By Pepper Fisher
PORT ANGELES – Widespread anger over Thursday’s new bar and restaurant mandate from Health Officer Dr. Berry prompted Undersheriff Ron Cameron to close the door to in-person participation at Friday morning’s weekly Covid-19 briefing. A large protest outside and inside of the courthouse caused Cameron to end the briefing early.
“We will have to cut this meeting short due to the crowd that’s forming outside. I’ve been notified by my Chief Criminal Deputy that it would be wise to cut it short. I wanted to take a couple of questions, but we’re going to have to cut the briefing short this morning.”
Protesters were demanding to be let in, but Cameron pointed out that the briefing has always been virtual and never broadly open to the public because of Covid protocols. What was different about the meeting was that Dr. Berry attended virtually rather than in person.
The numbers she reported are dire. Another 100 cases since Thursday. Roughly 750 new cases in the last 2 weeks. 21 hospitalized, with 19 of those in Olympic Medical Center. And sadly, one more death.
“Unfortunately, this most recent death was of a woman who was severely ill. She decompensated very quickly, and she unfortunately experienced a significant delay because there were no beds to accept her. That is the reality in our community right now. And that is really what is forcing us to take action to reduce transmission in this community.”
The action taken Thursday was to restrict indoor service in bars and restaurants to people who can prove they are vaccinated, effective Saturday. Berry said outdoor and takeout service is not included in the order.
She said these businesses were being singled out because they are the only businesses where people take off their masks indoors, and they have been a major source of outbreaks.
“As we planned for this rule, we did speak to business owners, and we heard loud and clear that capacity limitations are unsustainable for businesses. That they can’t stay open if they move to 25 percent or 50 percent capacity. One of the possibilities for how to reduce transmission was to close these high-risk venues, and we don’t want to do that. So the goal was to keep them open but to make them safer, and that was why we moved to a vaccine requirement.”
Dr. Berry has made it clear that relieving strained hospitals and keeping schools open are her priorities during this unprecedented surge in cases, and she says we are already seeing students testing positive in this first week of school.
“We have not seen transmission in the schools. The kids are not getting it there. They are getting it at home. But there is so much covid in our community that we are seeing positive kids already in this first week of school, which is an incredible strain on our school district and an incredible strain on the public health system and the healthcare system that is participating in testing and tracing those cases.”