Seattle and King County reported 15 deaths from COVID-19 during the past week, down 40% from the week before, while the number of confirmed cases in the region fell to 325 for the week, the lowest total since early March, according to GeekWire’s calculations from Public Health — Seattle & King County data.

It was the fourth straight weekly decline in confirmed cases in the Seattle region, even as the availability of COVID-19 tests has begun to increase.

Across the state, a total of 49 deaths were reported for the week, down nearly 40% from the week before. There were 1,344 confirmed cases in the state for the week. That’s in the range of what the state was reporting in mid-April, before the weekly numbers climbed back above 1,700 in late April and early May, coinciding with the increase in testing. Weekly cases peaked above 3,000 in the state in early April.

Public health officials and business leaders are watching the numbers closely as they move to reopen elements of the economy and bring employees back to work.

Gov. Jay Inslee said Friday that the state is “making good progress” but cautioned that “this does not mean that we will be able to open every county in the state on June 1,” when his current “stay home” order would expire.

“Counties that continue to have large numbers of infections are not in a position to open up stores, restaurants and services safely,” Inslee said in a statement.

Seattle and King County are responsible for 39% of the state’s total COVID-19 cases and 51% of deaths since the outbreak began. However, for the past week, those ratios were noticeably lower: 24% of cases and 31% of deaths, according to our calculations from state and county data.

Washington state, the original epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak in the United States, is responsible for 1.2% of the country’s 1.65 million confirmed COVID-19 cases, and now ranks 19th among U.S. states in total cases reported.

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