On April 16th, in his weekly press briefing, Health Officer Dr. Jeff Duchin addresses the continued high COVID-19 case count in King County, as well as efforts to equitably distribute COVID-19 vaccines.

“We’re in a standoff with this virus and this is not the time to blink. The growing number of people being vaccinated is undoubtedly limiting damage from these new variants and from our increasing activities. And, the relatively low numbers of deaths currently is a tribute to the effectiveness of vaccination in our high risk adults.

Increasing vaccine coverage ultimately is our best weapon against COVID-19. But at the moment, we can’t rely on vaccine alone to fully counteract the effect of a variant-driven surge in the next month. Depending solely on vaccine right now is like fighting with one hand behind our back when we need a double-fisted strategy. So let’s continue to do all we can to work together to knock this virus out once and for all.”-Dr. Jeff Duchin

For more on COVID-19 data trends, visit our data dashboards: https://www.kingcounty.gov/depts/health/covid-19/data.aspx

For more on COVID-19 vaccine planning in King County: www.kingcounty.gov/covid/vaccine

Originally posted April 16, 2021