Emergency Manager's Report to City Council on COVID-19 (October 20, 2020)

Andrew Stevens, CEM - Emergency Manager -Eastside Fire & Rescue

Good evening Mayor, Council members, and City Manager.

Thank you again for allowing me the opportunity to provide an update on the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. States are seeing numbers equal to or greater than earlier spikes in the pandemic. Currently, the seven-day average is now more than 58,000 new cases a day in the U.S and just last week 17 states posted new daily records of infections.

The State of Washington is now nearing 100,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19, with King County counting as roughly ¼ of all statewide cases. Sammamish is showing 311 cases, five new since yesterday. Of the key indicators of COVID-19 activity defined by the WA State of Public Health, King County is failing to meet five out of the eight metrics. Most notably King County currently is registering a 14-day average of 92 new cases per 100K, where the target is less than 25.

Fig 1: King County Covid-19 Positive Cases Dashboard – Updated 10.20.2020 1:56 PM

As I mentioned during my last report, there has been no major difference, other than individual behavior, that appears to be the cause of these massive nationwide number increases. Colder weather is driving people indoors, they are gathering in larger groups, returning to schools and places of business, or they are simply growing fatigued from the fight against COVID. So, I urge everyone to please continue making the best possible choices on how they mitigate this continued and ongoing threat.

At the last Council meeting, the Sammamish City Council requested ongoing reports on how the City is spending money on COVID-19 response and recovery. As promised, here is a summary of those expenses to date:

• $207K to ensure continuity of government – primarily IT related telework expenses
• Roughly $12K in personnel overtime
• $94K in emergency protective measures that include PPE, sanitation and hygiene, signage, external communications, and more. Of that $94K, the City will be seeking a FEMA emergency reimbursement of roughly $70K
• $420K in small business grants – which includes $98K in pass-through CARES Act funding from King County
• $315K in non-profit/human services grants

In all, the City has spent roughly $950K in COVID-19 response and recovery, not including the pass-through CARES funds from King County. As these numbers change, Council will continually be informed at each regularly scheduled City Council meeting.

With that, I would be happy to answer any questions you may have. Thank you.