Confirmed COVID-19 cases grow to 10 on Peninsula

PORT ANGELES — Four new cases of the COVID-19 virus were confirmed in Clallam and Jefferson counties Saturday, including the first two known to be passed on through community transmission.

The positive test results bring the total number of confirmed cases as of Saturday up to 10 on the North Olympic Peninsula, with six in Jefferson County and four in Clallam County.

Dr. Allison Unthank, Clallam County health officer, said one patient in Clallam County is a woman in her 40s and the other is a woman in her 60s. One patient was exposed to another patient who had been previously diagnosed. Another woman was exposed to the virus in King County.

Neither woman is hospitalized.

“They are both home and doing well in isolation,” Unthank said. She also said one of the previous patients has completely recovered from the virus.

Jefferson County Health Officer Dr. Tom Locke said the two new cases discovered on Saturday include a woman in her 70s and a woman in her 20s. One happened from out-of-county contact and the other was a local transmission.

Neither of the Jefferson County women are hospitalized.

Locke warned both of the new cases in Jefferson County were discovered from tests taken a week ago. Jefferson County has more than 220 tests pending, so he expects numbers to start rising, especially of cases being locally transmitted.

“We anticipated this. It’s moving through the community. We’re in the early stages of in-county transmission. Expect more and more of these cases,” Locke said.

There are no updates on the weekend on the total number of COVID-19 tests that have been done.

Locke said people can go to https://tinyurl.com/JeffCoHealth to get updates on COVID-19 tests. The website for Clallam County is http://www.clallam.net/coronavirus/index.html but it is not updated on the weekends.

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