How to Keep Kids Safe from COVID this Summer: A Checklist for Parents

July 8, 2022.Reading time 10 minutes.

We’ve put together a checklist for you to make it a little bit easier to track all the current recommendations about keeping kids protected from COVID. We hope it can make the difference between COVID spoiled plans and the summertime fun we all need and deserve.

Monkeypox update: Local transmission of the virus in King County likely

July 6, 2022.Reading time 13 minutes.

A recent case of monkeypox was identified in a King County resident that did not report recent travel, suggesting that the virus was transmitted locally. Anyone who has symptoms of monkeypox or has been in close contact with someone with monkeypox should be evaluated by a healthcare provider.

JUNETEENTH 2022: A Message to Community

June 16, 2022.Reading time 7 minutes.

President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, January 1, 1863, declared enslaved Black people in Confederate-controlled areas were free. However, it wasn’t until “Juneteenth” – June 19, 1865, two and a half years later, that Major General Gordon Granger and approximately 2,000 Union troops arrived in Galveston Bay, Texas to announce the war was over and slavery had ended.

King County transitions COVID-19 testing sites to community partners

May 27, 2022.Reading time 5 minutes.

Sandwich board-style sign that reads " Free COVID-19 Testing"

We are excited to announce that community partners will be taking over operation of the Tukwila, Federal Way and Auburn COVID-19 testing sites in June, following a brief closure during the transition process.

Alert: bird flu in Washington can harm backyard poultry and wild birds

May 25, 2022.Reading time 8 minutes.

Eight counties in Washington state, including King County, have reported backyard poultry infected by bird flu. The risk for bird flu to spread from birds to people is very low. The risk of it spreading from human to human is also very low.

Community partnerships for food security

May 9, 2022.Reading time 7 minutes.

Public Health’s Food Insecurity Screening Community of Practice works with healthcare and community partners to help ensure all communities have what they need to be healthy. One example of this work to address food insecurity is the partnership between Sea Mar Medical Clinic and the White Center Food Bank to open an on-site food pantry.