Washington Records 90,000th Confirmed Coronavirus Case

WASHINGTON — As of the latest update from the Washington State Department of Health, Washington has had 90,000 confirmed cases of the coronavirus since the pandemic began.

The DOH's update Monday afternoon added 402 new laboratory-confirmed coronavirus cases and 16 deaths, for a total of 90,276 infected and 2,158 dead due to the pandemic thus far.

Deaths were reported in Grant, King, Lewis, Mason, Snohomish, Spokane, Whatcom, and Yakima counties.

The new numbers mean that, across the state, 78 out of every 100,000 Washingtonians have tested positive for the virus over the past two weeks. The state still has a long way to meet its goal of getting that rate to under 25 per 100,000 over two weeks.

Meanwhile, 1,951,407 coronavirus tests have been performed in Washington state. Over the past week, 3.3 percent of tests have come back positive, up from the same time last week. The state's goal there is to test widely enough that that number falls below 2 percent.

The state is, however, succeeding on two of its key metrics: less than 80 percent of hospital beds are occupied, and less than 10 percent of hospital beds are occupied by COVID-19 patients.

Catch up on the latest development:

Inslee: Trumps' coronavirus message "reckless" and "dangerous"

President Trump's recent stint in the hospital for coronavirus treatment, and his subsequent recovery and return to the White House Monday evening have Republicans and the Trump Administration running a victory lap, and claiming that response to the pandemic has been overblown— a message that health officials categorically deny.

Monday Washington Gov. Jay Inslee weighed in, condemning Trump's continued attempts to downplay the severity of the pandemic:

"The president's reckless comments reflect exactly the same nonsense thinking behind his failed pandemic response that increased the risk of COVID, a virus that has caused 210,000 deaths in the United States already — and hundreds more each day. He hasn't learned a thing. Since he tested positive for COVID, more than 2,000 additional Americans have died and downplaying this danger is the best he can do?"

Inslee's statement was echoed by a similar release from Washington's top health official, Secretary of Health John Wiesman:

"The president's tweet is highly irresponsible and makes every public health official's job that much more difficult. COVID-19 is a serious disease that is easily spread. We shouldn't fear it; we should protect ourselves from it. Wear your mask. Watch your distance. Wash your hands. These are the basic facts."

Read more: Inslee: Trump 'Hasn't Learned A Thing' After Catching Coronavirus

UW Medicine Studies COVID-19's Long-Term Effects

UW Medicine is helping to lead a nationwide study to discover more about the long-term impacts of the coronavirus, specifically why some patients experience extremely prolonged symptoms.

Over recent months there have been a growing number of reports of patients who have recovered from the virus, only to return to the hospital later with similar symptoms of fatigue and shortness of breath.

"We want to understand the long-term effects of COVID-19 and the ongoing impact it has on people's lives," UW Professor Kelli O'Laughlin said. "We are still trying to understand which lingering symptoms are to be expected, how long they will remain and what is causing them."

As The New York Times recently reported, some estimates show as many as 1 in 3 coronavirus survivors suffer prolonged symptoms.

Read more: UW Medicine Examines The Coronavirus's Long-Term Effects

Report: Seattle might have the lowest COVID-19 case rate in American cities

There's no doubt the King County has been hit with the overwhelming majority of coronavirus deaths and cases compared to Washington's 38 other counties, but Seattle may actually be handling the pandemic quite well compared to other U.S. cities.

According to the latest report by Seattle Times columnist Gene Balk, new data shows that Seattle has a shockingly low rate of COVID-19 infections. After crunching the numbers, The Seattle Times found that Seattle had just 7.4 coronavirus cases per 1,000 resident— lower than Portland, Oregon's rate of 8.9 cases and leagues below Las Vegas, which clocked in at 76.7 coronavirus cases per thousand residents.

Read more on The Seattle Times' website.

Total coronavirus cases, hospitalizations and deaths 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.