Pepper Fisher

PORT ANGELES – There was a spike in Covid cases over the weekend in Clallam County, causing new concerns among health officials.
Nine new cases have been reported since Friday’s EOC Covid briefing. Health Officer Dr. Allison Berry Unthank says what’s different about these cases is a start  of community transmission of some of those cases that had originated from people leaving town and coming back infected.

But most concerning of all is a new outbreak in a local long-term care facility. Dr. Unthank says it’s just 3 cases so far, and her team is working to keep it that way.

“You know, I think one of the big challenges that we’ve seen nationwide, and we’re seeing this locally as well, is many of our long-term care facilities were short-staffed before the pandemic. And so there’s not a lot of wiggle room when we start having to quarantine staff, or have any staff who are positive. So certainly I think that’s been a strain. The facility’s been working really hard to follow all the protocols that we’ve been working on with them but, you know, it’s always very stressful when we see any positive cases in long-term care.”

Along with the spike in numbers comes a jump in Clallam County’s cases per 100,000 in a 2-week period, which today stands at 36, up from 29 on Friday.

Does the Doctor think the county is in danger of a major surge at this point?

“It certainly has the risk of increasing in the coming week. I don’t think right now we’re on track to go into the high level, skyrocket up, but we we certainly anticipate more cases in the coming weeks.”