County ‘in trouble’ with rising COVID-19 cases

“Skagit County, we’re in trouble. COVID-19 cases are rising at an alarming rate, and we need your help to reverse the trend and keep us out of major trouble.” That is Skagit Health Officer Dr. Leibrand’s first sentence in an Oct. 8 Skagit County press release with the title phrase “startling upward tick in COVID-19 cases.”

This is a drastic turnaround from an Oct. 5 statement when new cases were dropping toward a bi-weekly total of 25 per 100,000 residents, the metric for advancing in the state’s Safe Start: Reopening Washington plan

“Our rates are going up dramatically with 27 confirmed cases...