UPDATED Skagit County’s new COVID-19 cases dropping

UPDATE/EDIT The North Region will move into Phase 2 Sunday, as are seven of eight of the state's regions. In the North Region all four metrics have downward trends. Residents of Skagit County and the North Region of the state’s Roadmap to Recovery from COVID-19 were showing infection at high levels with the coronavirus at high rates based on mid-January data, but infections dropped dramatically the last half of January.

Friday the state Department of Health released its update for Feb. 1-11 Roadmap to Recovery from COVID-19, having moved to bi-weekly reports. That report aggregated second half of January data for the four county North Region the county is grouped with: Island, San Juan and Whatcom counties. SEE Skagit County moves to Phase 2 story on website.

The rate of increase in COVID-19 cases in Skagit County continues to drop. There were 87 new infections Jan. 31-Feb. 6, with three days of fewer than 10 positive tests recorded. That is the lowest one week total since October.

Skagit Public Health Director Jennifer Johnson told the County Board of Health at its Feb. 5 quarterly meeting that the North Region’s metrics are moving downward. Reporting on Skagit County, she said there were an average number of 26 new cases per day in January, down almost 33% from December. On a per 100,000 resident rate, Skagit County new cases were 272.4 over 14 day period. “This is really, really good news,” Johnson said.

“The trend is going downward since the mid-December peak of over 500.”

The 108 new cases Feb. 1-8 after recording 768 cases in January is evidence.

The last state update was Jan. 28 based on early January data. The North Region reported a 69% increase in the trend in case rate. From the end of December to mid-January the four counties cases increased by 69% per 100,000 residents. A 10% regional, aggregate reduction is needed to move into Phase 2.

The other critical metric, the trend in hospital admission rates in the region, increased by 16% in January. The goal is a decrease of 10% or more.

In Skagit County, there were 39 hospitalizations in January. A two week 10% decrease in Skagit County will be no more than 35 new hospitalizations. Through Feb. 8 there are nine February hospitalizations in Skagit County and 13 since Jan. 24.

Johnson was optimistic on this metric’s trend, telling the Board, “Hospitalizations have remained about the same. The good news is that they are not continuing to increase and the state is looking at those as a region and not just by county.”

She reported 20 new deaths since mid-January. Most were long term care residents, as have been 66% of county deaths since March, with the median age of 49 for these deaths.

She highlighted that deaths in younger age groups are disproportionately Hispanic or Latino, that 40% of deaths under 65 are Hispanic or Latino and 36% percent of deaths aged 65-75 are Hispanic or Latino.

In the 98257 zip code, the latest case Feb. 1 increased to 69 the number of people in that area with COVID-19 since last March.

The state changed requirements for moving into Phase 2 of the recovery plan. Regions have to meet three of the four metrics. Two south Puget Sound regions were moved into Phase 2 starting Feb. 1, including the counties of Snohomish, King, Pierce, Lewis and Thurston.