Confirmed COVID-19 case rate falls in JeffCo

JeffCo currently has best vaccination numbers in state

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Jefferson County has gone a week without a new COVID-19 infection, Public Health Officer Dr. Tom Locke said Monday.

The county also has the highest vaccination rate in Washington state, Locke told county commissioners at their weekly pandemic update earlier this week.

Jefferson County stands in stark contrast to other areas, however.

“The national picture is not so good,” Locke said.

The long decline in cases that hit a plateau in the past several weeks is over.

“Now we are on the upswing again nationally,” Locke said, noting that a 15 percent increase over the past two weeks.

There are 63,000 new confirmed cases a week, he said, adding, “The true number is probably higher than that.”

The United States has had more than 550,000 confirmed deaths attributed to COVID-19, and Locke said the pandemic is estimated to become the worst one in history. 

“The projection is we will certainly exceed 650,000 before this is all over — which is greater than the death toll for the 1918 pandemic,” Locke told commissioners.

As of Monday, there were 22 states that had seen a greater than 10 percent increase in coronavirus cases, Washington state included.

With that, there has been an increase in patients hospitalized due to the disease, including a 25 percent rise in King County.

Locke said it’s been people in their 40s and 50s, and not the elderly, getting hospitalized.

The fourth wave of the pandemic, he added, will see more people becoming infected because of coronavirus variants and their more contagious nature. More serious impacts to younger people are also expected as the variants spread.

The COVID-19 case rate has dropped in Jefferson County. 

Locke said the last measurement was
22 cases per population of 100,000; down from the previous mark of 25 per 100,000.

“We’re among the lowest in the state right now,” he said.

In Clallam County, the rate is 34 per 100,000, while the Kitsap County rate has gone up to 80 per 100,000.

Washington state overall has a case rate of 125 infections per 100,000 people.

More than 3 million vaccinations for COVID-19 have been administered in Washington state.

Jefferson County held its second mass-vaccination event this weekend at Chimacum High School, where 309 doses were given. A total of 330 shots were given at the county’s first mass vaccination two weeks ago.

Locke noted that some have said it’s now a race between the vaccine and the variants.

“It sounds melodramatic but it’s completely accurate,” Locke said.

If enough vaccine gets rolled out and it gets into enough arms, “we will win the race,” he said.