Lummi doctor: coronavirus cluster shows ‘they call it social distancing for a reason’
It’s been nearly seven weeks since the Lummi Indian Business Council became one of the first agencies in the state to issue a “Shelter in Place” order for its community in an effort to help protect it from the escalating coronavirus pandemic.
Unlike when that order was issued on March 22 — four days before Gov. Jay Inslee’s “Stay Home, Stay Health” order went into effect for the rest of Washington state — the sun is shining a bit more often, temperatures are getting warmer and everybody is experiencing a little restlessness from staring at the inside of the same four walls.
But now is not the to time let up, Lummi Nation Health Director Dr. Dakotah Lane said.
If the Lummi community needed a reminder of just how important that is, it got it in a cluster of new cases last week, when the number of COVID-19 cases in the community nearly doubled — going from 22 to 40 — over a span of just four days.
“Certainly there is some fatigue and even disillusionment with the ‘Shelter-in-Place’ orders, as the majority of people have not been personally infected (or affected) with this virus,” Lane told The Bellingham Herald in an email. “As a result, people become complacent and let their guard down.”
But Lane cautioned that it’s not just the Lummi community that needs to be aware of complacency — all of Whatcom County needs to remain vigilant, as clusters like the one Lummi saw “will likely become the ‘new normal.’”
“I am not sure why the sudden surge of cases occurred now, but the Lummi Public Health team does expect the SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2) virus to show up in the community as well as Whatcom County, which is why the Health team continues to monitor and test all suspected cases,” Lane wrote.
The Lummi health team has not discovered how the virus entered the Lummi community, but it did find the recent cluster infected younger people and appears to have spread by children playing with each other, Lane reported. The Lummi health team reported Friday, May 1, that all the new cases were for people younger than 40.
On Sunday, the Lummi Public Health Department also announced that the Commod Squad — a group that provides community members in need food and other types of assistance — also experienced exposure to a confirmed case of COVID-19.
“Commod Squad plays an important role to the Lummi Nation, and (the Lummi Indian Business Council) took appropriate steps to make sure that they can continue to provide vital services to Lummi tribal members,” Lane wrote.
The Lummi health team is regularly testing five to 15 people per day and has the ability to expand that capacity, Lane reported, and it has adopted the mantra to “monitor, test and contain” until a vaccine is available.
Providing universal, same-day testing makes it easier for the Lummi health team to identify cases within the community that would go unidentified elsewhere, Lummi Tribal Health Center Public Health Director Cristina J. Toledo-Cornell told The Herald in an email.
And should Whatcom County see a surge in new cases, Lummi also has a 23-bed alternative care facility for tribal members available, just in case St. Joseph hospital in Bellingham gets overwhelmed, Lane reported.
“I am not sure the Lummi Public Health will ever be able to stop future surges/cluster of cases given how difficult it is for people to follow ‘shelter-in-place’ orders — just go to any park or public space (grocery stores) and you can see how hard it is for people to follow social distancing orders,” Lane wrote.
That’s only going to get more difficult as the weather gets nicer and people want to enjoy the outdoors after being “shut inside our homes for weeks now,” Lane wrote, adding that anybody who does venture outside should wear a mask, maintain social distance and avoid gathering in groups.
Lane said the Lummi public health team is urging all community members to continue following the shelter-in-place order.
“What is also concerning is how quickly this virus spread by individuals who didn’t follow (the) shelter-in-place order,” Lane wrote. “In this particular case, those who were most ‘social’ contracted the virus and, even worse, spread it to those people they interact with or visited. They call it ‘social distancing’ for a reason.”
This story was originally published May 6, 2020 at 11:05 AM.
