Pepper Fisher

PORT ANGELES – At Friday morning’s Covid briefing we learned that someone on the Emergency Operations Center team has tested positive for the virus. Undersheriff Ron Cameron:

“I think it’s fair to say, without giving up too much information, we have had a positive case in the EOC. And so our contact tracers have been helping out and we’ve had to kind of go through our ranks, as it were, and have them go into quarantine and isolation. So our numbers are down and so we’ve been scrambling to fill the gaps in the EOC that exist. Because we’re still maintaining a presence here every day.”

Health Officer Dr. Allison Berry Unthank began her weekly briefing with the latest numbers. 294 total cases as of today with 282 recovered. Our cases per 100,000 is at 26. There are still 2 patients who have been in the hospital for 2 weeks or more. Dr. Unthank says both patients are quite ill with cardiac complications.

Dr. Unthank says the vast majority of recent cases are related to people travelling outside the county and returning with the virus, and those cases are still centered in the Sequim area. The good news, she says, is that we are not seeing community transmission at this time.

As for schools, the safety protocols appear to be working well, with local districts staying on schedule in phasing in students. Dr. Unthank says the same is true statewide, with little or no transmission of the virus among students and staff because of safe practices.

Unthank spoke of the possibility that we could see a vaccine with very limited distribution, primarily for healthcare workers, as early as mid-December. She says she supports the intention of Washington state health officials to conduct their own tests of any vaccine that is approved to be sure that it is safe and effective.