Skagit Public Health staff are 2020’s unsung heros

A year that started normally enough, with kids in school and tourists on the street, suddenly came to a grinding halt in mid-March. The aptly named novel coronavirus blossomed into a pandemic almost overnight, shutting schools, stores, canceling the Tulip Festival and turning spring into one long dark night.

The La Conner school district, from teachers and staff at every level, through students and parents, made an instantaneous adjustment to remote learning. Merchants, inn keepers and restauranteurs suddenly were managing in a tourist town turned ghost town. Residents started eating out of takeout containers, trying to ease the pain of a key La Conner business sector.

The Town closed the Morris Street restrooms and sold its First Street Kirsch property to fill the budget hole from reduced sales tax revenue.

Our local fire departments’ staffs started making runs wearing personnel protective equipment: PPE. They have transported some of the 57 people in the 98257 La Conner zip code who have contracted COVID-19.

That number, like all community data associated with coronavirus cases, is reported because of the tireless work by staff of Skagit Public Health, our county’s health department. They were thrust into the vortex of the pandemic early on, when, at the start of social gatherings being restricted, a Skagit Valley Chorale’s practice became a super spreader event.

Department staff started contact tracing. They have not stopped. The year will end with over 3,000 Skagitonians infected. Some 190 have been hospitalized, almost 50% since Nov. 1. And 37 of our neighbors and family members have died.

In April the County established a “barrier free” public test site, meaning it was open to everyone. In September they restricted tests to county residents and workers. The test site was one of the earliest in the state. It is managed by health department staff, many reassigned from other programs. Almost 200 volunteers make the operation possible.

There might be 40,000 people tested there this year.

While Department Director Jennifer Johnson praises the county’s unified commend overseeing the test site, it is her staff and Public Health Officer Dr.

Howard Leibrand who have worked countless hours day in and day out for almost 10 months.

Every aspect has had to be invented on the fly: creating the test site at Skagit Valley College; moving it from tents to County Fairgrounds structures; quarantining people at a Burlington Motel 6; finding grant funding to keep all aspects of the program going; daily reporting to the state and public; staying in touch and up to date with the state and neighboring county health departments.

The Health Department staff has expanded restaurant programs and are consulting with other business sectors; they are doing the same with the county’s schools.

Probably the most difficult tasks have been at the heart of public health: community education. Their campaign, emphasizing wearing masks, social distancing and gathering only with household members, is basic. It is a mother’s advice. This year it has become controversial, challenged and ignored, leading to additional infections and stress on the county’s healthcare systems and healthcare staff.

Early on, internationally, healthcare workers were recognized as both essential and heroic. At the end of 2020, the staff of Skagit Public Health are the La Conner Weekly News unsung heroes of the year. They deserve much more than our applause and thanks. They will need our continued full support. That is the only way we can rid Skagit County of the pandemic.

We are fortunate that we have the dedicated professionalism of the health department staff to lead and guide us.

We best honor them by following their ongoing advice: wear a mask; social distance; gather only with household members; and wash your hands.

And, stay patient.