More than half the counties in Washington should return to masking indoors regardless of vaccination status, according to new guidance released by the CDC Tuesday, citing concerns over surging coronavirus cases driven by the more infectious delta variant.
Communities with “high” and “substantial” case rates are impacted by the guidance, which includes 63% of U.S. counties.
Gov. Jay Inslee, as well as Washington state health officials, is expected to give an update on the state's response to the pandemic following the latest recommendations from the CDC on Wednesday. Read more
COVID-19 vaccination rates in Washington state are not increasing quickly enough to get control of the virus, the Washington State Department of Health (DOH) said Tuesday.
According to the DOH, case counts and hospital admission rates have flattened after steadily decreasing in mid-June. As of July 8, multiple counties are experiencing an uptick in case counts.
The delta variant, known to be a more transmissible strain of the virus, is now the dominant strain in circulation, making up almost 58% of the cases that went through genetic sequencing between June 20 and July 3. Read more
Fires in the American West are getting bigger and more dangerous, fueled by a record megadrought this year, and decades of human-caused climate change.
Now, federal researchers are developing a new tool to give fire managers an eye in the sky, and hopefully, more information to battle these massive blazes.
It's called RADR and was designed by senior research scientist Andre Coleman at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, a federal facility in Richland, Washington. Read more
Renton police are warning drivers of a scam that tricks them into paying fake red-light camera tickets.
It arrives as an email and says a driver has gotten a citation from a red-light enforcement camera.
There may be a link where you can pay and some convincing details, like the name of an intersection you regularly use and the time of day you passed through. Read more
Gov. Jay Inslee was in attendance Tuesday as the fusion clean energy facility broke ground in Everett.
Inslee was joined by Everett Mayor Cassie Franklin and Helion Energy CEO David Kirtley, the company behind the new facility.
Helion Energy said the facility would use a zero-carbon non-ignition fusion technology to produce affordable power that is flexible and scalable, bringing long-term jobs in the science, tech, engineering and mathematics fields. Read more
Also see: Seattle local forecast
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