Island County’s top public health official has some very welcome news regarding the spread of COVID-19, though it doesn’t mean a clear endpoint is in sight.
“The numbers are looking better than they were last week and the week before that,” Public Health Director Keith Higman said Thursday afternoon.
Public health released its first epidemiological study this week on the disease outbreak and it shows the number of new positive coronavirus cases waning at the end of March. Higman said that corresponds with what he has heard from officials at WhidbeyHealth Medical Center.
The demand for respiratory-related services is down, as is the amount of coronavirus testing; the hospital even cut back to testing just three days a week.
“What that tells me is that social distancing and stepping away from congregate places is really working,” he said.
The news this week was also good for the state as a whole. The University of Washington’s Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluations revised earlier predictions about the number of deaths in the state from the virus, finding that there will likely be significantly fewer people succumbing to the infection.
In addition, the model showed that the state may have already passed the peak number of patients hospitalized from the virus.
Based on information from the new models, Gov. Jay Inslee made the decision to send 400 ventilators back to federal stockpile to be used in other states.
In Island County, Higman said the new epidemiological study shows just how quickly the coronavirus spread throughout the community. The first positive test came back on March 9 and, by the third week of the month, there were 109 cases in the county. The distribution of the cases, he said, showed that there were no areas of the county where people were safe from the virus.
The study covers March and includes the cluster of cases at the assisted living facility, Careage of Whidbey, in Coupeville. Higman said the study also illustrates the vulnerability of long-term care facilities to upper-respiratory disease and points to changes that can be instituted in the future.
A total of 46 of the 114 cases in March were at the facility.
The study states that the cases were evenly distributed across four adult age groups, with only one case in the group 19 years old and younger. Women represented 68 percent of the cases, but Higman said that could be skewed by the demographics at assisted living facilities.
As of Thursday, Public Health reported that the county has had 155 positive COVID-19 cases, with 122 of those on Whidbey Island. A total of 58 of the cases were in long-term care facilities.
Seven people in the county have died from the virus. Higman said they all were associated with long-term-care facilities, were older and had underlying health conditions.
The epidemiological study is available on the Public Health website and the department plans to regularly publish new reports in the future, as well as an investigation into the Careage cluster.
