One year ago, a King County man was the nation’s first known COVID-19 death

One year ago this weekend, on Leap Day 2020, what was then the nation’s first known coronavirus death was announced here in the Puget Sound.

Seattle-King County Public Health stated that the death was a man in his 50s at EvergreenHealth Medical Center in Kirkland. Public Health Officer Dr. Jeff Duchin also noted a cluster of COVID-19 cases at Life Care Center in Kirkland, the greatest number of cases seen in one spot in Washington to that date.

“It’s a perfect storm for a novel virus to come out without vaccine, without population-based protection, and without an effective therapeutic agent,” said EvergreenHealth’s Dr. Frank Riedo at the time, who was on the frontlines for the state’s first cases.

The Kirkland death was thought to be the first COVID-19 death in America at that date. However, later post-mortem reports of San Francisco Bay Area deaths from earlier in February turned out to reveal coronavirus infections.

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In that Feb. 29 press conference, county leaders said they did not think things were dire enough to warrant shutting down large events, but they did warn everyone to stay six feet apart and wash their hands diligently. They also were hopeful the virus would not spread beyond King and Snohomish Counties.

Unfortunately, it soon became apparent that the new virus was indeed moving throughout the state rapidly.

That initial Kirkland Life Care Center outbreak was the beginning of the wave of pandemic shutdowns here in Washington. In the days following the announcement, schools, events, and businesses began having to close their doors. For a couple of weeks, the waterfront suburb of Kirkland became the national epicenter of coronavirus.

The federal government later fined Life Care $611,000 for failing to properly manage the outbreak, which rose to more than 150 cases among residents, staff, and visitors within a month, and led to more than three dozen deaths.

In the year since that first announcement, nearly 5,000 Washingtonians have died of the virus, and more than 300,000 cases have been reported statewide. Nationally, COVID-19 has taken the lives of more than 500,000 Americans.

Phrases like “social distancing” that were new to some residents that first day have become a routine part of life. Small businesses have struggled to hang on as they have had to stay closed, or open at a limited capacity. Students and teachers, office workers, and even the State Legislature have learned to conduct their business over video. Across Washington, people have stayed home, forgoing visits with family members and friends, for a year.

Now, 12 months later, there is an end in sight, though health leaders say the road to get there will still require months of being careful.

To date, the state has given out more than 1.4 million vaccine doses, and is administering more than 75% of the state’s supply, on average. Shipments from the federal government are increasing, but still falling far below the numbers required to vaccinate everyone eligible in Washington’s Phase 1B, Tier 1.

After three coronavirus waves, state health officials said the newest numbers have been trending in the right direction in recent weeks. However, State Health Secretary Dr. Umair Shah warned residents on Thursday not to let their guards down, reminding them that if the numbers look low, it is because they got used to the peak being twice as high in the third wave.

“According to our most recent modeling report, the estimate of how many people have active COVID-19 infections right now is only slightly lower than the peak estimates in the first wave of disease in late March, and the second wave in mid-July,” said Shah. “So in other words, we’ve made a lot of progress with this third wave, but we still need to drive this virus into the ground.”

While new variants in the state have health officials concerned about a fourth wave, they stress that continuing to take COVID precautions could help Washingtonians circumvent that wave and ultimately get back to something resembling “normal” within the next several months.

Duchin provided this ray of hope during a Seattle-King County Public Health press conference on Tuesday.

“Through vaccination, we will be able to return very close to our pre-COVID existence, hopefully, by sometime this summer or fall,” Duchin said.

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