‘Remember what works.’ Rising COVID cases have Pierce, King counties wary of next wave
As Pierce County heads into the fall season of the pandemic, local health officials are warning that without a concerted effort, new cases could quickly spiral out of control.
The root causes remain a lack of masking, not maintaining social distancing and not following safety measures, with initial infections then spreading to others.
“We came together as a community to drive new cases down after the highs in early August. But we lost all that progress since Labor Day,” Cindan Gizzi of the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department wrote in a department blog about rising COVID-19 case numbers late Thursday.
“Confirmed cases are up over the past two weeks, when the average rate of cases went up almost every day. ...The last time our numbers were this high was the end of August.”
The number of new cases already has some school districts walking back plans to return to in-person instruction, including Tacoma and Puyallup.
On Friday, Clover Park announced its own delay in returning to in-person hybrid learning.
Gizzi noted that the rise could bring more restrictions, not only to in-person learning, but congregate care facilities.
Care facilities recently gained the ability to relax some restrictions for visits.
“Outbreaks in congregational care settings continue as they have since early in the pandemic but are at a higher level,” Gizzi wrote. “This is especially concerning, as our older residents can have more severe outcomes from COVID-19 disease, including death.”
On Friday, the health department reported the county has risen to more than 8,000 cumulative COVID-19 cases, while the state on the same day reported it was approaching 90,000 cumulative cases.
A 6-day data lag reporting standard is used for making decisions such as reopening schools and more businesses, and the county’s total at that measurement was 63.2 per 100,000 as of Friday.
The health department warned this week that if numbers continue to climb, “we expect the rate to go above 75 per 100,000, with the 6-day data lag, sometime next week. If we surpass that threshold, Pierce County will move back into the ‘High’ category of the COVID-19 Activity Level per the Department of Health’s Decision Tree for the Provision of In Person Learning.”
Business outbreaks
While businesses have sought for more broad reopenings, the latest round of Pierce County updates on its COVID-19 data dashboard show that outbreaks have gone up among local businesses compared with the previous two weeks.
Six outbreaks were reported the week of Sept. 19-25, up from four the previous week and three the week of Sept. 5. Outbreaks are defined as any site reporting two or more cases.
The Fred Meyer Distribution Center, 349 Valley Ave. NW in Puyallup, reported its second outbreak of the year recently with an initial 20 cases reported among 700 workers.
On Friday, Jeffery Temple, Fred Meyer media representative, told The News Tribune in response to questions that total now is 28.
“All have self-quarantined in alignment with the company’s Emergency Leave Guidelines,” Temple said via email. “Per doctor guidance, many will begin returning to work starting next week after quarantine and healing. We also continue to use professional third-party sanitation deep cleaning on at the facility.”
While the health department lists the number of COVID-19 cases in workplace settings by industry, health department director Dr. Anthony Chen has noted the department does not want to stigmatize individual businesses facing small outbreaks.
For now it is unclear if the department eventually will list individual businesses as it does now with congregate care settings.
King County also has juggled outbreak information with patient privacy. Recent outbreaks have been reported at the University of Washington’s Greek Row as well as Salish Lodge and Spa in Snoqualmie.
In a news conference Friday, Dr. Jeff Duchin, health officer for Public Health — Seattle & King County, was asked how his department views its responsibility in alerting the public to outbreaks.
“Based on the level of COVID transmission in our community, everybody should be clear that they’re taking a risk for COVID and that COVID may be where they are when they’re in public because there’s so much disease out there,” Duchin said. “So much of it is in people who are asymptomatic, we can’t assume that there’s no COVID because people look happy and healthy around us.”
His advice? Whenever you are out just know “there is a risk, and that’s whether you’re at a business or whether you’re going to a social event or whether you’re going to a house of worship, the potential for transmission is there.”
In July and August, the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department did an observational tally of how compliant people were of mask mandates. At that time, it found compliance varied widely by location. It noted overall, 77 percent of those observed wore a mask in some fashion, but only 66 percent wore a mask with full coverage (nose, mouth, chin).
The department plans to do another observational review of mask compliance among residents in late October/early November, according to Dale Phelps, the department’s COVID-19 communications lead.
Flu shots and home testing
In addition to social distancing and masking, health officials stress the need for everyone to get vaccinated for the flu to help keep illness in general down so that hospitals are not overwhelmed with flu and COVID-19 patients.
An estimated 721 people were inoculated at the county’s first two sessions of flu shot distribution, according to figures provided Friday by Phelps in response to questions.
Flu shot locations in the county are listed at tpchd.org/healthy-people/flu.
Amid the current climb in COVID-19 cases, new home-testing options also were announced this week.
Quest Diagnostics and Safeway-Albertsons are among those offering home testing kits.
Quest, in a news release, said its QuestDirect nasal swab home kits come with step-by-step instructions, with further support available from its help line if needed, with results available in 24-48 hours after a lab receives it.
Its kits cost $119 along with a $9.30 physician fee paid directly without insurance reimbursement. The tests have received FDA emergency use authorization.
“This means that while Quest Diagnostics has validated the test and has the data to believe the test and the collection kit are accurate, this test has not been FDA-cleared or -approved,” it notes on the QuestDirect home test purchase page.
Safeway-Albertsons home kits, which are saliva tests, cost $139.99.
“Currently, we are unable to bill insurance directly for this test. All payment will be out of pocket for the purchase of the test. People may be able to submit their receipt to their insurance company for reimbursement,” said Tairsa Worman, public affairs manager for the grocer.
The tests, offered at Safeway-Albertsons pharmacies in partnership with Phosphorus Diagnostics, typically offer results in 72 hours or less via email or text after the lab receives the test. (More information at scheduletest.com.)
Similar to the QuestDirect tests, Phosphorus gained FDA emergency authorization use for its saliva tests in June.
King County health officer Duchin on Friday said it’s still too early to completely rely on these types of tests, with the fear of false positives or false negatives.
“I think there’s a lot of caveat emptor, buyer beware with these take-home tests and point-of-care tests at the moment. You don’t have a lot of experience with them,” he said. “We don’t want them to be falsely reassured that they don’t have COVID-19 if the test is not sufficiently sensitive to detect it.
“I wouldn’t depend on it if you’re sick. I would see a health care provider and get a PCR test in your community. But, if you’re using them as sort of an experiment if you’ve got low grade symptoms for example ... and you get the results quickly, that can help you isolate yourself from others and maybe advise others in your contact circle to be tested.”
Bottom line, we know what to do to slow the spread of COVID-19, Duchin reiterated at Friday’s news conference, it’s just a matter of doing it.
“We are entering a very challenging time, both locally and nationally, with respect to COVID,” he said. “I implore people to step back for a minute to remember what works and to rededicate themselves to doing everything they can do as individuals and what we can do as a community to minimize the potential for a great degree of illness and suffering this fall and winter.”
