COVID-19 dashboard retired by Dept. of Health; new dashboard covers multiple respiratory illnesses

The COVID-19 Data Dashboard that had been in place since the start of the pandemic has been retired, and a new overarching Respiratory Illness Data Dashboard launched this week. 

The Washington State Department of Health (DOH) says that they created the new Respiratory Illness Data Dashboard to allow people to track COVID-19, flu, and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) disease activity by region across the state. 

The new, comprehensive dashboard replaces DOH’s COVID-19 Data Dashboard. COVID-19 data and reports can now be found on the new dashboard site. 

 According to the dashboard as of this week, the amount of hospital admissions for all three of the respiratory illnesses are low statewide.

“We hope the new Respiratory Illness Data Dashboard will inform communities and help guide their personal decision making on prevention measures such as masks and social distancing,” said Tao Sheng Kwan-Gett, MD, MPH, Chief Science Officer at DOH. “Getting up to date on vaccinations and staying home when you’re sick can also help protect you and those around you against the worst impacts of COVID-19, flu, and RSV. We all need to do our part to reduce the chance that our healthcare system could be overwhelmed by respiratory illnesses in the coming months.” 

Officials state that one major change in the new dashboard is the inclusion of data from previous years, providing the public with clearer comparisons between current disease activity and that of years past. 

The Respiratory Illness Data Dashboard will be updated weekly through April 2024. Subsequent update frequency depends on the degree of ongoing activity for COVID-19.