Whatcom’s COVID numbers improving, but ‘million dollar question’ is when will we reopen?
With the number of new COVID-19 cases decreasing and the county inching toward the state’s threshold of 25 new cases per 100,000 over the past two weeks, Whatcom County Health Department Director Erika Lautenbach admitted “the ongoing million dollar question” is when can the county begin to lighten more restrictions.
Unfortunately, Lautenbach said during an online health department briefing Tuesday, Aug. 25, she doesn’t have a good answer.
Since Gov. Jay Inslee on July 28 extended the pause indefinitely on counties moving ahead in the Safe Start Washington plan, just like every other county in the state, Whatcom is stuck where it’s at, which is currently Phase 2.
“I do have a call with the state later this week to talk about this very issue,” Lautenbach said. “We know people want to get back to work and they want things to reopen. There are a lot of economic issues in our current state of affairs. ... That being said, this is a statewide decision.”
With three new cases reported Monday, Aug. 24, the state’s Phase and Risk Assessment Dashboard is reporting Whatcom County has seen 33.3 cases per 100,000 residents the past two weeks — the eighth-best rate among all counties in the state and the only county among the state’s 10 most-populated with a rate lower than 50.
Lautenbach said she is encouraged by the recent reduction in the number of new cases Whatcom is seeing the past six weeks and believes the county’s efforts to educate people on how to reduce the chances of exposure — such as asking residents to limit social interactions, stay home if they feel sick, practice social distancing, practice good hygiene and wear face coverings — are paying off.
Approximately half of the new coronavirus cases in Whatcom County are the result of exposure to either an unknown person who had COVID-19 or exposure to a familiar person who did not know they were carrying the disease (asymptomatic), Lautenbach said.
Whatcom County also has been successful with its contact tracing efforts once new cases have been diagnosed, according to Mark Raaka, a COVID-19 response manager and member of the case and contact investigation team. Raaka reported during the briefing that Whatcom County’s contact tracing team is successfully contacting 92% of new cases within 24 hours — slightly above its goal of 90%.
Though reports from other regions have said that many people do not want to be contacted by the health department, Raaka said in Whatcom County “The majority of people do answer or return our phone calls.”
Each new case has averaged between three and eight contacts, Raaka said, which the team then tries to contact with 36 to 48 hours to inform that they may be at risk and advise they take necessary precautions. During the past month, Raaka said the team has been able to contact 80% of possible exposures within 48 hours.
Whatcom County’s Business Response Team also has worked with approximately 200 businesses that have experienced some sort of exposure to help mitigate the spread of the illness in the workplace, Environmental Health Supervisor Tom Kunesh said in the briefing.
While much of that work has been to work with businesses to identify close contacts once a new case is diagnosed, Kunesh said the team also has worked with companies on operations and treatment plans and doing virtual tours to help reduce the chances of exposure.
“Most diagnoses of COVID-19 are from people that have been exposed outside the workplace,” Kunesh said. “Most employers have developed effective COVID-19 prevention plans. In a lot of cases, employers aren’t revealing any exposure at work — they’ve already done the hard work.”
Some of that work includes screening for symptoms, keeping workers who feel symptomatic at home, mandating distance between employees and employees and patrons, mandating face coverings and breaking employees down into smaller work groups, Kunesh said.
This story was originally published August 25, 2020 at 1:15 PM.
