Due to the sharp uptick in COVID-19 infections from community spread of the coronavirus, all current restrictions on businesses and venues will remain in place till at least January 4th on the governor’s orders.

This means no indoor dining at restaurants and bars; gyms, fitness centers, and cultural centers like museums and aquariums are closed for indoor activity; and retail must limit occupancy to 25%.

This 3-week extension comes with new funding available for businesses impacted by the closures and restrictions.

Business owners can apply for financial support at commerce.wa.gov/bizgrants. Priority is given to those who apply by Dec. 11th. As an aside, this Hilltop Action Coalition was informed that there weren’t many Tacoma or Pierce County businesses that have applied for this grant yet, so share the info with your favorite business owners!

They expect total of 219,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine if it is approved by federal and western state review teams, and about 182,000 Moderna vaccine doses if that one is approved, all by the end of the year.

In our state, there are about 300,000 health care workers who fall in category of high-risk healthcare workers who would be targeted for the first wave of vaccination.

Federal committees are slated to review the Pfizer vaccine tomorrow and the Moderna vaccine next week.

Both vaccines are in production and have shown promising results, but any doses for vaccines which are not approved will be destroyed and not given to the public.

Separate from the state allotment of vaccine is an allotment for Defense Department workers.

Joint Base Lewis-McChord is one of the initial distribution sites for coronavirus vaccine to military personnel.

JBLM Health care workers and public safety personnel will be prioritized for vaccination.

The governor has stated that Washington State will extend Pandemic Unemployment Assistance benefits for people on the system if congress does not.

The department notes that we will continue to see fluctuations in this week’s daily case count reports as a new data management system is being implemented and data is being migrated over, and advises that the 14-day average case count offers the most reliable look at disease rate in our community until the new system is fully launched.

The County’s average cases per day over the last 2 weeks is xxxxxxxxx, and the 14-day case rate per 100,000 people is xxxxxxxxx.

For reference, the figure is recommended to be at 75 per 100,000 to consider bringing back youngest students for hybrid in-person learning at schools, and should be below 25 per 100,000 residents to be considered under control.

The bill passed through committee Monday morning and will head to a vote of the full Pierce County Council on December 15th.

You can give feedback on the proposal to dismantle the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department in the middle of a pandemic by calling 253-798-7777.

Councilmember Pam Roach, who sponsored the bill, can be reached at (253) 798-2222. Roach represents residents of Puyallup, Sumner, Fife, Milton, Pacific, Edgewood, Northeast Tacoma, Southeast Auburn, Browns Point and Dash Point.

All players will undergo additional coronavirus testing, and Saturday’s scheduled game at Oregon may be postponed.

For King County locations visit KingCounty.gov.

For Pierce County locations, visit TPCHD.org/covidtest.

Thur, Dec 10: Church for All Nations

Fri, Dec 11: TCC

No ID is required

Testing runs 10am-3pm.

tests are free and open to anyone

results are available in 3-7 days