves, and gowns that keep health care safe for patients and providers. We are working with the federal government to increase our supply of masks, gowns, and gloves available to health care workers. As of March 16, in our warehouse, we had 23% of the surgical masks that we needed to fill the requests we received the previous week. We had 67% of the gowns needed to fill the requests from that same time period.
Numbers. The latest numbers are on our webpage, which we update daily. As of today’s web refresh, 17,105 people in Washington have been tested for COVID-19. Of those, 1,187 people in Washington have tested positive for COVID-19, and 66 have died of the disease.
Practice compassion. COVID-19 is a worldwide pandemic. There is no part of the world that is not affected. There are people in all 50 states who have been diagnosed with COVID-19. It is now up to each of us to keep ourselves and our communities safe.
Good evening! The state Department of Health wants to keep you as informed as possible about continuing developments surrounding COVID-19, as well as to provide guidance and resources you can share with employees, clients, or customers. If you want to manage your e-newsletter subscription preferences, you can do so here.
Many parents are trying to find child care options for their children since the Governor ordered the closure of all Washington schools to increase social distancing measures to prevent the coronavirus from spreading. As much as you can, please try to keep your children at home and postpone play dates for a while. If this is not possible for your family, many child care facilities remain open. We have information on our website to help child care facilities keep kids and families safe from COVID-19. We are asking child care facilities to increase social distancing and maintain their cleaning and disinfection procedures.
Today's Frequently Asked Questions:
Is it true that if you gargle/deep breathe/drink water you can keep yourself from getting coronavirus? No. We can all use a good deep breath and a drink of water right now, but there is a lot of misinformation on social media. You can find good information from the Washington State Department of Health website, the CDC, and the World Health Organization. The best way to keep yourself and others from getting COVID-19 is to stay home as much as possible, wash your hands frequently, and don’t touch your face.
Um, I’m out of toilet paper. Thank you for not hoarding! The short supply in the grocery stores is because we have bought too much and overstocked. Toilet paper will be back as grocery stores re-stock and we all purchase just what we need. In the meantime, use something else and then throw it in the trash. “Flushable” wipes, facial tissues, and paper towels were not designed to break down the same way as toilet paper, and they can cause blockages in treatment plants, plumbing, and septic systems. Please do not flush anything besides toilet paper and what came out of you.
Are we still short on health care supplies? Yes. There continues to be a worldwide shortage of the masks, gloves, and gowns that keep health care safe for patients and providers. We are working with the federal government to increase our supply of masks, gowns, and gloves available to health care workers. As of March 16, in our warehouse, we had 23% of the surgical masks that we needed to fill the requests we received the previous week. We had 67% of the gowns needed to fill the requests from that same time period.
Numbers. The latest numbers are on our webpage, which we update daily. As of today’s web refresh, 17,105 people in Washington have been tested for COVID-19. Of those, 1,187 people in Washington have tested positive for COVID-19, and 66 have died of the disease.
Practice compassion. COVID-19 is a worldwide pandemic. There is no part of the world that is not affected. There are people in all 50 states who have been diagnosed with COVID-19. It is now up to each of us to keep ourselves and our communities safe.
The Washington State Department of Health has established a call center to address questions from the public. If you have questions about what is happening in Washington, or how the virus is spread, please call 1-800-525-0127. Phone lines are currently staffed from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m, seven days a week. Please note that this call center can not access COVID-19 testing results. For testing inquiries or results, please contact your health care provider. For more information and up to date details go to https://www.doh.wa.gov/Emergencies/Coronavirus.