COVID-19 cases top 930

Coronavirus cases rose above 900 in Skagit County last Wednesday, a doubling since the county reached Phase 2 status in June for the state’s Safe Start economic reopening. After Monday there were 934 confirmed cases in the country, a rise of 98 cases in two weeks. Two deaths were reported in the period, both this past week. Monday 86 people were hospitalized and 629 had recovered.

The County is “nowhere close to meeting the metric of 25 cases per 100,000 population,” Jennifer Johnson, director of Skagit Public Health, told the County’s Board of Health at its bi-weekly meeting Aug. 12. That day the County was failing four of the five metrics the Washington Department of Health tracks on its risk assessment dashboard. Through the weekend the percentage of hospital beds occupied in the county has declined, but last week Johnson called the increase in hospitalizations “concerning.”

Young adults, ages 20-39, were 35% of confirmed cases in July, Johnson said, continuing the upward trend of that cohort becoming a bigger portion of cases in the population. She told the Board that the major source of infection is now within households, over one-fourth of cases. With individuals typically infected for at least two days before showing symptoms, the spread among family members is rising.

Social events, and travel, both in and out of county, are increasing as percentage of sources of infection.

Johnson reported “a significant change in July” as more whites in the population are becoming infected, with rates among Hispanics lessening.

County Public Health Officer Dr. Howard Leibrand supported Johnson’s comments, calling any group of over five people gathering outside a “potential source for spreading the virus.” He said being outside is safer, but stressed “if you are outside, you should be wearing a mask.”

Leibrand endorses the state’s Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction’s guidelines for opening schools as the safe path to return to school. Public Health has reviewed the various plans Skagit County school districts are making, each based on their circumstances. “It is difficult for most of the districts to meet space requirements for distance for most of the students. It is difficult to do remote learning and classroom learning [effectively],” he said. “Some districts cannot do opening in ways that can be safe.”

Turning to restaurants, he stressed that COVID-19 guidelines are part of the food code. “There is no place to short circuit the guidelines and have a restaurant open,” he said. “It is not a return of business to normal; it is being open with a very present and dangerous disease in our presence.”

Summing up, Leibrand pointed out that the governor’s guidelines are to protect the public’s health. Speaking to the general public, he said,

“Remember that essential things are essential things and you really need to consider if what ou are doing is essential.”

Commissioner Ron Wesen, chairing the meeting, closed with “It doesn’t look like we are going to be down below the 25 cases anytime soon.”

The next Board of Health meeting will be in the first week of September.