A COVID-19 swab test is dropped into a platic bag following a scheduled drive-up Tuesday afternoon at Mary’s Corner Medical Clinic.
Lewis County Public Health and Social Service announced eight new confirmed COVID-19 cases in the county Thursday.
Lewis County now has a total of 251 cases. Five of the new cases are under 20 years old, one is in their 20s and two are in their 30s. No new deaths, hospitalizations or recoveries were reported Thursday.
Four of the new cases were in County Commission District 1, two were in district 2 and two were in district 3.
“I feel like the house is on fire in terms of number of situations where there is spread of infection within either in congregate living situations or workplaces or places where people gather, so there’s a few things going on that we’re still working on. We’re still investigating,” said Lewis County Health Officer Dr. Rachel Wood in a meeting with the Lewis County Board of Commissioners Thursday afternoon.
Ed Mund, emergency preparedness coordinator for LCPHSS, noted that the county is at 76 new cases per 100,000 population for the past 14 days, putting the county in the state’s “high-risk” category.
Lewis County has closer to 80,000 residents, meaning that the county has actually had fewer than 76 cases in the past 14 days.
That rate of new cases compared to the county’s population means increased restrictions on some groups, Mund noted.
“Our long-term care centers and assisted living centers and places like that, their benchmarks for phase 1, 2, 3 with regards to visitation are married to the cases per 100,000 benchmarks and these key metrics for the whole county,” Mund said.
Long-term care center visitation reopening has three phases separate from the statewide phased opening system.
The rate of cases per population also affects school districts’ ability to offer in person or extracurricular activities.
“As long as Lewis County is in the high range in the rate per 100,000 … it really puts a damper on schools or long term care centers being able to expand their horizons,” Mund said.
J.P. Anderson, director of LCPHSS, noted that the state has had issues with its data related to COVID-19 during August, particularly in negative testing. The state announced this week it had changed the way it counted negative tests.
“Right now we are subject to bad data and incomplete data from the state of Washington,” he said.
On the topic of data, Commissioner Gary Stamper brought up a common request for Lewis County Public Health — that they release the number of confirmed cases per zip code in the county. He expressed some frustration at a perceived lack of transparency by Lewis County.
“The media, whether you listen to it or you don’t listen to it, is very polarizing right now, and there’s a lot of conspiracy theorists out there,” He said. “I want to provide as much information as we can. I don’t want to be painted as one of those counties that’s suppressing information.”
Anderson said the county still doesn’t have enough cases to provide case numbers by zip code while keeping patients’ privacy intact as is required by law.
Wood said knowing where a person lives who has a confirmed case of COVID-19 is not always a sure bet to avoid contracting the illness.
“I will say that 7 percent of the people who tested positive had no symptoms whatsoever. If we could all be mindful that unfortunately the person that you’re speaking with could be infected with COVID, wherever they came from,” she said.
“Whether you’re meeting them on a trail in the back country or whether you’re meeting them at the gas station. … Just be aware that you should always be thinking that the person you’re interacting with could have COVID, just for everyone’s safety and health.”
