PORT TOWNSEND — Jefferson County commissioners are expected to discuss a Phase 3 COVID-19 variance application on Monday that will allow more businesses in the county to open and allow more capacity in restaurants and bars.
The board originally was scheduled to vote on the application Friday, but due to technical problems on AV Capture (the live-streaming service used to show the board’s meetings) which blocked viewing of the meeting, the gathering was cancelled and the two items — the application and a proclamation declaring Juneteenth a holiday — were tabled for Monday’s meeting that begins at 9 a.m.
In Phase 3, some recreational facilities such as gyms can reopen. Restaurants can open to 75 percent capacity and bars can open at 25 percent capacity. Movie theatres can reopen at 50 percent capacity. Libraries and museums can also reopen.
The total number of confirmed cases in Jefferson County is now 32, with 30 cases recovered, county health officer Dr. Tom Locke said. No new cases were reported Saturday, but Locke said the county did investigate a number of potential cases Saturday that turned out to be negative.
County health officers participated in a statewide conference call with the state on Saturday on the COVID-19 virus. Gov. Jay Inslee is mandating that masks be worn by everyone in public in Yakima County because of a major outbreak there. Yakima has the second-most active cases in the state behind King County.
Clallam ‘suspect’ case
Clallam County found a “suspect positive” case of COVID-19 on Thursday in a worker at a long-term care facility, who is asymptomatic, but was tested as part of the statewide testing of all workers and residents of long-term care facilities, said Dr. Allison Unthank, Clallam County health officer, in her Friday morning briefing.
The case is considered suspect, as Unthank believes that it may have been a false positive, and the worker is in isolation. The facility was not identified.The current case count for Clallam County is at 34 until the suspect case results are finalized.
“The challenge that comes with asymptomatic testing and widespread asymptomatic testing is you do increase the risk of false positive results,” Unthank said. “What it comes down to is ‘pre-test probability,’ which means the likelihood that you test positive, that’s a really true answer.
“Every test, no matter how good, has false positives and false negatives. Really, any test that you could ever get,” Unthank said.
“What we know is asymptomatic people are actually much less likely to be positive for COVID-19,” she said. “If you are sick, it’s much more likely that you have COVID-19 and certainly if you had an exposure to COVID-19, you’re much more likely to have COVID-19.
“This person had no known exposures and shows no symptoms at this time. We treat it as a positive until we know for sure it’s not.”
Unthank said the facility has been doing “excellent” with infection control throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, and when the potential case was found, Clallam Public Health and the facility increased precautions and personal protective equipment usage, in-case of a potential outbreak.
“I do feel confident that if this is a positive, that there is a relatively low likelyhood that it would spread in the facility because of the infection control that they have in place,” Unthank said.
