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HELP NEEDED TO TURN NUMBERS AROUND QUICKLY![]()
Published:2021-04-01 Local
HELP NEEDED TO TURN NUMBERS AROUND QUICKLY ![]()
SNOHOMISH COUNTY, Wash. – After nine weeks of steady decreases, the case rate has increased for the second week in a row. It is now at 92 per 100,000 residents for the two-week period ending March 27. In addition to the case rate increasing, test positivity and hospitalizations are also starting to tick back up. Test positivity—or the percent of confirmed positive tests out of all COVID-19 specimens collected—has risen from 5% to 7% over the last couple of weeks. On Monday, there were 15 residents hospitalized due to COVID-19 complications and three required mechanical ventilation to breathe. As of today, there are 26 hospitalized and 3 on ventilators. “We’re going back in the wrong direction again, but we have an opportunity to turn it around ourselves before a retreat in recovery is forced upon us,” said Dr. Chris Spitters, Health Officer for the Snohomish Health District. If case rates continue to climb, Snohomish County could slide back to Phase 2 in Governor Inslee’s Roadmap to Recovery. This means resuming more restrictions on business and activities, which no one wants to do again. It is very difficult to reverse course quickly but acting now can bend the curve back down before it’s too late. This relies on the community stepping up efforts to overcome premature exuberance about a hopeful future and to fend off emerging variants of the COVID-19 virus while vaccination efforts proceed. “We need you to act now to protect people’s health and keep us in Phase 3,” added Dr. Spitters. “Please celebrate wisely and make safe decisions, especially with upcoming holidays and spring breaks from school.” Mask up whenever around people you don’t live with—indoors or outdoors. If gathering indoors, ensure windows or doors are open to increase ventilation. Keep that physical distance between yourself and others, and make sure to wash hands often. Lastly, try to defer non-essential gatherings until the community is further down the road in getting vaccinated. This is more important than ever given the increase in variants of concern in Snohomish County and Washington state. The weekly variant report from the Washington State Department of Health (DOH) published on April 1 showed expansion of several more transmissible strains (e.g., B.1.429, B.1.1.7) and new detection of the P.1 variant in Snohomish County. While these results demonstrate the presence of the variant strains here in the county, they do not provide a precise estimate of their prevalence. Instead, specimens are analyzed are a non-representative sample of positive specimens collected. First identified in travelers from Brazil, the P.1 variant has 17 unique mutations. There is evidence to suggest that some of the mutations may affect the ability of antibodies (natural and from vaccine) to recognize and neutralize the virus in laboratory experiments. However, clinical trials of COVID vaccination in Brazil have still shown excellent results in preventing severe disease, hospitalization and death. “The expansion of these more transmissible variants further highlights the importance of reinforcing all of our prevention efforts and the urgency of making rapid progress in the vaccination effort,” said Dr. Spitters. The detection of these COVID-19 variants in Snohomish County is a reminder that this pandemic is not over. Because COVID-19 variants may spread more easily, it is vital that we all follow these guidelines: Wear a well-made, well-fitting face mask, even with people you see regularly and in your smallest social circles. More than half of Snohomish County residents over the age of 65 had received at least one dose of vaccine as of March 14, and the number has increased since then. Still, there are many seniors who have not yet been vaccinated. As eligibility requirements open up and more people book appointments, it is important to ensure seniors still have access to vaccination. Ways to help include: If you are a senior, work with seniors, or know a senior who is struggling to get an appointment, direct them to the COVID-19 call center for Snohomish County. The call center at 425-339-5278 is staffed from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. They can help book appointments. While Snohomish County is expected to begin receiving small allocations of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine again next week, there were announcements about a vaccine ingredient produced by a contractor having to be destroyed. “Even though it is a disappointment to see vaccine having to be discarded, the detection of the problem and the manufacturer’s forthright actions are very reassuring about the effectiveness of measures to ensure safety of the vaccine supply,” noted Dr. Spitters. “This does not impact the safety of vaccines already shipped or administered but may delay or reduce future allocations as the ripple of that temporary dip in production works itself out.” As a reminder, there are a number of ways to look for available vaccine appointments: Information on the Snohomish County Vaccine Taskforce’s mass vaccination site is provided at http://bit.ly/snocovaccine, along with appointment registration links and which vaccine (Johnson & Johnson, Moderna or Pfizer) is being administered at each site. There have been 10 confirmed cases of COVID-19 involving fully vaccinated residents of Snohomish County (0.007%). None of these 10 have been hospitalized or died. “Vaccine breakthrough cases can and do occur with virtually all vaccines, given that few are 100% effective,” said Dr. Spitters. “The number of vaccine breakthrough cases in Snohomish County remains exceptionally low. This demonstrates just how effective the vaccines are, but it also highlights the importance of continuing to wear masks and watch your distance around people you don’t live with.” Large-scale clinical studies found that COVID-19 vaccines reduced the risk of getting COVID-19 in vaccinated people by up to 95% compared to people that did not receive the vaccine. Breakthrough cases have been identified in 18 Washington counties. The majority of confirmed vaccine breakthrough cases experienced only mild symptoms, if any. However, since February 1, eight people with vaccine breakthrough have been hospitalized statewide. DOH is investigating two potential vaccine breakthrough cases where the patients died. Both patients were more than 80 years old and suffered from underlying health issues. Further investigation will help to identify patterns among people who have COVID-19 after vaccination, such as if a virus variant may have caused the infection. For more information see the full DOH press release. REMINDER ON DATA UPDATES It usually takes a couple days for confirmed cases to be reported to us by the labs and providers, so moving to this weekly reporting of case counts will allow more accurate daily trends to be shared retrospectively. These will now come out on Mondays, along with the weekly case rate, hospitalization, long-term care, and mortality updates. The bi-weekly reports and maps will now move to monthly, but the release schedules for rest of the reports and graphs will remain as-is. As a reminder, the DOH dashboard is another resource available online at www.doh.wa.gov/Emergencies/COVID19/DataDashboard. COVID TESTING SCHEDULE Everett site located at 3715 Oakes Avenue – Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
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