Clark County Public Health confirmed 68 new cases of COVID-19 on Monday afternoon, the second highest count in the county reported in one day.
The count includes positive tests from the weekend.
The 68 new cases are the second-largest one-day confirmation of new cases for Clark County since May 26, when 83 new cases were confirmed, almost all related to an outbreak at Firestone Pacific Foods in Vancouver.
Transmission at the community level is becoming more common in the U.S., which is registering an increase in the number of cases in most states.
The county now has 826 confirmed cases and 29 deaths. The county has a rate of 15.1 newly diagnosed cases per 100,000 population, well below the state’s target of entering Phase 3 of 25 newly diagnosed cases per 100,000 population.
The influx of cases could halt the Clark County Phase 3 request, which was expected to be decided earlier this week. Clark County has been in Phase 2 since June 5, and applied for Phase 3 on Friday, the first day it was eligible to apply.
Due to increasing COVID-19 rates statewide, Governor Jay Inslee has already stopped all Phase 4 applications for the time being. Phase 4 is the last stage of Washington’s COVID-19 recovery plan.
When Clark County first attempted to enter Phase 2, it encountered a major outbreak in Firestone that delayed the entry of Phase 2 by approximately a couple of weeks.
Washington has 32,253 confirmed cases and 1,320 deaths.
