Here is your Mayor's update, some COVID-19 information, some other useful information! Please forward as widely as you would like.
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I decided to look back at our case counts in Mukilteo. Our numbers are small, but you can see how it sort of mirrors the County data. The County daily case counts are on the left, and Mukilteo is on the right.

The City of Mukilteo, in partnership with the Chamber of Commerce, is holding a Business Recovery Town Hall on September 1, 8:00-9:00am with Congressman Rick Larsen, and a panel of speakers from business associations and other experts. Email comments@mukilteowa.gov for zoom link information.

For another business event opportunity, join Edmonds College on August 25 from 6:00-7:00 pm for a candid look behind the curtain with (Mukilteo's) Kaas Tailored, Scratch Distillery, Rogue Boutique, Kelnero Bar, and the new Edmonds Waterfront Center as they share how to boost your resilience, relevance, and value when the outlook seems bleak.
Join this inspiring look into the lives of local entrepreneurs who have transformed their thinking and their practice. Bring your questions. There will be an audience Q&A. Find out more here.

Volunteering has benefits, even if it has to be virtual! (University of Washington article)

The Seattle Times covers some tips for online learning for kids.

Yesterday Governor Inslee issued an update which now requires agricultural employers to test their workforce broadly when health officials identify an outbreak that passes certain thresholds, and includes a link to an updated agricultural COVID-19 requirements document with general provisions for all worksites and work-related functions. In addition to the governor’s proclamation, Secretary Wiesman concurrently directed an order to Gebbers Farms, following a significant outbreak among their operations and the subsequent deaths of three of their Okanogan employees. You can find additional information here.

Science Magazine: The pandemic stilled human activity. What did this ‘anthropause’ mean for wildlife?

Nature: ‘We felt we had beaten it’: New Zealand’s race to eliminate the coronavirus again.

New York Times: Experts have said that the likelihood of catching the virus from food — especially frozen, packaged food — is exceedingly low.

Kaiser Health News: Shortages of personal protective equipment and medical supplies could persist for years without strategic government intervention, officials from health care and manufacturing industries have predicted.

StatNews: What day is it, or what month is it? Many people have joked that they’ve lost their sense of time during the Covid-19 pandemic — but the underlying idea, known as time blindness, is a real phenomenon. This link is to a very interesting video!

The Washington Post has a good overview of the top vaccines in development.

American Indians and Alaska Natives have been hit harder by COVID-19 than the U.S. white population and have been more likely to become infected by the novel coronavirus at a younger age, a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report showed on Wednesday. (Reuters article)

Maybe neck gaiters aren't so bad after all... the Duke University scientists respond to the reaction about their study (Seattle Times).

The New England Journal address how to reopen primary schools in this article. As they say, "the safest way to open schools fully is to reduce or eliminate community transmission while ramping up testing and surveillance. Adults would need to maintain social distance from each other and engage in other measures to reduce adult-to-adult transmission: for example, wearing personal protective equipment (PPE), closing school buildings to all nonstaff adults, and holding digital faculty meetings."

Roche and Regeneron link up to develop COVID-19 antibody cocktail (Reuters).

Science Magazine covers the race to develop antibody treatments to COVID, research that might curb the pandemic before a vaccine is even successfully developed.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has taken a number of steps to accelerate the development of COVID-19 treatments. This article describes them.

Oleander extract as a COVID treatment is dangerous and "would end up killing people." (MedPage)

Snohomish County saw initial regular unemployment claims decline by 14% last week, down to 2,617 from 3,040 the week before.
The reduction was consistent with the statewide results, according to the state Employment Security Department. During the week of Aug. 9-15, there were 21,942 initial regular unemployment claims statewide (down 0.9 percent from the prior week) and 589,631 total claims for all unemployment benefit categories (down 3.7 percent from the prior week).

There seems to be some evidence coming from the southern hemisphere, where flu season is in full effect, that among those that have COVID, those that had a flu shot didn’t get as sick and recovered quicker. So the flu shot didn’t prevent getting COVID, but it helped the body react to a COVID infection differently than without a flu shot. Just something to keep in mind now that flu shots are available.

Face shields protect the wearer from particles but do not sufficiently inhibit the travel of particles from the wearer. Only face shields with a cloth attachment to inhibit particles meet the workplace face covering requirement.

The State Department of Health (DOH) has put together some helpful information on what to do if you suspect you have COVID-19, including tips for isolating and waiting for test results

All guidance can be found here. There are new updates for museums, agritourism (like u-pick fields), bowling and outdoor recreation.

The Kiwanis Coolest Pet Contest is underway! Check it out here and cast a vote for one of these cuties. It is a student scholarship fundraiser, and votes are a bargain price of $1.

Lighthouse Park, Edgewater Beach and 92nd Street Park reopened on May 5. Bathrooms are open only at Lighthouse Park 7am-7pm. Playgrounds remain closed until either Phase 3 or when we have full staffing and ability to clean daily.

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. Government services are not slated to reopen until Phase 3 of the new reopening plan, which is mid-June at the earliest.

For more information on city facilities, see this link.

Current case count is 108 confirmed or probable COVID-19 cases identified in Mukilteo (2 new cases), and 89 individuals who are recovered (4 new cases).

County and city case counts are available at this link, updated each weekday at 2pm.