See below for today's COVID-19 information. Please forward as widely as you would like.
I want to hear from you, contact me anytime.

The City's COVID page is a good one-stop shop for information.

Our Mukiltean of April 22, 2020 is Koah Horn! Koah is on the front lines as a medical assistant at Providence in Mill Creek. She leaves not only her home each day, but also two wonderful kids. She is also a student studying nursing, committed to a future of taking care of others. She deserves recognition for all that she accomplishes in these difficult times!

Let's support Koah and stay home and healthy!

Do you know of someone who deserves to be the Mukiltean of the Day? Nominate them!

It makes sense to start thinking and planning for reopening. However, until reopening happens, Mukilteo continues to stick to the guidelines of the Governor's order, and will continue to educate the public on the issue. If you are concerned about violations, please email cv19violations@mukilteowa.gov to notify us for enforcement/education.

Today is the time to plan for reopening. It is not the time to reopen and rollback the work we have done so far.

Your first plan should be to get your own mask. Your business will need personal protective gear and masks appropriate to your work activities. You might need similar supplies for your customers. Most businesses still probably have 2-6 weeks to get ready, and some of these supplies have weeks-long back orders. Plan now.

Immediately following a traumatic event victims attempt to address five fundamental questions (source here):

What happened to me/others? (shock, disbelief, disorientation, confusion)
Why did it happen to me/us? (fear)
Why did we do what we did during and right after this event? (guilt and feelings of inadequacy)
Why have we acted as we have since the event? (confusion and worry about their sanity and ability to recover)
Will we be able to cope if this event happens again?

The graphic below is about a date-specific type disaster, but other sources presented these stages as 2-5 year process.

Feels like a lot of us are in the disillusionment phase right now. We're not alone, and it's perfectly normal to feel stressed and angry.

We have all done well to limit cases and deaths from COVID. It feels like a distant memory, but our state used to be the home of the highest number of cases in the country. We are now not even in the top ten, and that is thanks to the steps we have all taken- staying home, closing our businesses, and staying apart. I know it has been truly challenging and at times, painful.

There are steps we can take now to prepare ourselves and our city to reopen, slowly and safely. It’s important to hold steady and to keep following the public health guidelines and data that have informed our actions so far. That data is what our state will use to determine safe next steps to re-open the economy.

Be assured, your City government and leadership team is working very closely together, and we are closely linked with Snohomish County, the Snohomish Health District, and other mayors and regional partners on our plan for dialing our economy back up and reopening our businesses as soon as it is determined we may do so safely. This process will be a sector-based, gradual and phased-in approach – with testing, tracing, monitoring and evaluating – to ensure that we don’t trigger a resurgence of COVID-19.

Our Governor hasn't offered specifics or dates, and you can only trust my predictions so far! I know we are all looking for information, so I'll throw this out there. My sense is that residential construction will reopen on May 4 or in the following seven days (I think May 12 is more likely). I think retail might open 3 weeks after that. I think other sectors will open in another 3 weeks after that. September and school reopening might be when we get to large public gatherings again. All of this will restart or be dialed back if cases rise or we see new outbreaks. Part of the challenge for the state is to institute the testing and contact tracing so they can lock down any case outbreaks and be able to keep things open while they deal with new cases.

I will continue to keep you updated, to share all that I know. If this email feels like it's not enough, remember the second half still has all the good federal, state, regional, etc resources that have great, solid information for you.

Mukilteo's Spiro's Restaurant is trying to reopen for take out; they'll be open tomorrow, Thursday, at 11am. Give them a call and help make the day successful for them (menu link). (425) 353-1700. They may also be on doordash and postmates for delivery.

Sort of "in the news," information about antibodies- what we know and don't know- from King County Public Health. Link here.

Last night's PBS documentary is amazing, highlighting Providence as well as Mukilteo's Kaas Tailored. You can watch online here.

The FDA has authorized the first at-home COVID testing kit. Press release and information here.

Remember this site if you're looking to dive into excellent graphs and data, worldwide. The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) is an independent global health research center at the University of Washington.

The Washington State Employment Security Department (ESD) offers daily webinars that cover the application process for unemployment benefits and common mistakes that delay payments. View the presentation slides here. See the schedule and sign up here.

Washington State Superintendent Chris Reykdal will host a webinar
Thursday, April 23, from 12:30 p.m. – 1:00 p.m. PST to outline the current
status of Washington’s schools and answer questions. Register here to attend the webinar.

Student Loan Relief: The Washington Department of Financial Institutions announced today that Washington borrowers with commercially-owned Federal Family Education Program Loans or privately held student loans who are struggling to make their payments due to the COVID-19 pandemic may be eligible for expanded relief. Relief options include: a minimum of 90 days of forbearance; waiving late payment fees; ensuring that no borrower is subject to negative credit reporting; ceasing debt collection lawsuits for 90 days. More information available here.

I met yesterday with Snohomish County Councilmember Megan Dunn and Everett Mayor Cassie Franklin. We have a great partnership started to help launch Councilmember Dunn's advisory group to the County's Economic Recovery Taskforce. I'm optimistic that our team will connect people together for a good conversation about what we need, to help direct our countywide efforts. Business owners, nonprofits, arts communities, etc, who want to participate, email me so I can get you connected either on an advisory group or to fill out the survey.

All parks are closed except for 76th Street/Community Garden entrance to Japanese Gulch for trail access. If you want to access Big Gulch, I would encourage you to park at the library, rather than on the street near 92nd Street Park.

Trails and sidewalks continue to be open for your physical activity! Please respect physical distance of six feet.

All City Facilities closure: City operations will continue via primarily phone, email and online. The public is encouraged to call (425) 263-8000 for assistance with City services or visit our website at www.mukilteowa.gov.

Remember the non-emergency number at (425) 407-3999 or email cv19violations@mukilteowa.gov. If you have an emergency, call 911. (But don't call with questions about the Governor's order and what's open or not). You can also report violations or questions about violations to the State via this link.

For more information on city facilities, see this link.

Current case count is 51 confirmed or probable COVID-19 cases identified in Mukilteo, with no deaths amongst those cases. County case counts are available at this link, updated each weekday at 2pm.

If our ratio of recovery is the same as the County, approximately 33 of those cases should be recovered.

City of Mukilteo COVID-19 page

Snohomish Health District
Washington State Department of Health
Centers for Disease Control (CDC)
COVID-19 Testing Guidelines from Public Health – Seattle & King County
Find information in other languages
Washington State COVID-19 Response

What to do if you are sick: CDC Resources

Watch out for COVID related scams. If you are unsure about whether something is real or a scam, the Justice Department created a central fraud hotline (1-866-720-5721 or disaster@leo.gov). You can also call the non-emergency line at 425-407-3999.