||| FROM BRENDAN COWAN, DEPARTMENT OF EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT |||
A positive COVID test result has been reported for a Lopez Island resident. This is the 39th case in San Juan County. The ongoing investigation indicates that transmission was likely due to off-island travel.
The recent surge in cases across the country provides an opportunity to refresh ourselves on how to keep ourselves and our community safe from COVID:
- If you’re symptomatic, stay home and call your healthcare provider about getting tested. Do not spend time in public, socialize, or otherwise interact with your community until you have been tested and have received negative test results. For more info about when to stay home and for how long, take a look at this Hot Topic.
- If you do test positive, please do all you can to provide accurate and complete information to the San Juan County Health Department contact tracing team. They will always respect your privacy and be empathetic to your situation. Fostering a non-judgmental environment in our community is one of their top priorities. Spring
feels like a lifetime ago for many of us, but this Hot Topic from April does a nice job of highlighting the importance of empathy in supporting our collective mental health.
We are all aware of the fact that cases are increasing drastically, including here in the islands. The days of COVID feeling like a remote threat to San Juan County are over, and we’re back to having to take strong action to prevent serious impacts to our community.
**If you are reading theOrcasonian for free, thank your fellow islanders. If you would like to support theOrcasonian CLICK HERE to set your modestly-priced, voluntary subscription. Otherwise, no worries; we’re happy to share with you.**
Thank you, Brendan, for the reminder that we can’t rest on our past successes in limiting the spread of COVID in the San Juan’s.
Our biggest tests lie ahead; what with the Holidays – and that wonderful bunch of college kids we’ve sent off into the world – coming home for vacation!
If only our County Council members would speak out and re-evaluate Phase 2 requirements. Lame duck status doesn’t acquit them of acting responsibly.
Thom, what exactly would you ask them to do?
San Juan County remains one of the safest and most vigilant counties in the country with regard to Covid. At every step the sitting council members have followed the guidance of our lead health official and the County Board of Health recommendations.
I personally thank them for being ahead of and responding quicker than nearly every other jurisdiction in our state with regard to Covid since this episode began.
Was a link to the “Hot Topic from April” to be included?
Justin, an elected official has the responsibility to lead. Lead means that local testing is available for all. One of the local medical facilities is reporting they have no Covid tests or flu shot available, another allows testing for symptomatic individuals only. Testing needs to be available upon demand. Elected officials should be in the forefront of assuring residents they have sufficient testing available. Second, Phase 2 needs to be re-evaluated. Justin, in the last few days we have a 33% increase in SJC. This is not a roll of the dice game. This is an issue of life and death for the 37% of residents over 60 and for those below 60 who suffer from lingering effects of the disease. Playing with people’s lives is unconscionable. As the holidays arrive college students will be returning home. Testing is needed, particularly since COVID-19 is racing across college campuses. SJC residents have done a commendable job adjusting their lives to cope with the crisis while elected officials have oriented their attention to profitability. Following the national guidance on Covid-19 is a reprehensible affront to those locals who sacrifice daily.
It’s clearly too early to “re-evaluate Phase II requirements” with the few number of cases in San Juan County, IMO. Let’s try not to destroy our local economy and vibrant local businesses, many of which are barely covering extra Covid-related expenses. Maybe we could try to get everyone to observe social distancing, which appears to have been greatly relaxed in town recently.
Thank you Thom. I am a 53 year old Type 1 Diabetic. I have not been in a store here since late February. I’ve interacted with probably less than a dozen people since then. I take this very seriously. The lack of testing on the island is unconscionable. Even in the best of times, it was a rotating schedule between the three big islands of one per week. Now because of flu shots, that has halted. We’re told that we can go off island to have a test done for $125. Tell me what teacher and many others here can afford that plus the time off work and the cost of the ferry? They can not. We can and should do better.
Thom,
Please don’t twist my comments to somehow insinuate that I am making light of the situation I which we currently live. I have the utmost appreciation for the risk that a significant portion of our population is at (our entire population for that matter).
Please also know that I am keenly aware of the issues tied to testing in our county. The lack of available testing affects my life and the life of my family on a daily, if not hourly basis. To place that issue on the county council as a “failure to lead” is, in my mind, misplaced given that our County government neither funds nor operates our local medical centers. The SJC department of health is working in partnership with our local medical providers to dedicate their resources to tracing and tracking. Our local medical providers are doing massive work to handle this pandemic – in addition to trying to meet the regular medical demands of our community, so testing is going to be limited by the very nature of human resource availability. I have been working at the medical center off and on for a month and can say, without a doubt, that all resources are being utilized in as efficient and effective manner as possible, including weekend flu-vaccine clinics. As far as a lack of available flu shots, again… not a local county government issue. There is a national shortage of flu vaccine.
With regard to your statement that “Following the national guidance on Covid-19 is a reprehensible affront to those locals who sacrifice daily”, I’m not even sure what that means? San Juan County, it’s leadership and leaders in our medical community have consistently been well ahead of national guidance. If anything, Dr James has been criticized as being overly cautious. San Juan County has been held up in numerous other Washington counties as a positive example of effective policy regarding Covid, which is validated by our low overall infection rates.
Finally, I’d like to call into question your math. Again… I’m in no way trying to make light of the of this virus, but throwing around inflated numbers does nothing to help the conversation. Total case count stands at 39 (per SJC DOH). The recent spike in cases began on 10/26 (again per SJC DOH) with a total of 34 previous confirmed cases. The net increase since 10/26 is 14.7% in the 2 week period since the 10/26 case was reported, not the “33% in the last few days” that you are reporting as fact. I will not dive even deeper into active case load numbers, but suffice it to say that real-time active case loads remain very low thanks to the dedication of our community to safe and effective behaviors.
I largely agree with Justin. The county has been doing a good job on testing, at least since a slow start in March that can be blamed on the lack of testing capacity in the state. Our positivity rating is still well under 1 percent, as compared to 2.2 percent statewide, indicative of extensive testing. And the County Department of Health has long been testing asymptomatic essential workers like first responders–those who are the most likely to come in close contact with infected individuals. Along with community cautiousness and care, this testing regime is a good part of the reason our case load has remained among the lowest in the state.