By Ken Stern 

County and state get COVID-19 Phase 3 pause

A positive look at negative numbers

 


A reprise came from Gov. Jay Inslee Tuesday as he announced a two-week pause on counties movement in the Healthy Washington: Roadmap to Recovery reopening plan, despite almost half the state’s counties exceeding metrics for new coronavirus cases. Inslee again deviated from the state’s guidelines of his reopening plan for Washington’s public and economic health.

While Inslee’s news release says, “the decision was made in consultation with the Department of Health, and reflects current data suggesting Washington’s fourth wave has hit a plateau,” new COVID-19 hospitalizations in Skagit County and new cases reported by the state health department throughout the state show otherwise. New Skagit County cases more than doubled in April, to 494, a 130% increase from March’s 215 new cases. The state health department reported 267.5 new cases per 100,000 residents May 2, far above 200 cases per 100,000 population.

Likewise there were 34 new April hospitalizations, well above the five per week state metric.

Politicians and healthcare professionals are betting on the population getting vaccinated to beat back the pandemic. “We are at the intersection of progress and failure, and we cannot veer from the path of progress,” Inslee said Tuesday. “Our economy is beginning to show early signs of growth thanks to some of our great legislative victories and we know vaccines are the ticket to further reopening – if we adhere to public health until enough people are vaccinated.”

County Public Health Officer Dr. Howard Leibrand agreed with the governor’s decision. “The biggest thing he is looking at is the negative effects on our mental health and the negative effects on civility in general. I don’t think that going from Phase 3 to Phase 2 would have done the trick. What will do the trick is to get vaccinated,” he told the Weekly News Tuesday.

The county’s health department’s emphasis is encouraging people, especially in the 18-39 year age range, to get vaccinated. “We are having pop up clinics at the high schools. We are messaging through the school systems,” Leibrand said of the county’s efforts to make vaccinations as convenient as possible. They will reach out to 12-15 year olds, once they are eligible for vaccination.

He noted that there are few transmissions of new cases within the schools or at sports competitions. Instead, the sports related new cases are in social interactions, such as on buses. “Kids are much more likely to acquire the disease outside of school, not inside of schools,” he said.

“We can do phase 3 things safely,” he emphasized. “You just have to do them safely. There is nothing magical about Phase 3. The magic comes with wearing your mask and getting vaccinated. We were almost at the point at keeping this under control.”

“The other little issue that is not so little is that we have seven or eight people in the hospital suffering from the infection,” he said. “They were not vaccinated. How much clearer does that have to be?”

Coronavirus variants are now 60-80% of new cases, Leibrand pointed out, and their transmissibility is higher. The vaccine works for the variants, another reason to get vaccinated.

He advocated that encouraging “the younger generation to get vaccinated is appropriate and to continue to wear your mask and following infection control guidelines not only sets an example but protects yourself from a breakthrough case.”

Finally, he said, “don’t meet indoors if you can meet outdoors.” He wants us to get and stay outside for our social interactions.

 

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