{"id":53851,"date":"2021-12-29T10:30:00","date_gmt":"2021-12-29T18:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/news\/covid-19-cases-surge-over-christmas-weekend-in-king-county\/"},"modified":"2021-12-29T10:30:00","modified_gmt":"2021-12-29T18:30:00","slug":"covid-19-cases-surge-over-christmas-weekend-in-king-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/news\/covid-19-cases-surge-over-christmas-weekend-in-king-county\/","title":{"rendered":"COVID-19 cases surge over Christmas weekend in King County"},"content":{"rendered":"
COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations sharply increased over Christmas weekend in King County, according to the county’s COVID-19 dashboard<\/a>.<\/p>\n South King County has the highest rate of COVID-19 with over 10,000 cases per 100,000 residents, according to the dashboard.<\/p>\n Much of this increase can be attributed to the fast-spreading omicron variant, which is now the dominant strain in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)<\/a>.<\/p>\n Cases over the last seven days are up 195% compared to the previous week in King County. Hospitalizations are up 58% over the same time period, according to the King County dashboard. There have been 7,789 new COVID-19 cases since Dec. 23, according to the dashboard.<\/p>\n Deaths from COVID-19 have actually decreased in the last 14 days compared to the prior 14 days, according to the COVID-19 dashboard.<\/p>\n University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluations (IHME) projects cases will only continue to rise in Washington for the next couple of months.<\/p>\n