Health worker: End of COVID epidemic in a large church

A large COVID-19 outbreak in a church that saw 24 Clallam County residents infected with COVID-19 and two subsequent deaths has had no new cases for more than two weeks.

This outbreak is considered over by the county health department.

Although new infections are not expected from this outbreak, some residents are still hospitalized due to the new coronavirus they contracted during the outbreak, said Dr Allison Berry, Clallam County health official.

Clallam County Public Health still has an outbreak in a small church that has had five confirmed cases so far. This outbreak could see more cases, Berry said.

Berry and Jefferson County health official Dr Tom Locke said they would not name the location of an outbreak if they felt they were able to contact all exhibits.

Clallam County has five inpatients, including two in the intensive care unit, Berry said.

Jefferson County confirmed an additional case of COVID-19 on Wednesday; he remained under investigation. Clallam County has confirmed two more cases linked to social gatherings.

Berry noted that Clallam County was starting to have cases of COVID-19 from the July 4 celebrations. Her department will closely monitor these situations, she said, as July 2020 saw a significant spike in COVID-19 cases due to the statutory holiday weekend.

Jefferson County Public Health is relaunching some of its other services that were cut short earlier in the pandemic. It is reopening its offices to the public and restarting appointments for healthy children and other family support services, Locke said.

“We can’t stop doing pandemic stuff, but it can’t be the only thing we’re doing,” Locke said.

The latest data shows that 74.8% of Jefferson County residents aged 16 and over have started getting vaccinated, with 71.6% of them fully vaccinated, while 67.6% of the total population has started immunization and 64.7% are fully immunized, according to the state scorecard.

Clallam County vaccinated 64.8% of residents aged 16 and over with at least one dose, with 60.7% of them fully vaccinated, while 56% of the total population started vaccinations and 52, 3% fully vaccinated, according to the state scorecard.

The two health workers continue to urge residents 12 and older to get vaccinated, and Locke would like to see vaccination levels in the 80% area for the community to have widespread protection, he said. he declares.

“Vaccination is the only really good way to end (the pandemic),” Locke said. “The more people we have unvaccinated, the longer it will last and the more serious it is.”

Clallam County has confirmed 18 cases of COVID-19 so far this month on Wednesday, or about 1.21% of the 1,483 cases reported since the start of the pandemic, according to county data. Fourteen residents died from the disease.

Jefferson County on Wednesday confirmed five cases of COVID-19 so far this month, or about 1.1% of the 455 cases reported since the start of the pandemic, according to county public health data. Four residents have died from COVID, according to reports.

Thirty-five cases were active in Clallam County as of Wednesday. Jefferson County had five active cases.

Both counties are in the moderate risk category for the state with case rates of 64 per 100,000 people over the past two weeks Wednesday in Clallam County and Jefferson County at around 34.48 per 100 cases 000 for the two weeks leading up to Saturday.

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Jefferson County reporter Zach Jablonski can be reached at 360-385-2335, ext. 5, or at [email protected]