A new death caused by COVID-19 has been confirmed in Clallam County, raising the total number of deaths in the county to 59 and to 76 for the North Olympic Peninsula since the pandemic began.
The recent death was a woman in her 90s who was a long-term care resident at a Clallam County facility experiencing a COVID-19 outbreak and was unvaccinated, said Dr. Allison Berry, health officer for Clallam and Jefferson counties, in her Friday morning briefing.
The long-term care facility has had a total of 19 COVID-19 cases confirmed so far and three deaths associated with the outbreak as of Friday, Berry said.
One other outbreak at a long-term care facility in Clallam County has had seven cases confirmed. That outbreak is expected to be closed in the next few days, as no new cases have been found for almost two weeks, Berry said.
Jefferson County did not report any new deaths from COVID-19 on Friday. The county has confirmed 17 deaths among residents since the pandemic began.
No updates are available on weekends.
On Friday, Berry released data on case rates in Clallam County based on each of the three areas, and over the past two weeks, the West End has had a case rate of 658 cases per 100,000 population, Port Angeles has had a rate of 292 cases per 100,000 and Sequim had a rate of 207 cases per 100,000, she said.
The county’s overall case rate is 318 cases per 100,000 for the last two weeks as of Friday, according to county public health data.
Berry does not calculate individual rates for the different areas of Jefferson County due to the already small amount of cases being confirmed in the county paired with the small population and so the data would be too small to be statistically relevant, she said.
The county’s overall case rate is 253.92 for the two weeks prior as of Oct. 20, according to public health data.
Clallam County added 25 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday, raising its total to 4,762 since the pandemic began, according to county public health data.
On Friday, Jefferson County added 25 new cases of COVID-19, raising its total to 1,122 since the pandemic began, according to county public health data.
The is a workplace outbreak of 14 cases so far as of Friday in Jefferson County, and there is another large outbreak in Grays Harbor County, which is bleeding over into the West End, Berry said.
The test positivity — the percentage of COVID-19 tests returned positive — in both counties has decreased, with Clallam County’s at 8.37 percent for Oct. 6-19, and Jefferson County’s at 11.5 percent for Oct. 14-20.
The goal is to keep the test positivity below 5 percent, for officials to know that they’re catching the majority of the COVID-19 cases in the community, Berry said.
“You can feel confident that you’re really seeing less disease in the community with a low positivity percentage and decreasing case rates,” Berry said.
Berry has stated that a health order requiring all indoor patrons of bars and restaurants to be vaccinated will be lifted after both counties reach a case rate below 75 cases per 100,000 and remains below that for two weeks.
Signups open at 9 a.m. Monday for two clinics set by the Jefferson County Public Health and emergency management departments.
The Moderna vaccine booster clinics will be on Nov. 6 and Nov. 13. The boosters are for people 65 years old and older and those 18 to 64 years old who are at high risk of severe COVID-19. They must also have received their second shots more than six months ago if they received Moderna’s or Pfizer’s vaccines or two months ago if they received Johnson & Johnson.
Both events are from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. The Nov. 6 event will be at Chimacum School District at 91 West Valley Road. The Nov. 13 event will be at Blue Heron Middle School at 3939 San Juan Ave. in Port Townsend.
Residents can sign up by going to https://jefferson countypublichealth.org/1429/COVID-19 or by calling the Department of Emergency Management Call Center at 360-344-9791.
Olympic Medical Center offers the Pfizer vaccine at the OMC Front Street Clinic in Port Angeles by appointment only.
To make an appointment, call 360-565-0999.
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Jefferson County reporter Zach Jablonski can be reached at 360-385-2335, ext. 5, or at [email protected]
