By Pepper Fisher

PORT ANGELES – Friday morning’s Covid briefing with Health Officer Dr. Allison Berry began with the numbers. Sadly, there were 3 more deaths reported overnight for a total of 7 this week.

They include a man in his 50s who was unvaccinated, a woman in her 80s who was vaccinated and lived in a long-term care facility, and yesterday a man in his 40s who was otherwise healthy passed away. He was unvaccinated.

“Unfortunately, we do continue to see that these young, healthy people who die of covid-19 are uniformly unvaccinated. One unofficial tally that we’ve been keeping is the number of young parents we have lost in our community. So far, we’ve lost at least six parents of young children in our community who are now going to be growing up without, in this case, usually, their fathers. It’s a side of the pandemic that we haven’t, I think, talked about enough. The really severe consequences for children who lose parents due to this disease.”

Also in the numbers is the fact that out case rate per 100,000 has, for the first time in months, dipped below 300 at 291.

The other news Friday was that the kid-size doses of the vaccines have arrived in our community and will begin distribution on Saturday for children ages 5-11.

OMC is leading the effort to vaccinate children and are taking appointments now for their new facility at First and Race Streets.

“I don’t know if they still have appointments available for tomorrow, but if you give them a call, they should be able to…looking at the numbers, we should be able to vaccinate every kid in our community who wants it within the next two weeks.”

The number to call to make an appointment is (360) 565-0999. You do not need to be a patient of OMC to get a vaccine.

(Photo: OMC’s Front Street Clinic)