How Seattle acted fast and shook off coronavirus, while New York descended into chaos

It was February 22 and a tropical themed party was in full swing at a one-bedroom apartment in Seattle. Dozens of guests wearing Hawaiian shirts and leis packed into the living room as the cocktails flowed.

Three days later Elizabeth Schneider, 37, one of the guests, started to feel sick. Her temperature soared to 39.4C. But it was the very early days of the coronavirus outbreak, so she just went to bed.

"I just thought I had flu," said Miss Schneider, 37, a bioengineer. "Then I discovered on Facebook a number of people at the party had got sick, about 15. Some went to the doctor but got told they had flu. Doctors weren't testing for coronavirus. They didn't realise it was spreading."

At the time Miss Schneider became ill - with what later turned out to be coronavirus - the omens for Seattle were not good.

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But despite being the original epicentre in the US, Seattle has since experienced nothing like the tsunami of deaths and desperation that later befell New York City.

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There are significant differences between the two cities. New York is larger, with a more dense population, and more travellers passing through. But Seattle had the distinct disadvantage of being first to face the crisis.

What is clear is that Seattle acted remarkably swiftly to impose restrictions. Its politicians, and private companies, never second-guessed public health officials.

https://news.yahoo.com/seattle-acted-early-shook-off-113440274.html

While the Seattle region has seen the number of new cases decrease we're not out of the woods yet.