Coronavirus daily news updates, August 2: What to know today about COVID-19 in the Seattle area, Washington state and the world – The Seattle Times

Vaccinations are rising in U.S. states, like Mississippi, where lagging demand left entire regions vulnerable to a delta-driven surge of coronavirus cases. The shift offers a sign of hope, even as the country’s known cases surpassed 35 million this past weekend.

Meanwhile, a survey of data from 10 states shows that more than 1 million doses have gone to waste since the nation began administering COVID-19 vaccines in December. More than 110,000 doses have been destroyed in Georgia, officials there said.

We’re updating this page with the latest news about the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects on the Seattle area, the U.S. and the world. Click here to see previous days’ live updates and all our other coronavirus coverage, and here to see how we track the daily spread across Washington and the world.

7:45 am

‘I should have gotten the damn vaccine,’ woman says fiance texted before he died of COVID-19

Micheal Freedy’s fiancee claims he was not opposed to vaccination but, like many Americans who have yet to get their coronavirus shots, the 39-year-old father just wanted to wait and learn more about how people reacted to the vaccines.

“All we were doing is waiting one year,” Jessica DuPreez, 37, told The Washington Post on Sunday.

Then he died from COVID-19 and now the Las Vegas mother of five gave interview after interview to spread the same message: Get the vaccine. She said Freedy came to the same conclusion early on in the fight with COVID-19 that put him in an intensive care unit in July.

“I should have gotten the damn vaccine,” he texted DuPreez, according to a picture she shared with The Post.

Read the story here.

—The Washington Post

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6:21 am

Catch up on the past 24 hours

A respiratory virus is rising in kids along with cases of COVID-19’s delta variant. The “winter-level volumes” of young patients with RSV have health officials worried about twin outbreaks straining hospitals as kids head back to school.

Vaccinations are rising steadily — but so are infections, and “things are going to get worse,” Dr. Anthony Fauci warned last night.

Evictions are expected to start rising today after a federal ban expired over the weekend, and housing advocates fear millions of people could lose their homes.

Two travelers submitted fake vaccination cards before flying from the U.S. to Canada. They got busted, and Canada isn’t letting them off easy.

—Kris Higginson

Seattle Times staff & news services

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