With a unanimous vote on an otherwise routine resolution, the Clallam County Commissioners officially rescinded their declaration for COVID-19 emergency, effective Nov. 1.
“The health officer agreed. The director agreed. We decided it was time,” Commissioner Randy Johnson said after the meeting.
The declaration, under Resolution 37, was first put in place on March 17, 2020, and revised under Resolution 52 on June 23, 2020.
Gov. Jay Inslee declared the state of emergency in all 39 counties be lifted effective Oct. 31.
County Administrator Rich Sill wrote in an email Monday that the county department heads will adjust their service levels to accommodate their staffing and circumstances.
The Clallam County public health order requiring masking in indoor public places was rescinded on March 11, the same time the state lifted its masking order, 10 days ahead of schedule.
The date change followed updated guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
On June 21, Clallam County Public Health announced it was streamlining its COVID-19 case data reporting as it moved from an emergency response to a more sustainable and long-term approach to monitoring the virus.
That included moving from daily pandemic updates to weekly ones and a new dashboard with interactive data that included the number of new cases, hospitalizations and deaths as well as all-time totals; a percent positivity of tests performed at Olympic Medical Center, and charts showing hospitalizations by age and region.
The daily reports had begun in March 2020.
According to the World Health Organization and New York Times websites, COVID-19 was responsible for 6,583,599 deaths worldwide, 1,093,028 deaths in the U.S. and 14,549 deaths in Washington state.
Clallam County has reported 181 deaths since March 2020.
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Reporter Brian Gawley can be reached by email at brian.gawley@peninsuladailynews.com.
