PORT ANGELES – Clallam County’s health officer says a fourth wave of COVID-19 has started to show locally.
At a weekly COVID-19 briefing Friday, Dr. Allison Berry says there has been a marked uptick in case rates in Clallam County. After many days of one to four cases reported per day, Friday saw eleven cases.
Berry says the latest cases involved mostly children and people travelling outside the area and bringing COVID here. There was also a small workplace outbreak.
“What will really determine how the next couple months go, is what we do right now as a community. If we double down with our masking and our distancing, that we don’t gather indoors and if we get vaccinated as soon as it is our opportunity to do so, we can really blunt this fourth wave and we can make it go away and we can largely get back to normal in a couple months. But if we don’t, if we gather; travel; and stop masking; all those kind of things we will have a full-on fourth wave in our community and it could really set us back. It could close our businesses again, and it will drag on.”
Berry says the first cases of what may be the UK variant have arrived in Clallam County. Three cases came from out of county travel and showed mutations. The variant is much more transmissible.
Berry urges people to get vaccinated as soon as possible. Right now, 40 percent of Clallam County residents have received a first dose. Thirty percent are now fully vaccinated.
Anyone 16 and older with an underlying condition can be vaccinated. Berry says that could include a lot of people.
“Anyone with a chronic condition that puts them at risk of COVID-19 is eligible and there are a lot of chronic conditions that fall under that that banner. So, if you have pretty much any chronic condition at all it probably makes you at higher risk of COVI. So if you have asthma, if you’ve got high blood pressure, any kind of heart condition, diabetes, autoimmune disease, all those kind of things put you at risk of COVID. If you’re obese, if you smoke, all those things put your risk of COVID. So, it’s really important to come sign up and get vaccinated.”
Beginning April 15th, anyone 16 and over will be eligible to get vaccinated throughout the state.