PORT ANGELES – Clallam County officials have added two more positive cases of covid-19 to our list Thursday, bringing the total to 21. 19 of those patients have fully recovered.

The latest cases were the two people tested this week after having come into contact with a patient who tested positive here in Clallam County but lives in King County. They are a male and female, both in their 50’s.

We asked County Health officer Dr. Allison Berry Unthank if she thought these latest cases would extend our county’s timing in terms of entering Phase 2 of the Governor’s reopening plan.

You know, I don’t think so. You know, I think right now we we still haven’t met the criteria of having no cases for for three weeks, which is what you would need for that earlier transition to Phase 2. What we are hoping for is to is to move the state towards a regional reopening option, which would allow for places with relatively low transmission rates to move forward faster, which would include…the region we’re anticipating would be Clallam, Jefferson and Kitsap moving together. So we’re working on that possible option. And so under those metrics having a couple cases here and there wouldn’t really move things or delay that process.”