COVID-19 trends still heading in right direction in Spokane County
Spokane County appears to still be on the right track, with declining COVID case counts and hospitalizations leading up to the lifting of the statewide mask mandate at midnight Saturday.
The two-week case rate is just below 200 cases per 100,000 residents, which is the lowest it’s been in months, Health Officer Dr. Francisco Velázquez told reporters on Wednesday.
Hospitalizations are down 82% in the last 30 days, he added, meaning hospital capacity has improved dramatically in the last month. Patients awaiting surgeries and procedures that have been delayed are being called back to the hospital, although Velázquez warned that it will take several months to catch up, possibly into summer.
There is still the possibility of a new variant or mutation, and Velázquez said that while the BA.2 sub-variant is leading to surges in cases in other countries, he is hopeful that our high percentage of more vulnerable people vaccinated, combined with some natural immunity brought on by the large omicron wave, should offer some protection.
In the last week of February, no BA.2 was detected in samples sequenced statewide, according to the latest data from the health department.
“Hopefully, with the number of people who’ve been vaccinated and the number of recent omicron cases, the community will have some protective effect for a short time that will help us get through the rest of the omicron surge without going backwards,” Velázquez said.
Here’s a look at local numbers
The Spokane Regional Health District reported 78 new COVID-19 cases and one additional death on Wednesday. There are still some data delays at the state health department that could be impacting case counts.
There have been 1,306 deaths due to COVID-19 in Spokane County residents.
There are 68 patients hospitalized in Spokane with the virus.
The Panhandle Health District reported 364 new COVID cases, but most of these are backlogged cases just now being processed. The district still has an additional 2,900 cases to process.
There are 45 Panhandle residents hospitalized with the virus.