Lewis County Public Health & Social Services (PHSS) is wrapping up its COVID-specific incident management team (IMT), but COVID-19 has not disappeared, nor is it likely to: in the most recent reporting week, seven people died of the disease in Lewis County.
In the previous reporting week, there was one death due to COVID-19.
“Our IMT has had our last meeting, so we’re no longer meeting in that weekly fashion establishing COVID-specific objectives. And we’re doing our best to wrap it into our normal business,” said PHSS Director JP Anderson during a Wednesday morning meeting of county department directors.
Despite the spike in deaths, case numbers continue to stay low, with the county only recording 16 new cases from March 18-24. Sixteen new cases were also reported in the previous week, March 11-17.
One new hospitalization was reported for the March 18-24 timeframe, as opposed to five hospitalizations from COVID the previous two reporting weeks.
“We've got 16 cases to report from the previous reporting week, one new hospitalization, which is a great number. Only one, that's fantastic,” said Anderson.
The total number of deaths from the disease in Lewis County lags slightly behind the state Department of Health dashboard’s total number of deaths in the county, Anderson said, because the county is investigating each case individually before reporting them as COVID deaths.
“New deaths to report, unfortunately. That puts our total now confirmed deaths in Lewis County at 234 for folks that are also following the state dashboard. You'll see that number at 245,” Anderson said. “We are confirming and investigating each one of those to make sure we have a sign-off by the attending physician that COVID-19 is the cause of death.”
While cases may be less frequently reported in the county due to the popularity of at-home testing, the Lewis County Mall still has its drive-up COVID testing site open Sunday through Saturday from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Online registration is available and encouraged through the PHSS website. People getting tested are encouraged, but not required, to bring ID and proof of insurance.
