Skagit County passed 1,000 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus Aug. 28 with 17 more positive test results over the weekend, for 1,020 cases reported Aug. 31. There were 86 new cases in the 14 day period ending Monday, as reported on Skagit County Public Health’s website, with 92 people now or formerly hospitalized, 629 recovered and 22 deaths.

There were single digit case counts the last nine days, Aug 23-31, ranging from no cases Aug. 23 to eight cases on Aug. 29. Higher positive test results were reported at the Skagit Valley College test site because out-of-county residents testing positive are reported in their resident county statistics.

The rate of increased new cases is slowing. It took 20 days to go from 900 cases to 1,000, while it was 12 days each to increase from 600 to 700 cases and rise to 800 cases from 700.

The County recorded 77.4 cases per 100,000 population the last two weeks, according to the state’s Health Department website, triple the 25 case metric the state has set to show progress. It is finding 2.9% of individuals tested testing positive this past week still 50% higher than the less than 2% state metric. Two hundred twenty seven people are tested per 100,000 residents, well above the statewide average of 176 people testing per 100,000 residents.

There are between 20 and 29 cases in the La Conner zip code area, among the lowest zip code case counts in Skagit County.

The state Health Department reported 74,635 cases through Sunday, with 1,915 deaths. In the United States, there are over six million confirmed cases and 183,598 deaths as of Aug. 31, based on the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center website.