PORT ANGELES – The trend in our Covid-19 numbers appear to be changing for the worse.
10 days ago, we reported 99 cases in Clallam County. Today, it’s 136, with 14 new cases since Saturday. 10 days ago, we were around 32 cases per 100-thousand population over the previous 2 weeks. Today, that number has risen to about 53.
Health Officer Dr. Allison Berry Unthank thinks we could be nearing a turning point.
“One of our hopes was that we would really plateau at this kind of ’30 cases per hundred thousand in the last 14 days’, and then start to turn back down again, and we’re seeing kind of the opposite and that’s certainly quite concerning. We’re in a very tenuous position as a community, where we could really go either way. We could flatten the curve again, or we could continue to rise and that really just depends on all of our people and how well they follow the social distancing recommendations.”
Unthank says it’s large gatherings that are still leading to the majority of new cases, but it’s too late now to be blaming Fourth of July parties, which contact tracing showed fueled a previous spike in cases.
“Unfortunately, we’re also seeing additional gatherings. So we’ve seen parties of 30 or more people show up, in our most recent contact tracing, which is really unfortunate at this point in the game, to see that kind of gathering going on. Because it’s a really risky thing to do. And now that we’re seeing community transmission, the likelihood, if you go to a gathering that size, that you’ll run into someone with covid-19 is higher. So we’re really, really hoping people will stop gathering in those numbers.”
Unthank recommends our social circles should be 5 people or less.