Mask up, wash your hands, keep that physical distance.
Even if you are at home, and someone there has a compromised immune system, do all you can to keep your loved ones alive during the pandemic.
Such was Auburn Mayor Nancy Backus’ closing message at the regular meeting of the Auburn City Council on Aug. 3.
According to Monday’s daily pandemic numbers on the King County Public Health website, which Backus read, Auburn is doing worse than than the county as a whole
Here, as of Monday, is where the city of Auburn stood with respect to King County in the COVID-19 stats.
King County overall: 304,242 tested —3,713 more than the previous day — at a rate of 13,665.8 tested per 100,000 residents.
• City of Auburn: 7,829 tested — 94 more than the previous day — at a rate of 10,913 tested per 100,000 residents, nearly 3,000 lower per 100,000 than the county’s rate.
• King County positive results: 15,634, a rate of 702.2 per 100,000 residents, 5.1 percent of all tested;
• City of Auburn: 898 positive cases, a rate of 1,251.7 per 100,000 residents, 11.5 percent of all tested, nearly double King County’s overall rate.
• Hospitalizations countywide: 1,983, or 12.7 percent of all positive cases, at a rate of 89.1 per 100,000 residents;
• Hospitalizations in the city of Auburn: 108, or 12 percent of all positive cases, at a rate of 105.5 per 100,000 residents.
• Deaths to COVID-19 countywide: 656, 4.2 percent of all positive cases, 29.5 deaths per 100,000 residents;
• Deaths to COVID-19 in Auburn: 18, 2 percent of all positive cases, 25.1 deaths per 100,000 residents.
Only in the deaths column, Backus noted, does Auburn have lower numbers than King County in total.
“So, when we continue to tell everyone ‘mask up,’ ‘stay safe,’ stay ‘socially distant,’” Backus said, “it is because the numbers in South King County — and especially in Auburn — are worse than they are as an overall King County number.”
Which is not acceptable, Backus said.
“Auburn is better than that. Auburn deserves better than that. And that is why we will continue to nag at you like your mother or your father might,” Backus said, addressing the audience tuning in on the city’s channel. “Because we care about you. We want you to mask up, and stay safe, so that we can look back on these times a year from now, and everyone is still alive to look back on those times.”
