Coronavirus cases see June, July increases in Seattle and King County

Seattle had its highest number of coronavirus cases last Tuesday, June 30, surpassing the daily totals from earlier in the pandemic.

The city registered 74 new cases on that day.

The previous high mark was April 1, with 64 new cases reported that day.

The number of new coronavirus cases had slowed down in late April, and through May, but the number of cases started increasing again in June.

Over the weekend, the daily totals hovered around 60 new cases per day – even with social distancing and mask rules in place.

One reason given for the increased number of positive cases is because more testing is available. But the number of tests on April 1 -- the last spike date -- and June 29 (the latest figure available) are roughly the same.

Greek Row at the University of Washington is partly why Seattle is seeing higher daily totals.

As of today, Monday, 146 fraternity house residents reported testing positive for Covid-19. These residents live across 15 buildings.

The UW Medicine set up a popup testing site this past week near Greek Row and conducted 1,300 tests, according to the University of Washington.

The first cases of the virus were on the Eastside – in Kirkland, especially, gaining a foothold at the Life Care Center nursing home.

Since then, though, it appears the virus has moved to the southern parts of Seattle. The small city of Tukwila, for example, recently had 14 new cases.