Doctor Robert McElhaney Jr., left, and Jessica Blankenship, conduct drive up COVID-19 swab tests Tuesday afternoon at Mary’s Corner Medical Clinic.
After six months of tracking the spread of COVID-19, Lewis County started reporting cases by zip code this week, a move that comes after the county’s highest weekly total of 72 cases. Previously, the county left out the data point out of concern that sick residents would be too easily identified.
To avoid the issue, Lewis County Public Health and Social Services is identifying each zip code as being in a range of case numbers.
Centralia, zip code 98531, has 200-299 cases, according to a Thursday report. Chehalis, 98532, has the second highest case count, with 100-199 cases. Winlock and Onalaska each have 20-49 cases, and Napavine and Toledo each have 10-19 cases. Curtis, Ethel, and Mossyrock each have five to nine cases. All other zip codes have somewhere between zero and four cases.
Public health Director J.P. Anderson announced the new data, as well as the county’s 19 new daily cases, to county commissioners on Thursday.
“Obviously 19 cases is not great. And last week was our biggest week,” Anderson said. “We’re seeing an increase right now in Lewis County of COVID. We just need to be really clear about that.”
Commissioner Edna Fund commended the decision to break down case numbers by zip code, although she said she’s not happy her district is “in the lead.”
Fund also pointed out that many of the new cases are associated with the multiple outbreaks the county is dealing with in congregate care settings. However, Anderson warned that residents should not dismiss the increase in cases as a congregate care problem. Less than half of the new cases are associated with those outbreaks, he said.
“It’s an important time (to) really work not to minimize those increases,” Anderson said. “We need to be crystal clear … They’re not all connected to outbreaks. We’re also seeing a rise in cases outside of that.”
In a Friday meeting with county commissioners, Chehalis Mayor Dennis Dawes commended the decision to include zip codes as well.
“When we see these extremely high number of positive results, I think we need to make sure to give as much information as we can without crossing the boundary and violating people’s personal rights,” he said.
Although several counties in Eastern Washington have new case counts that put them in the red according to the state’s risk assessment dashboard, Lewis County is one of two in Western Washington with more than 75 new cases per 100,000 residents in the last two weeks.
“It’s us and Grays Harbor right now,” Anderson said.
Despite the spread of the virus, many Lewis County schools are continuing to open. Monday was the first day the county recommended bringing back kindergarteners and some middle and high school students.
As the county braces for a continued increase in cases, they’re also considering hiring an outside organization to take over contact tracing. Currently, contact tracing is conducted in-house by only four full-time staffers, along with two employees helping part-time. The efforts by public health officials to track the spread of the virus means time and resources not spent on other prevention strategies.
And with a positive trend in case numbers, Anderson said contracting with an organization better equipped to conduct contact tracing will be a more sustainable and long-term solution for the months to come.
