By Pepper Fisher
PORT ANGELES – Clallam County’s health officer Friday restated Covid-19 cases continue to rise to record levels, further straining already over-worked healthcare providers and contact tracers.
Clallam County’s case rate per 100,000 in the last 2 weeks is up to 466, more than double that of our county’s worst outbreak before there was a vaccine. Health Officer Dr. Allison Berry said the largest age group contracting the virus lately are people in there 20s, including 2 large outbreaks stemming from indoor weddings.
“I have had folks ask me where cases are, and truly, cases are in nearly every indoor environment at this point. We’ve had positive cases come from grocery stores, from restaurants, from office buildings, from social gatherings. Some churches certainly have had cases, in our prison system, cases in our long-term care facilities. If you go to an indoor environment and you are unvaccinated and unmasked, you’re at incredibly high risk of getting Covid-19.”
She said there are currently about 6,000 people in quarantine or sick in Clallam County because they’ve been exposed to the virus, nearly 10% of the population.
Berry said only 30% of eligible children 12-and-older are vaccinated, and encouraged parents to get there kids vaccinated to avoid the kind of outbreaks that are shutting down schools in other parts of the country.
She also discussed the topic of booster shots, saying only one group is currently approved to receive a booster by the agency ACIP, and that is people with compromised immune systems. She says boosters will be distributed by your primary health care provider. If you don’t have one, you will be able to get one at your local pharmacy.
“The recommendation from ACIP is that we take attestations at the pharmacy. You don’t have to get a prescription from your doctor. You can just go and say, ‘Hey, I have an immunosuppressant condition’, and get vaccinated. We’re communicating with the pharmacies. We’ve been doing some outreach earlier this week. We’ll do some additional outreach today to make sure they are on board with this recommendation, but you should be able to go through either your primary care provider or through you’re pharmacies to get your vaccine.”