Reports of COVID-19 cases in Skagit County from Skagit Public Health continues to be alarming. Coronavirus infections for 2020 rose above 2,000 Monday, when 28 more people tested positive. In November, 758 cases were reported to the Washington Department of Health. Thirty-six people were hospitalized last month, 34% of all hospitalizations this year. There were three deaths, bringing to 27 the number of Skagit residents killed by the virus.

In the past two weeks 337.5 new cases per 100,000 residents were diagnosed, a six-times increase from Nov. 1.

Cases in the county are “going straight up,”...