PORT ANGELES – Clallam County reported three new COVID-19 positives on Sunday, bringing the province’s total since March and 31 active cases.
Meanwhile, Jefferson County remained relatively quiet with no new COVID-19 positives on Sunday and no new cases over the weekend. Jefferson County has handled a total of 54 cases with nine active cases.
Clallam County had an uptick of cases this weekend, with five reported Friday, eight on Saturday and the extra three on Sunday. They are most commonly transmitted in the province through meetings, said Dr. Allison Unthank, Clallam County Health Officer.
She said some of these cases were traced to a “big party.”
The Jefferson County Commissioners Board will hold its weekly COVID-19 update online today at 9:45 p.m.
Jefferson County Health Officer Dr. Tom Locke said he will discuss what is happening in the state with the COVID-19 response, and he will talk about maintaining the wearing of a face mask and social distance.
“Our compliance has gradually improved, but it’s still not where it should be,” Locke said.
Locke said local health departments, with their authority over food services, have a certain number of levies on obligation where food is provided to the public.
Locke will also talk about face masks and perhaps ban the use of it in workplaces instead of a face mask. He said that face shields are not believed to be very effective in protecting people against COVID-19.
“Face masks are not anywhere near masks,” he said. “They’re actually not much better than no mask at all.”
That Jefferson County meeting can be viewed at tinyurl.com/jeffcomeetings.
In its Friday COVID-19 update, Unthank spoke about a website “COVID-19 Dashboard for Risk Assessment” where people in the past two weeks can get data on the COVID-19 cases of each province, including test rates and infection rates per 100,000 people.
That’s an important number, because school boards look at it when considering decisions about personal or online instruction.
The site is available at tinyurl.com/wacoviddata. The state said there have been some reporting issues lately, but that issues are being addressed.
Clallam County is reported to have an infection rate of 36.8 cases per 100,000, which is considered to be at the moderate risk level, according to the three-part system that Gov. Jay Inslee sketched last week.
However, Unthank said in its Friday briefing that there is about a four- to five-day lag in the figures, so that figure would not yet include the new positive that would be reported this weekend in Clallam County.
The province’s figure is still well below the state average of 134.4 cases per 100,000 people in the past two weeks, just as the King cases 91 cases per 100,000 in the past two weeks.
The number in Jefferson County stands at 9.4 cases per 100,000 people.
