News

More than 40 members of the Washington National Guard have helped clear a backlog of Employment Security cases, leading to more people getting paid their benefits and helping to detect fraud.

A lawsuit challenging the legality of Gov. Jay Inslee's emergency response to the COVID-19 pandemic was thrown out in the federal Eastern District Court of Washington on Tuesday.

The Washington Emergency Management Division is hosting a preparedness webinar at 11:30 a.m., July 21 to talk about how to prepare for all hazards during COVID-19. Topics include financial preparedness, mental health support, online safety and about strategically shopping, not over-buying.

While many across the state are returning to work, hundreds of soldiers and airmen of the Washington National Guard continue to support the COVID-19 response and are entering their fourth month of helping our state. The mission has remained the same; support the state as we get through the worst pandemic since the Spanish Flu of 1918. But some of the jobs they are performing have changed.

Gov. Jay Inslee announced the extension of one proclamation in response to the continuing COVID-19 pandemic. This proclamation extends the state waiver of truck driver hours restrictions through August 14, 2020.

The Health Care Authority (HCA) distributed thousands of phones to Apple Health (Medicaid) clients to access telehealth and community resources. Cell phone companies donated the phones with 400 talk minutes and unlimited data at no cost to individuals.

An update on the COVID-19 response in Washington state will take place viewable on TVW Wednesday, July 15, 2020 2:00-3:00 p.m.

 the continuing effort to collect, maintain and publish the most useful data available to mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic, the Washington State Department of Health (DOH) has published a new death data report that includes different categories of COVID-19 deaths.

Gov. Jay Inslee sent a letter today to the Trump administration requesting an extension of federal authority and funding for Washington National Guard employment in support of COVID-19 pandemic emergency response operations through Dec. 31, 2020.

Gov. Jay Inslee sent a letter today to the Trump administration requesting an extension of federal authority and funding for Washington National Guard employment in support of COVID-19 pandemic emergency response operations through December 31, 2020.

The state Department of Veterans Affairs announced this weekend that an employee at the Washington Veterans Home in Port Orchard and an employee at the Washington Soldiers Home in Orting were diagnosed with COVID-19. The homes are taking additional precautions regarding screening, testing and cleaning.

On Friday, July 10, the Washington State Department of Health became aware that we may have sent COVID-19-related text messages and emails in error. While training staff on a new data-sharing platform for case investigations and contact tracing, we neglected to disable the ability for texts and emails to leave the test environment.  The result is that randomly created phone numbers and emails, with no connection to public health data, may have received messages between late May and early July. The number of texts and emails sent in error is less than 50.

Hoy, el Departamento de Salud del Estado de Washington (DOH) publicó el informe de situación estatal (solo en inglés) más reciente, que muestra que a fines de junio la transmisión del COVID-19 se seguía acelerando en la mayoría del estado.

Employees of the Washington Military Department have been at the center of the response since the beginning, helping the state Department of Health with pandemic planning before COVID-19 was even on the national radar and helping with logistics, operations and planning support as the response became ever critical. Soldiers and Airmen of the Washington National Guard have helped with testing sites, in food banks and, more recently, in a call center where they help track where the virus spreads.

Congress recently extended waivers that permit Washington WIC to offer remote services through September 30, 2020. WIC is the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children.