By Erin Freeman | Lynnwood Times Staff
Recent spikes in COVID-19 positive cases are leaving Snohomish County officials uncertain about the ability to move the county into Phase 3 of the Washington state Safe Start reopening plan, with a potential risk to revert to Phase 1.
Last week, Snohomish County officials delayed the county’s application for a variance to advance into Phase 3 of Governor Jay Inslee’s Safe Start plan. The county was originally looking at June 26 as the earliest date to apply for the next phase, but county officials decided to postpone the application due to a recent spike in COVID-19 cases.
“Unfortunately, we are not going to be able to do that today,” explained County Executive Dave Somers during a June 26 press conference. “I know if we applied today, we would be denied.”
On May 29, Governor Jay Inslee announced his “Safe Start plan’ – a four-phase county-by-county approach, characterized by specific criteria required to move from counties through each phase. As counties demonstrate that they meet requirements, they can then apply to move into the next phase. Each county applies to State Secretary of Health John Wiesman, who reviews COVID-19 activity and the county’s individual ability to respond to the virus.
The criteria developed is updated daily in a risk assessment dashboard that includes COVID-19 activity, testing, healthcare system readiness, case investigations and contact tracing, and the protection of populations at higher risk.
COVID-19 Data Metrics
The risk assessment metrics are not intended to be hardline measures but are regarded as target numbers. If one target is not fully achieved, Wiesman can determine if actions taken with a different target may offset the overall risk of transmission. Wiesman also has the authority to return a county to an earlier phase if identified as necessary.
New cases: The target for new COVID-19 cases is 25 or fewer per 100,000 residents over 14 days. According to Snohomish Health District (SHD) data on the county’s COVID-19 activity and capacity between June 2 and June 20, the county was below the 25 case maximum, sitting at 23.6 cases per 100,000 residents.
Yet as recently reported, county officials observed a spike in cases and as of June 30, the county is no longer meeting the goal with an average of 36.2 cases per 100,000 over the last two weeks.
Testing ability: Washington state counties must also show adequate testing ability, with a goal of administering 50 times the number of confirmed new cases per day. Positive test results should stay under two percent each week.
As of June 30, Snohomish County is reported to be nearly three times below the testing ability, with a value of 18.5 tests administered for every positive case. Newly confirmed positive test results are 2.7 times above than the threshold with a value of 5.4 percent.
Contact tracing: The state then asks counties to hold a goal to contact 90 percent of cases within 24 hours of a positive lab test result, as well as reach all that person’s contacts within 48 hours of the result.
“The goal is to contact 90% of positive cases within 24 hours of receiving COVID-19 test results,” wrote SHD spokesperson Kari Bray in a June 30 blog post. “We are at 43% in the June 2-16 report.”
While the county isn’t currently meeting the requirements for cases, testing, and contact tracing Snohomish County is on track in terms of healthcare system readiness.
Hospitalization: As of June 30, 3.7 percent of hospital beds are occupied by COVID-19 cases – meeting the goal of staying under 10 percent occupancy. In total, 76.7 percent of beds are occupied by patients – below the 80 percent goal maximum. According to SHD reports, the county’s deaths and hospitalization numbers have stayed flat.
High-risk population transmission: Snohomish county also must demonstrate that high-risk populations are being protected, with two or less non-household cases where transmission occurred in a living facility or institutional setting at zero. According to case count data recorded between June 2 and June 20- that number is zero.
Monitoring and assessing the situation
Snohomish County officials are concerned with the recent spike in COVID-19 activity, attributing it to increased social activities and a decrease in social distancing. If hospitalization and death numbers begin to spike adjacent to continued increases in COVID-19 cases, the county risks moving from Phase 2 back into Phase 1, stated Somers during a press conference on June 30.
“A week
or so ago, I would have thought it was a remote possibility. I don’t feel that
way anymore,” said Somers. “I think going back to phase one is clearly one
of the options that could be in front of us, watching what happens around the
country with places that have opened up too soon, and they’re seeing huge
spikes. If we see that sort of thing here, and we’re really stressing our
hospital capacity, I can see the possibility of a call to go back to phase
one.”
For now, county officials will be monitoring and assessing the county’s current situation to determine the next steps. Snohomish County residents and businesses should expect to remain in Phase 2 through the Fourth of July weekend.
To support the county’s ability to move forward into Phase 3, officials and the SHD are asking people to follow social distancing guidelines and adhere to Gov. Inslee’s face-mask mandate, created in response to the recent statewide increase in COVID-19 cases.
“We
want to share some reminders that are essential if we want to continue moving
forward in the phased reopening plan,” wrote Bray in the June 30 blog
post. “Our success relies on keeping some level of social distancing,
enhanced hand-washing, cleaning and sanitation, cloth face covers, and other
health measures in place through all of the phases.”
3 Responses
We need to stop letting the governor tell us what to do. We the people decide what we’re going to do and what should be open when.
The problem that nobody realizes is that when they continue to do more testing and you had Covid-19 back in December and not sick now, you will still show up as a new case. There needs to be a way for more accurate, current accounts for who is ACTUALLY sick right now vs who was sick before. It skews the numbers in the wrong way.
The Snohomish County Health Department needs to be asked some serious questions.
Several counties have been including positive antibody tests (people who may have been exposed, or had the virus back in December, January, not known it and recovered) as a NEW CASE.
Happening at a local hospital, which I will not name, per some nurses who work there: If there are Covid patients, they are tested several times a day to test for antibodies. Each one of these tests is counted as a positive test. So if there are 10 Covid patients, and they each get tested 4 times/day-thats 40 new “cases”/day!
Some questions need to be asked as well, why the DOH is going into hospitals with ZERO cases and symptoms and forcing tests on people, specifically the elderly. And why after testing, is every single person “positive”, AFTER the state comes in with their own testing equipment?? This happening in our state, Texas and AZ to name a few. The nurses who are saying this, are afraid to speak out. It smells. Any investigative reporters exist anymore? This needs to be investigated and brought to light.
People who have tested positive are required to name the people they’ve been in contact with..THOSE people are immediately counted as positive new cases-even before they’ve been contacted! So if you’ve been around 20 people-BAM! 20 new cases-just like that! A SPIKE, for sure!
The virus is real, no denying that. But we have to ask why are we seeing HUGE spikes all of a sudden? May we ask why we are being threatened with lockdowns again when CHOP has been allowed to languish for weeks with no oversight, distancing, masks? What are the real test numbers? Are tests being forced by DOH so positive antibodies can be counted as a new test? Is EACH antibody test for COVID patients in a hospital being counted as a positive test?