SEATTLE (AP) — The Washington Department of Heath reports the number of COVID-19 cases has topped 12,000 across the state while the total number of people who have died has reached at 652.
The agency on Monday reported nearly 300 newly confirmed cases and 18 additional deaths from the disease.
Public Health – Seattle & King County on Monday announced 112 confirmed cases of COVID-19 among people living homeless or working in homeless services sites, including two deaths.
A man in his 60s who was staying at King County’s isolation and quarantine facility in suburban Seattle also has died, officials said. The death will be investigated by the King County Medical Examiner’s Office.
The man moved to the Kent motel, which the county bought for isolation and quarantine for people with symptoms of COVID-19 but no place to isolate, on April 17, officials said in a news release.
Seventy people are now staying there, officials said.
“We are all saddened by the death of our guest,” said Leo Flor, director of the King County Department of Community and Human Services and Patty Hayes, director of Public Health – Seattle & King County in a statement. “We will continue to work around the clock to ensure that all King County residents, including those without a home, have a dignified place to be when receiving care for this virus.”
Additionally, state Attorney General Bob Ferguson is suing a property-management company for allegedly violating the coronavirus-related emergency moratorium on evictions, the Seattle Times reported.
It’s the first lawsuit filed to enforce the emergency orders issued amid the coronavirus pandemic, according to a news release from his office. Filed in Pierce County Superior Court, the lawsuit says JRK Residential Group Inc. violated Gov. Jay Inslee’s emergency order by issuing notices to pay or vacate this month to 14 tenants in Tacoma.
The filing contends the violations ran afoul of Washington’s Consumer Protection Act, according to the news release. Those notices were issued to tenants at The Boulders at Puget Sound, a 700-unit apartment complex operated by the company.
Inslee’s moratorium, which has drawn criticism from some landlords, bars landlords from issuing such notices while the order is in effect.
