The World Health Organization has recently announced the novel coronavirus as a pandemic. This extremely contagious virus has put a toll on many states across the nation, but especially on Washington state.
Earlier in the week, colleges had started to make their classes remote meaning online only. University of Washington, Bellevue College, and Seattle Central College are only some of the few colleges that have made classes remote. As of yesterday, Governor Jay Inslee had ordered a halt to all large gatherings of over 250 people in the Seattle region which had begun to cause public schools with thousands of students to start cancelling classes. The Seattle area has began to take action never seen before to slow the spread of coronavirus. This action has had an immediate impact on the economic and social life of this region.
Something like this is unprecedented and will be constantly disrupting the daily lives of people in the Seattle region, especially Western Washington. Strong actions are being taken to try to contain this unseen virus, however public officials have never seen something like this in their lifetimes and are struggling to deal with this outbreak. But these disruptions could last weeks, maybe even months.
Inslee had banned any gatherings of over 250 people and warned schools to start preparing for potential closures. Just after his speech, many school districts starting closing for at least two weeks including Seattle, Shoreline, and even Bellevue.
This afternoon, however, Inslee has ordered another announcement to have all public and private schools in the King, Pierce, and Snohomish counties closed till at least April 24th due to coronavirus concerns.
This mandatory closure in these three counties are supposed to take effect by March 17th and continue through April 24th. This is Inslee’s latest effort to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus which had killed 31 and infected 457 in Washington state alone. His executive order of school closures should last through April 24th and depending on the outbreak schools could reopen on April 27th or closures may extend longer than expected.
“Our [school] systems need to be prepared for a potentially longer closure in the near term and [without a vaccine] we have to be prepared that this is back in the fall or still with us in the fall,” said state schools chief Chris Reykdal.
Officials are doing everything in their ability to minimize the disruption and rhythm of daily life of the Puget Sound area. Unfortunately, the school announcement comes on the heels of the illness’s increasing medical toll: As of Thursday, King County officially has 270 confirmed cases and 27 deaths- 25 of which were associated with nursing homes and other senior care centers.
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