Week 23's COVID-19 Report

Week 23:

Today's post has two objectives: (1) fill my readers in on how the Fatalities Backfill Plot is coming along; and, (2) Present Weekly Cases with a note about Positivity. Below is the latest Fatalities Plot. If you remember, during the last week in July, DSHS switched from plotting Fatalities based on reporting date to using the date of death per issued Death Certificate. Since it takes a few days for the Examiner to go through the pertinent medical records and certify Covid cause of Death, the last two weeks (10 business days) of data will evolve as DSHS receives these. According to the results to date, the peak of the surge occurred from the third to the fourth week of Rollback. This is equivalent to the third and fourth week of July. Because of this lag, we will not be able to say whether fatalities are diminishing or instead reaching a plateau for awhile. Depending on how the week progresses, I may switch from COVID-19 Data to USGS online real-time Creek Levels.