While Clallam and Jefferson counties are seeing a growth in new COVID-19 cases, the number of new positives on the North Olympic Peninsula is not nearly as bad as the rest of the state or nation.
Much of the U.S. is seeing a rapid surge of new cases with 100,000 new cases being reported each day on Friday and Saturday. Washington had more than 1,000 cases Friday.
However, the growth of new positives is not happening at the same rate locally. Clallam and Jefferson counties combined reported three new cases Friday and Saturday.
The age range of COVID-19 cases is updated each Friday on the Clallam County Public Health webstite. (Keith Thorpe / Peninsula Daily News)
Clallam County Public Health’s chart of the location of COVID-19 cases in the county is updated each Friday. (Keith Thorpe / Peninsula Daily News)
Clallam had two new positives, family members of prior positives, reported Saturday.
That gives Clallam County 286 positives since March and 14 active cases. Two patients with actives cases are in the hospital while one hospitalized patient was released last week, said Clallam County Health Officer Dr. Allison Unthank.
Two of those hospitalizations involved cardiac complications, Unthank said in her Friday weekly COVID-19 update.
The county’s infection rate was listed at 30 per 100,000 over the past two weeks on Friday, in the low end of the moderate-risk category.
Jefferson County Public Health charts the age range of those confirmed to be infected with COVID-19 on its website. (Keith Thorpe / Peninsula Daily News)
Jefferson County reported one new case Friday and none Saturday.
Jefferson has 88 total cases since March and 14 active cases. That county’s infection rate was last reported at 21.94 per 100,000 over two weeks. That number will be updated Monday, said Jefferson County Health Officer Dr. Tom Locke.
Unthank said via video in her weekly briefing that while Clallam County is seeing a growth in new cases, “overall, the good news is our rate is slightly increasing. We’re not seeing anywhere near the [infection] rate as the rest of the state and the country.”
In fact, the last listed infection rate for the state of Washington was over 100 per 100,000 over a two-week period (112) on the state’s COVID-19 dashboard, nearly quadruple Clallam’s infection rate. Spokane is vastly worse, with an infection rate of 217 per 100,000 over a two-week period. That is seven times worse than Clallam’s infection rate.
“The county as a whole has better rates than 90 percent of the state,” Unthank said.
Locke agreed. “They really have a serious problem going on there,” he said of Spokane
Locke said that with aggressive testing catching a lot of cases, keeping the rate at 20-25 per 100,000 is actually good.
“With our aggressive testing, 25 is about the lowest we can get it,” he said.
Locke also said the problem in much of the rest of the country does affect the Peninsula.
“People think this is off in the Midwest. People travel. The United States is connected from an infectious disease standpoint,” he said.
Unthank said that while some Clallam cases this summer were tied to social gatherings, the latest new cases, many of which are in the Sequim area, seem to be tied to travel.
“We’re not seeing the community transmission,” she said.
Unthank said that if people continue with the universal masking and maintaining social distancing and not traveling to COVID-19 hotspots “we can avoid what the rest of the country is experiencing.”
Unthank also said some vaccinations may arrive in Clallam County as early as December. However, she warned those first vaccinations will be exclusively for health care workers and that it will be likely early next year before vaccinations are available for the general public.
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Sports Editor Pierre LaBossiere can be reached at plabossiere@peninsuladailynews.com.
