COVID-19 rate drops and vaccinations soar

Central Washington Hospital is also doing much better with the number of COVID-19 patients it is managing, Chelan-Douglas Health Officer Dr. Malcolm Butler said.

The only concerning change is that a growing percentage of 10- to 19-year-olds in the past month are carrying the disease, Van Meter said. It is now at 13% and is the highest percentage of any of the age groups.

“So, for the last week there were 123 cases and about 20% of them were in that 10- to 19-year-old range,” Van Meter said.

Chelan-Douglas Board Member and East Wenatchee Mayor Jerrilea Crawford asked if schools reopening had anything to do with the higher number of COVID-19 cases.

It does not, Chelan-Douglas Health Administrator Luke Davies said. It appears students are contracting the virus outside of schools. He said it has been impressive how the schools have managed to identify students who test positive and have them quarantine.

“We’re seeing kind of an increase in the 15- to the 18- to 19-year-olds,” Davies said. “We don’t really want to speculate as to why it is happening, but that’s the age group that’s more mobile, they have driver’s licenses, they can go different places.”

The B117 COVID-19 variant, which is more transmissible, is also now in Washington state, but state and local health officials don’t have plans to make any policy changes to combat the variant, Butler said. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is reporting 19 cases of the variant this month in Washington, up from two cases reported in January.

“It’s like a hurricane on the horizon,” Butler said. “We know it’s out there, we know it’s coming. We’re gonna batten down the hatches in all the same way.”

Meanwhile, vaccinations are well underway with just a few hiccups in the process, Davies said. Some providers experienced delays in the vaccine supply chain due to the bad weather event last week. It has meant some people’s second vaccine shot had to be rescheduled, but everyone should still receive their booster shot in time, he said.

The Town Toyota Center mass vaccination site was prepared for the weather and did not experience any delays, he said.

About 24,500 people in Chelan and Douglas counties have received their first dose of the vaccine and 16,000 of those have received their second shot, Davies said.

Some pharmacies are also starting to offer vaccinations, he said. Costco is now vaccinating about 20 people a day.

The health district is now working to increase access to people who are remote and do not have easy access to technology, Davies said. In that effort, Ray Eickmeyer, Lake Chelan Health vaccination lead, will be taking doses to communities in Stehekin and Ardenvoir.