Gov. Inslee: Washington state passes 2,000 COVID-19 deaths, 80,000 cases

Gov. Jay Inslee said Washington has passed 2,000 COVID-19 deaths, 80,000 cases and that the state might be seeing an increase in disease activity.

“We know just how hard these times are for everyone, even if you haven’t had COVID,” Inslee said at a virtual press conference Tuesday, where he talked about the state’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, wildfires and poor air quality.

He presented a graph that shows how many others a person with COVID-19 would infect.

The state Department of Health released a report Friday that said as of Aug. 28 the best estimate for that figure, known as the reproductive number, was 0.86 in Western Washington and 1.22 in Eastern Washington. A number below one suggests COVID-19 transmission is declining.

Inslee said he met with the Washington State University and Pullman communities last week to talk about a spike in cases there and how to prevent that elsewhere.