Standing for justice as we keep our community safe from spread of COVID-19 

Crossposted from Public Health Insider  Public Health – Seattle & King County shared perspectives from our local leadership about George Floyd’s tragic death, yet one more in an endless string of violence perpetrated against Black people in our country, and answered questions about participating in protests while reducing the risk of spreading COVID-19.  Story:     In recent days, community members joined protests locally and across the country in response to the death of George Floyd and so many Black lives that have been taken through senseless, violent and racist acts. This racism and hate comes… Read More

Resources available to identify and address COVID-19 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have put together a useful website to support people during the coronavirus pandemic. It includes a list of possible symptoms to watch out for, such as fever, coughing, fatigue, and shortness of breath. View the site here.  The website shares how anyone can have mild to severe symptoms, but that older adults and people who have severe underlying medical conditions like heart or lung disease or diabetes seem to be at higher risk. Additional symptoms can include:  Muscle or body aches  Headache  New loss of taste or… Read More

A message from the Exec: Let’s keep working together to make it right

On Sunday, following his Friday message to County employees, Executive Constantine shared this message on Twitter with the people of King County: A message from the Exec (Preface: I’m sorry for the many people who gathered to peacefully, earnestly protest injustice – an act of civic responsibility of the highest order – only to have the day & message hijacked by violent opportunists. This isn’t about the rioters.) We all know what we saw in Minneapolis. A court will make the legal determination, but we all saw black man’s life – George… Read More

White folks being anti-racist: How do we become useful?

Written by Richard Gelb, Environmental Public Health Planner, Department of Public Health, ProTech17 The systems of whiteness and racism in society have been more greatly revealed through the COVID-19 emergency. We see the historic and ongoing racial differences in the quality, affordability, and access to housing, health care, jobs, education, transportation, and technology resulting in disproportionately higher risk of infections for people of color. King County’s Antiracist White Action Group (ARWAG), one of several official Employee Resource Groups, helps white employees train themselves away from harmful behaviors and become more poised to… Read More

Tech Tip: Intentional email from KCIT vendor KnowBe4 featured security tips for phishing scams 

On Wednesday, May 27, 2020, all King County email users received the first email from authorized King County vendor KnowBe4.com about phishing scams, titled “KnowBe4 Security Tips – Social Engineering Red Flags #1: Sender.”  King County Information Technology (KCIT) has partnered with KnowBe4.com to regularly provide information and training to employees about phishing scams and other email red flags. KnowBe4.com is a leading industry expert in security awareness training. Its mission is to help employees to make smarter security decisions, every day, and keep the County’s and employees’ information secure.  Employees are… Read More

Featured Job: Paramedic Intern 

Salary: $21.02 Hourly  Location: Various Locations throughout King County, WA  Job Type: Career Service, Full Time, 40 hrs/week  Department: DPH – Public Health  Job Number: 2020NH11380  Division: Emergency Medical Svcs  Closing: 6/30/2020 11:59 PM Pacific  Learn more about this position or view all available positions. 

PeopleSoft system is available now

The PeopleSoft system is available now. Thank you for your patience!

PeopleSoft Emergency Outage today starting at 10:30 a.m.

An emergency outage of the PeopleSoft system is required this morning. The outage will last for approximately one hour. We will send a follow up notice advising when the system is available. Thank you for your patience.

Phishing attempts around unemployment claims 

State cybersecurity experts report recent phishing attempts that use official-looking messages allegedly from the state Employment Security Department to try and acquire employee account credentials. To the left is an example. Click here to view it larger.  As the state Office of Cybersecurity says: “Phishing emails are increasingly sophisticated and hard to detect. They may appear to be from people or organizations you know and trust. They may even contain information from previous emails threads so that it appears to be part of a continuing conversation.”  The state warns:  Be suspicious of any emails that… Read More

Public Health publishes new COVID-19 key indicators dashboard 

Crossposted from Public Health Insider  Our latest dashboard, Key Indicators of COVID-19 Activity in King County, Washington, provides a snapshot of several useful indicators, or metrics, related to COVID-19 activity in our community and the impact on our health and our hospitals.  We talked to Dr. Jeff Duchin, Health Officer for Public Health – Seattle & King County to learn more about what these indicators mean.  Why are these indicators useful?  JD: The key indicators provide an overview of how we are doing in several important areas: disease activity, testing (specifically, PCR testing), and healthcare… Read More