Editor’s Note: Read COVID updates by VashonBePrepared in Spanish and English at tinyurl.com/yan39zeh.
The COVID new case rate for Vashon continues to inch back down from the major spike of disease shown on tracking graphs for the last month.
As reported in the last edition, Vashon’s all-ages community transmission rate peaked at 13 times the CDC high-risk classification of 100 cases per 100,000 people per week. The community transmission rate has eased off but remains at a dangerous level — still about five times the CDC high-risk benchmark.
The rate of new cases remains well above any of our community’s previous COVID spikes over the last 23 months, despite the encouraging decline from the record peak earlier in January.
Hospitalizations/Death Increase
There have been six new hospitalizations since the first of the year. That nearly doubles the number of Vashon resident hospitalizations in just one month, bringing the total to 14 hospitalizations since the pandemic began on Vashon 23 months ago.
That’s in addition to the new death reported in last week’s edition, bringing the total to five deaths tabulated since the pandemic began, according to the online data dashboard operated by Public Health — Seattle & King County (PHSKC). Names and other details on patients are private and not released by Public Health.
As a bulletin from Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department pointed out, the Pierce County case rate has been declining and the agency projects that the drop will continue. It’s a regional trend of case rate improvement. However, the Tacoma-Pierce County bulletin put it this way last week: “The worst COVID-19 outcomes tend to lag behind the case peaks, and that’s what we’re seeing now. While we anticipated this good news, we also expected the bad news to follow. We’re reporting 64 deaths from COVID-19 in last week’s statistics.”
Demographics: Vashon’s Young People Most Affected
During January, the COVID case rate among youth ages 5 through 18 was about 1,000 cases per 100,000 people. That’s four times the rate for adults.
“We can’t be certain about why Vashon’s young people are catching COVID at such a high rate compared to adults,” said Dr. Zach Miller, the lead infectious disease specialist for Vashon’s volunteer Medical Reserve Corps. “There are probably layers of factors. The School District log of cases shows that the raw number of cases in the school population has thankfully been declining weekly, although two-thirds of all cases in the island’s school-age children occurred just in January, and weekly case counts remain at a high level. It seems likely that COVID was spreading as young people gathered before and after school and on weekends, outside the highly controlled classroom environment.”
MRC contact tracing interviews with families and a large number of youth infections compared to adult infections suggest that young people are one factor contributing to the unprecedented spike of Omicron spread on Vashon during January.
The school district intensified testing for the wrestling teams at Vashon High School and McMurray Middle School last week. Two coaches tested positive and, as the wrestlers continue training practices in preparation for upcoming competitions, there will be daily testing for a week. In addition to the daily testing with rapid tests, the school district requested a round of PCR testing by the MRC for roughly 10 student wrestlers who have not previously tested positive in the past 90 days.
Millions of Test Kits Now Arriving: Be Strategic
A massive campaign to get test kits into homes has been launched by the federal and Washington state governments.
Use your free tests if you or a member of your household has symptoms of COVID, or if you believe you have been exposed to someone who has COVID. Here’s what to do if you test positive:
• Isolate at home, even if you are vaccinated, following directions from your healthcare provider.
• Do not expose others by going to work, school, or public areas. Avoid using public transportation or ridesharing.
• Do your best to protect other household members by keeping to a single room and, if available, using a separate bathroom.
• Especially, stay well away from anyone who might be at high risk, such as seniors or people undergoing medical treatments that compromise their immune system.
• Call ahead before going to the doctor and request to be evaluated over the phone or in a video call to avoid exposing healthcare staff and other patients.
• Get medical help right away if your symptoms get worse and you have, for example, trouble breathing. If you have a medical emergency and need to call 911, tell the dispatch staff that you have COVID-19 symptoms.
• Call the Vashon MRC helpline (844-469-4554) to get more detailed advice about keeping yourself and those around you safe.
• Following the MRC guidance, let potential exposures know you have tested positive. MRC can help you make a list. Generally, close contact means you were within six feet of someone for 15 minutes or more in any given 24 hour period.
Here’s how to get free home test kits:
• Request four kits from the federal government at COVIDtests.gov.
• Get five more kits from the state program at SayYesCOVIDhomeTest.org. The state program has run out of kits but does resupply so keep checking back if at first unsuccessful.
• Check with your health insurance provider to find out what prepaid or reimbursement options it offers for test kits.
Latest Vashon COVID Statistics
Source: Public Health — Seattle & King County (PHSKC) and Vashon EOC. These statistics are considered to be understated. They do not include all recent Vashon cases, due to the lag in posting of data to the PHSKC COVID-19 dashboard, especially given the current Omicron variant spike. They are also missing some of the home testing data because there is no comprehensive system to collect it. Hospitalizations may include some patients who tested positive for COVID on admission for other reasons.
720 = Total COVID cases for Vashon residents since the pandemic began.
36 = New cases reported since the last weekly report (110 new cases in 14 days).
13 = Patients hospitalized since the pandemic began.
5 = Deaths since the pandemic began.
92.2% = percentage of Vashon residents age 5+ who have been fully vaccinated, compared to 83.5% of the total King County 5+ population.
70.2% = percentage of Vashon residents age 12+ who have their booster doses ·
63.2% = percentage of Vashon residents age 5 to 11 with first doses of vaccine (57.6% have completed the series)
For King County, the PHSKC dashboard for the last 30 days says unvaccinated people are 2.1 times more likely to get COVID, 13 times more likely to be hospitalized for COVID 16 times more likely to die of COVID.
For more resources, visit VashonBePrepared.org. Sign up at tinyurl.com/4smk364m to receive updates from the group, and/or visit VashonBePrepared on Facebook.
