Editor’s note: Read COVID updates by VashonBePrepared in Spanish and English at tinyurl.com/yan39zeh.
The Vashon COVID case rate continues to arc downward and is currently at a fraction of the record Omicron spike in early January.
However, Vashon Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) experts caution that the island’s COVID risk remains a major concern. The case rate remains almost double the high-risk classification set by the CDC (100 cases per week per 100,000 people).
MRC and VashonBePrepared urge Vashonites to continue the practices that have helped keep the island safer than the surrounding region for the past two years. For your safety, and the safety of your household and community, please continue masking, testing, getting vaccinated, washing or sanitizing hands, and distancing.
County and state will rollback masking, vax check requirements
As the Omicron threat eases, King County and state officials have set dates for relaxing requirements for indoor masking and checking proof of vaccination. Organizations and businesses are free to keep the measures in place, but they will no longer be mandated.
Starting March 1, King County will end the requirement that bars, restaurants, and gyms require proof of vaccination to enter. The rollback was announced by King County Executive Dow Constantine.
On March 21, the mask requirement will be lifted for schools, child-care facilities, grocery stores, bars, and gyms. Masking will still be required for health care facilities, long-term care facilities, school buses, and public transit. The mask rollback was announced by Governor Jay Inslee.
According to Inslee, schools will still be required to report cases and outbreaks of COVID, and there will be requirements for testing and quarantining of those who have symptoms or test positive. Implementation details will be released in new school guidelines to be published the week of March 7, about two weeks ahead of the mask transition.
Public Health – Seattle & King County has not yet given local sign-off on the state indoor masking rollback.
One-year update: COVID vaccination on Vashon
In just more than one year, the Vashon Pharmacy/VashonBePrepared COVID vaccination partnership has administered over 19,300 shots — equivalent to two shots for everyone 5 and older on Vashon. Thanks to the community’s decision to be proactive about COVID safety, Vashon has become one of the most vaccinated communities in the country.
More than 92% of Vashon residents aged 5 and older have completed their vaccinations. About two-thirds of them have also received boosters. (See additional details in the statistics section.)
Nearly 1,800 vaccine injections were administered at 21 clinics conducted at the Vashon Island School District campus.
More than 100 human and canine volunteers supported Vashon Pharmacy employees at the Pharmacy drive-through vaccination operation, the schools, the Methodist church, and house-call vaccinations for those who were home-bound. Many volunteers worked numerous shifts to get the job done. Multiple comfort dogs and their handlers helped out at clinics.
It’s important to emphasize that achieving Vashon’s high vaccination rate has been a community effort, and the Pharmacy totals do not include the significant number of individuals vaccinated through other programs. Many Vashonites were vaccinated at Sea Mar, Vashon Natural Medicine, and the Neighborcare clinic at Vashon Island School District.
In addition, especially during the early days when the COVID vaccine was scarce, many island residents received their shots at mainland healthcare providers, chain drug stores, and clinics run by the City of Seattle, University of Washington, and Public Health — Seattle & King County (PHSKC).
Planning underway for more child vaccinations
The MRC, Emergency Operations Center (EOC), and VashonBePrepared have launched a planning process to improve the vaccination levels in the island’s population of school-age youths. Only about 60% of Vashon kids aged 5 through 11 have been fully vaccinated to date. That’s far below the nearly universal vaccination level of the adult population on the island. So, one goal of the new effort will be to find ways to reach households that have not yet decided to take the vaccination step.
Within the next few months, children under 5 may become eligible for vaccination, and a similar planning effort will take place at that time to give special consideration to the needs of the very youngest children.
Tested positive and at high risk? What to do?
When the pandemic first began, there were no fully tested treatments to help fight the infections of people who developed COVID-19. Now that we are almost two years into the pandemic, the Vashon MRC’s COVID Task Force wants people to understand that proven treatments have been developed and authorized for use. Fortunately, treatments are also becoming more available. That’s especially important for people at high risk of severe COVID illness.
“These treatments keep people from getting seriously ill and needing to be hospitalized,” said Dr. Zach Miller, of the MRC. “That means high-risk patients need to know they need to act quickly to get one of the treatments, just as soon as they get a positive test. The treatments only work if they are started early, so getting tested and consulting your doctor quickly after a positive COVID test can help keep most high-risk patients from becoming severely ill.”
The CDC recommends high-risk patients who are not hospitalized get one of the four currently proven treatment options. Options include two at-home pill regimens (Paxlovid and Molnupiravir), as well as two treatments that must be administered intravenously (Remdesivir and monoclonal antibodies).
Dr. Miller emphasized that all four treatments require a prescription or doctor’s order. “The decision about who should get one of the treatments, and selecting the best one for each patient requires a healthcare provider’s evaluation.”
Your physician will take several factors into account when recommending treatment. The main factor will be your risk level. The risk of severe COVID illness increases if you are unvaccinated, older than 65, have an illness, or are receiving treatment that impairs your immune system. Also, COVID risk is high for people who have obesity, diabetes, chronic lung disease, or heart or vascular disease. A full picture of combined risk factors will be considered by your doctor in designing your treatment. You can read a complete list of risk factors at bit.ly/NIH-TreatmentManagement and bit.ly/C19HighRisk.
Latest Vashon COVID Statistics (as of Thursday, Feb. 17)
Source: Public Health — Seattle & King County (PHSKC) and Vashon EOC. PHSKC adjusts statistics from time to time as data is refined during its quality control processes. These statistics may not include all recent Vashon cases, due to the lag in posting of data to PHSKC. Some home testing data may also be missing because there is no comprehensive system to collect it. Hospitalizations may include some patients who tested positive for COVID on admission for other reasons.
759 = Total COVID cases for Vashon residents since the pandemic began.
22 = New cases reported since the last weekly report (50 new cases in 14 days).
13 = Patients hospitalized since the pandemic began.
4 = Deaths since the pandemic began.
92.5% = percentage of Vashon residents age 5+ who have been fully vaccinated, compared to 84% of the total King County 5+ population.
71.2% = percentage of vaccinated Vashon residents age 12+ with booster shots.
63.5% = percentage of Vashon residents aged 5 to 11 with first doses of vaccine (59.5% have completed the series).
81.5% = percentage of Vashon residents aged 12 to 17 with first doses of vaccine (76.0% have completed the series).
For King County, the PHSKC dashboard for the last 30 days says people who are not fully vaccinated are 3.1 times more likely to get COVID, 24 times more likely to be hospitalized for COVID and 33 times more likely to die of COVID.
For more resources, visit VashonBePrepared.org. Sign up at tinyurl.com/4smk364m to receive email updates from the group, and/or visit VashonBePrepared on Facebook.
