The U.S. government extended a ban on nonessential travel along the Canadian and Mexican border on Friday. The announcement comes as politicians have mounted increasing pressure on the Biden administration to ease the ban.
While Canada has recently begun letting fully vaccinated U.S. citizens enter the country, the debate in the U.S. over mask and vaccine mandates has continued. Florida officials threatened to withhold funds to school districts that continue mask mandates and in Texas, the disagreements have escalated into the courts.
We’re updating this page with the latest news about the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects on the Seattle area, the U.S. and the world. Click here to see previous days’ live updates and all our other coronavirus coverage, and here to see how we track the daily spread across Washington and the world.
AMSTERDAM (AP) — Dutch music fans have been banned for months from going to large-scale festivals due to coronavirus restrictions. On Saturday, the festivals came to them.
Hundreds of performers and festival organizers held marches through six Dutch cities on Saturday to protest what they argue are unfair restrictions that have forced the cancellation of summer music festivals and other events.
Thousands of people attended one of the “Unmute Us” marches in Amsterdam, walking and dancing behind a convoy of trucks carrying DJs and sound systems pumping out music.
Italy’s Super taster trying to help COVID sufferers regain sense of smell
By Emma BubolaThe New York Times
PIACENZA, Italy — Michele Crippa’s palate was renowned in Italy’s gastronomic circles, capable of appreciating the most subtle of flavors.
He taught young chefs to distinguish between Parmesan cheeses of different ages — and between milk extracted at different altitudes. He reveled in the perfume of cod smoked over pine cones. In his reviews for Italy’s preeminent food magazine, he discerned the scent of Champagne in raw Nicaraguan coffee beans and tasted traces of green peas in a blend from Kenya.
Then, at 9:40 a.m. on March 17, 2020, Crippa, 32, poured himself a cup of coffee. He tasted only hot water.
Like so many people who have contracted the coronavirus, Crippa lost the ability to smell — so intrinsic to tasting food — and when it returned, it came back warped.
Read the rest of the story about how Crippa helped the sense of smell return here.
Oregon, Oregon State to require vaccination proof to attend games
Oregon and Oregon State became the first Power Five schools to announce they will require proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test for people over the age of 12 to attend football games.
Oregon said the decision was made with public health authorities and “peer institutions in the state,” according to a Friday announcement.
The mandate goes into effect Monday and comes at the end of a week when state officials warned of rapidly filling hospitals as daily reported cases reached record numbers.
Oregon is one of several Pac-12 schools that is requiring students and employees to be vaccinated or apply for an exemption.
The Oregon football team opens its season at 54,000-seat Autzen Stadium in Eugene on Sept. 4 against Fresno State. Oregon State begins its home schedule at Reser Stadium on Sept. 11 against Hawaii.
Earlier in the day, Hawaii became the first major college football school to say it would have no fans in attendance for its opening sports events of the season because of a recent COVID-19 surge. Hawaii’s first home football game is Sept. 5 against Portland State.
The moves come about a week after Tulane in New Orleans became the first school that plays football at the NCAA”s highest subdivision to require proof of vaccine or negative test to attend sporting events.
Tulane’s decision followed a mandate set by city officials that also impacts the NFL’s Saints, but schools officials said they were moving toward instituting the policy on their own.
Parents get coached on how to escape mask and vaccine rules
Alsea School District Superintendent Marc Thielman reads over the language of a federal disability anti-discrimination law in his office on the school campus in Alsea, Oregon. Thielman says parents who oppose Oregon Gov. Kate Brown’s statewide school mask policy can use a part of the law to get an accommodation that would allow their children to opt out of the mandate. (AP Photo/Gillian Flaccus)
Alsea School District Superintendent Marc Thielman reads over the language of a federal disability anti-discrimination law in his… (AP Photo/Gillian Flaccus)More
Across the U.S., school officials, religious figures, doctors and other community leaders are trying to help people circumvent COVID-19 precautions.
Proponents of these workarounds say they are looking out for children’s health and parents’ rights. Others say such stratagems are dishonest and irresponsible and could undermine efforts to beat back the highly contagious delta variant.
Mask and vaccine requirements vary from state to state but often allow exemptions for certain medical conditions or religious or philosophical objections.
In Oregon, Superintendent Marc Thielman of the rural Alsea School District told parents they can sidestep the governor’s school mask requirement by applying for an accommodation for their children under federal disabilities law.
Thielman said he hit upon the idea after the governor’s mandate generated “huge, huge pushback” from parents.
“The majority of my parents are skeptical and are no longer believing what they’re told” about COVID-19, said Thielman, whose district in the state’s coastal mountains begins classes Monday. “I’ve got a majority of my parents saying, ‘Are there any options?’”
Silenced by COVID, mariachi Mass returns to Tucson cathedral
Los Changuitos Feos (Ugly Little Monkeys) mariachi band members Roman Murillo 14, and Cameron Davison 18, play their trumpets as they perform during morning Mass at St. Augustine Cathedral this month in downtown Tucson. After more than a year of silence due to the pandemic, mariachis are back playing Sunday services at the cathedral, where the colorful and sonorous tradition dates back a half-century and fuses Roman Catholicism with Mexican American pride. (AP Photo/Darryl Webb)
Los Changuitos Feos (Ugly Little Monkeys) mariachi band members Roman Murillo 14, and Cameron Davison 18, play their trumpets as they… (AP Photo/Darryl Webb)More
After more than a year of silence due to the pandemic, mariachis are back playing Sunday services at Tucson’s St. Augustine Cathedral, where the colorful and sonorous tradition dates back a half-century and fuses Roman Catholicism with Mexican American pride.
For the hundreds of worshippers gathered in this Spanish colonial church, and other congregations across the Southwest, the unique sound of mariachi liturgy is more than just another version of choir. It evokes a borderlands identity where spirituality and folk music have blended for centuries.
“Syncretism is the reality of this land, the ‘ambos’ reality,” said the Rev. Alan Valencia, the cathedral’s rector, who grew up attending mariachi Mass in “ambos Nogales,” or “both Nogales,” as locals refer to the two cities of the same name straddling the U.S.-Mexican border about 60 miles (100 kilometers) to the south.
“And that’s what we see in these mariachi Masses,” he added. “Faith and culture come together and grow.”
Biden sees dip in support amid new COVID cases
FILE – In this Aug. 20, 2021, file photo President Joe Biden speaks about the evacuation of American citizens, their families, SIV applicants and vulnerable Afghans in the East Room of the White House in Washington. President Joe Biden’s job approval rating has ticked down and Americans are taking a notably less positive view of his handling of the coronavirus pandemic. That’s according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. The survey shows Biden’s overall job approval rating dipping from 59% last month to 54%. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
FILE – In this Aug. 20, 2021, file photo President Joe Biden speaks about the evacuation of American citizens, their families,… (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)More
President Joe Biden is facing a summer slump, with Americans taking a notably less positive view of his handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
Just 54% of Americans approve of Biden’s job performance, down slightly from 59% last month, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds that.
That’s still a relatively solid rating for a president during his first year in office, particularly given the nation’s deep political polarization. But it’s a worrying sign for Biden as he faces the greatest domestic and foreign policy challenges of his presidency so far.
The biggest warning sign for the president in the survey centers on his handling of the pandemic. Last month, 66% of Americans approved of his stewardship of the public health crisis; now, that number has fallen to 54%, driven by a drop in support from Republicans and independents.
That decline in support coincides with other storm clouds gathering over Biden’s presidency, most notably the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan as U.S. troops withdraw and the Taliban cement their control of the country.
The poll, conducted August 12-16, as news of the Taliban’s movement into Kabul was widely reported in the United States, shows Americans about evenly divided over Biden’s handling of foreign policy (47% approve, 51% disapprove) and national security (52% approve, 46% disapprove).
COVID cases surge at Tacoma detention center as ICE brings in more detained migrants
The 240 COVID cases at the ICE detention center
in Tacoma included 20 employees as of Friday morning, according to the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project. (Greg Gilbert / The Seattle Times)
The 240 COVID cases at the ICE detention center in Tacoma included 20 employees as of Friday morning, according to the… (Greg Gilbert / The Seattle Times)More
As the number of COVID-19 cases at the immigrant detention center in Tacoma climbed to nearly 240 since June, a federal magistrate judge wrestled Friday with how to stop an outbreak that has been largely driven by transfers from the southern border, where hundreds of thousands of migrants have arrived in recent months.
Lawyers representing vulnerable detainees have asked the U.S. District Court for Western Washington to issue a temporary restraining order that would forbid Immigration and Customs Enforcement to place people at the Northwest ICE Processing Center unless they had been tested before boarding planes and separated according to whether their results were positive.
“There is no good reason why testing cannot be happening before a cross-country flight,” Cho said. “At this point in the pandemic, it’s quick, it’s widely available. You can pick up a rapid COVID self-test at the corner drugstore that takes 15 minutes for $10.”
In the last 10 weeks, ICE has flown more than 1,000 detained migrants to Washington, according to Eunice Cho, an attorney with the ACLU of Washington, at a telephone hearing. (Hundreds have ultimately been released from the facility, whose current population is about 530). Cho and other lawyers say some appear to have contracted COVID-19 in the process of being transferred.
Magistrate Judge Michelle Peterson said she was struggling with what to do.
“We, obviously, are seeing a severe uptick in COVID cases,” she said. “So why are we adding fuel to the fire by admitting individuals [who] I believe have a test positive rate of 12%,” she said, referring to those coming from the southern border. “It seems like there are no measures being taken to protect those individuals.”
Vaccine hesitancy falling in King County, but only slowly
Gary May, 65, winces as he gets his first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine from certified medical assistant Echo Narkmon at the UW Neighborhood Kent-Des Moines Clinic on Feb. 27. King County has one of the highest vaccination rates of any big U.S. county but percentages vary by ZIP code. (Bettina Hansen / The Seattle Times)
Gary May, 65, winces as he gets his first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine from certified medical assistant Echo Narkmon at… (Bettina Hansen / The Seattle Times)More
Rates of vaccine hesitancy in King County have come down, but not by much, new data show.
According to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington School of Medicine and COVID Collaborative, 7.1% of county adults were either unsure or said they would flatly refuse the shot, down from 7.3% at the end of June. The county has one of the highest vaccination rates of any big U.S. county.
In 28 out of King County’s 84 ZIP codes, vaccine hesitancy had declined by at least one percentage point since one month earlier. The biggest declines were in some areas with high rates of hesitancy — Auburn’s 98002 and Federal Way’s 98003.
But there were 12 ZIP codes where hesitancy had actually increased by at least one percentage point. The biggest jump was in the 98092 ZIP code, which runs east of Auburn out toward Black Diamond. Here, nearly 24% of residents expressed hesitancy toward, or were against, being vaccinated — the highest rate of hesitancy of any ZIP code in King County in the current data.
The 98092 ZIP code is a more rural area of the county, and the data shows that there is a sharp divide between urban and rural places, with urban areas more likely to be vaccinated and rural ones more likely to be hesitant.
The lowest rates of vaccine hesitancy are all in North Seattle. The 98107 ZIP code, which covers the southern half of the Ballard neighborhood, was the lowest, with just about 2% of the adult population expressing hesitancy toward vaccination. Two more North Seattle ZIP codes — 98117 and 98103 — were just a fraction higher.
