Washington Reports 5 Deaths, 547 More Coronavirus Cases

SEATTLE, WA — State health officials confirmed 5 new deaths linked to COVID-19 in Washington and 547 new confirmed cases of the disease Tuesday, a significant dip from Monday when the state reported it's highest single-day total yet of 1,101 cases.

Case counts have been surging over the past few weeks, but hospitalizations have only seen a minor uptick. In total, 4,788 Washington residents have been hospitalized at one point to receive treatment for the coronavirus. Just 10 new patients entered the hospital Tuesday and there has been between 30 and 35 people hospitalized on average each day over the past few weeks. That's far below the peak in late March, which saw up to 88 patients hospitalized in a single day.

Part of the reason hospitalizations are not seeing a spike corresponding to the rise in cases could be due to incomplete data: the Washington State Department of Health announced Tuesday that they were seeing a lag processing hospitalizations, and their reported number is likely somewhat lower than the actual number of patients in hospital beds. Another is that an overwhelming number of the new coronavirus cases have been in Washingtonians in their 20s who are not at high risk, something Governor Inslee commented on in his most recent press conference.

"Even if somebody is 25 and feels their immortal the fact is they can go out and transmit this disease to somebody they love or a fellow student who has an underlying health condition," said Inslee. "Wear masks, avoid situations where you can't socially distance, it's really important."

Deaths Tuesday were reported in Benton, Franklin, Skagit, Snohomish, and Yakima counties. Two earlier deaths that had been mistakenly attributed to Pierce County were also reassigned to their respective counties.

The new numbers mean a total of 42,304 cases of the coronavirus have been confirmed in the state since the outbreak began, and 1,404 people have died.

A total of 718,234 Washingtonians have been tested for the coronavirus, meaning roughly 5.9 percent of tests come back positive.

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Catch up on the latest developments:

Pause on new phases extended

None of Washington's 39 counties will be allowed to move into the next phase of Gov. Jay Inslee's Safe Start plan until at least July 28 or possibly later.

The governor announced the move at a news conference Tuesday, citing Washington's recent record-high daily case counts.

"This virus is growing in the state of Washington," said Inslee. "That's painful to say but it is a reality."

Inslee first put a pause on Safe Start applications two weeks ago. It had been set to expire on July 16 until Tuesday's announcement.

Alongside the pause comes a stern warning: that if this doesn't work and that case counts continue to climb, there could be new restrictions or counties could even move backwards phases, closing all but the most essential businesses and services once again.

"People should not be surprised if more gets rolled back depending on the course of this pandemic," said Inslee. "That's going to be influenced by how many people wear masks and how many decide to socially distance."

Read more: Inslee Extends Pause On Safe Start Phase Applications By 2 Weeks

Rethinking how the death toll is reported

Monday night Washington State Department of Health Officials removed more than three dozen deaths from the death toll, after determining that it was not the coronavirus that killed them. Now, they're reworking how deaths are considered in an attempt to make the toll more accurate going forward.

Under the new program, before a death is officially attributed to the pandemic, experts will look over the death certificate and place it in one of four categories:

• Confirmed Deaths, where the death certificate officially lists COVID-19 as a factor or cause of death.
• Suspect Deaths, in which the patient tested positive for the virus, but the death certificate doesn't mention COVID-19.
• Pending Deaths, cases when the death certificate has not been filed or the cause of death has not been determined.
• Non-COVID Deaths, where people tested positive for the virus but were killed in a completely unrelated way, like in a car accident or homicide.

After yesterday's update the state used these metrics to re-evaluate every death that had been attributed to the pandemic and found that 1,301 are confirmed coronavirus deaths, the rest are pending or suspected. Since the pandemic began the state says 65 deaths have been mistakenly attributed to the pandemic. Most of those were natural deaths where the coronavirus was not a factor, but 9 were patients killed in homicides, suicides or deadly accidents.

Read more: COVID-19 Death Toll Drops As Washington Investigates Count

Coronavirus cases by county:

The above numbers are provided by the state Department of Health, and some numbers differ from the totals provided separately by county health agencies.