‘The pandemic’s not over when we reopen.’ Health officials say remember COVID safety
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Washington Reopening Guide
As the state lifts COVID-19 restrictions June 30 on masks, social distancing and capacity limitations, many of which have been in place for more than a year, here is what you need to know.
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Starting just after midnight, Pierce County and the state of Washington made the first big push to return to a world without the COVID-19 pandemic dominating every move.
While most people are ready to pop the champagne and toss their masks in the air like some pandemic graduation ceremony, officials remain cautious amid the state’s current array of COVID variants. Statements issued Tuesday emphasized that residents still need to mask up if they are not fully vaccinated.
As Pierce County geared up for the state’s June 30 reopening and lifting most pandemic restrictions, state and local health officials on the one hand want to promote a definite change in mindset, while maintaining that COVID risks remain.
The state Department of Health’s weekly briefings for example, happening since the start of the pandemic, are set to fade out.
“We are going to begin pulling back on some of the regularity by which we have been having these media briefings,” Secretary of Health Umair Shah told reporters last week. “We do want people to recognize that we are moving into a different phase of this pandemic.”
Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department representatives announced in recent Board of Health sessions they will eventually scale back response, but for now the COVID work continues.
“The pandemic’s not over when we reopen, and there is certainly still a public health response aspect to all of our work in managing COVID for a while,” said Stephanie Dunkel, TPCHD’s assistant division director for Communicable Disease in a Tuesday phone interview with The News Tribune.
Pierce County, still trying to reach a 70 percent vaccination rate, is also home to multiple COVID variants, according to the state’s latest variant report, which only traces a percentage of cases.
“We are actually currently doing assessments for what the next week, six months to a year are going to look like. And one of the things factoring into that is that we know we do typically see some level of resurgence,” with reopenings, Dunkel noted. “With our current level of individual unvaccinated, we are preparing for a possible disease uptick as we reopen.”
Wednesday’s “Welcome Back Tacoma” celebration, set for 11 a.m. at Wright Park, including Mayor Victoria Woodards and Gov. Jay Inslee, marks the end of most all COVID restrictions on businesses and public spaces.
The event, complete with food trucks and entertainment, will be offering COVID-19 vaccinations. It’s one of three reopening events in the state Inslee will be attending Wednesday and Thursday, with celebrations also in Seattle and Spokane.
BEWARE THE VARIANTS
With most indoor and outdoor gatherings getting back to normal and lower daily COVID case numbers and the continuous march toward higher vaccine rates, what’s left to watch out for?
Mainly, COVID variants, of which there are more than 10 on Washington’s radar.
“Washington is among the states doing the most genetic sequencing of COVID-19 samples,” Ashley Gross, public information officer with the state DOH, told The News Tribune via email in response to questions.
Over the weekend, the World Health Organization warned that those fully vaccinated should remain masked in crowds because of the risk of variants, specifically the Delta variant, officially known as B.1.617.2. Los Angeles County revised its mask guidance in light of the Delta spread in its own community.
“The Delta variant is one that we are keeping a close eye on, but so far it represents a small number of isolates in the state. We are not changing our mask requirements out of concern about that variant at this time,” Gross wrote.
Pierce is among eight counties listed with the Delta variant among the surveillance sampling (meaning it could be elsewhere, too), with five cases listed in the state’s most recent report June 23.
The variant with the most cases captured in the state’s surveillance sample of county data remains the Alpha, a UK variant (B.1.1.7) followed by Epsilon (B.1.429), a California variant.
Third in Pierce County is the Gamma (P.1) Brazil variant, which remains the variant that state DOH officials have noted might eventually be more of a worry to this state than the Delta version.
“We know that people who are vaccinated, the vaccines are still showing protection on the variants,” Dunkel said, “and we’re continuing to learn what that looks like as well over time.”
In addition to its rapid spread, “The other very big concern for this Gamma variant is that it’s got the highest hospitalization rate of any of our variants,” said Dr. Scott Lindquist, the state’s acting health officer, in a briefing last week.
“While everyone is concerned that Delta is going to have more death and hospitalizations, we are just not seeing that here in Washington,” he told reporters last week. “We are seeing more breakthrough cases proportionately, and hospitalizations, with the Gamma variant, so that really puts it in perspective for us.”
Dr. Michael Anderson, chief medical officer for Virginia Mason Franciscan Health, told KING-5 TV recently that it is rare to find COVID patients hospitalized who have been fully vaccinated.
“We know that they had the opportunity to be vaccinated and chose not to be vaccinated for one reason or another,” he said.
MASKS STILL IN OUR WORLD
Health Secretary Shah amended his masking order on Tuesday to note that those not fully vaccinated must continue to wear masks in public indoor settings, and all people, even those who are fully vaccinated, must still wear masks in certain places, including schools, health care settings and public transportation, according to Gross.
“Local authorities and businesses may adopt more protective masking requirements, which is why our message is to ‘respect the rules of the room you’re in,’” Gross noted.
“Wearing masks outdoors is no longer required, but people who are not fully vaccinated are encouraged to wear a mask in crowded outdoor settings, such as sporting events, fairs, parades and concerts. Masks are no longer required for outdoor sports practice or competitions,” she wrote.
On Tuesday, Tacoma’s Grand Cinema noted it was going optional for masks starting Wednesday.
“However, we will continue with socially distanced seating, meaning there will be one empty seat between patrons and the people around them,” the theater noted in its blog.
VACCINE DEMAND SOFTENS
In May, the county was struggling through its fourth wave, soaring into hundreds of cases for the 14-day average, according to the state’s tracking.
State figures now put our 14-day case average (confirmed and probable) at 74.2 as of June 27, down from the days of 300+ in May.
The fourth wave for Pierce County was a roller coaster for much of that month, even moving the county back along with a handful of others to Phase 2 in the state’s Roadmap to Recovery reopening plan.
The county started to see a noticeable drop in new cases in June, going from 366 cases reported at the peak of the fourth wave in May to 31 on June 29.
The vaccines appeared to have caught up with community spread at that point.
Pierce County now has administered more than 800,000 doses of vaccine, with 42.44 percent of the population fully vaccinated as of June 23 and nearly 50 percent initiating vaccination.
State DOH, in its data from June 26, put Pierce County at 48.5 percent among those 12 and older fully vaccinated, and 54.6 percent initiating vaccination.
“We’ve continued to see demand soften,” Dunkel told The News Tribune. “We have seen a decrease in our daily vaccine numbers. For awhile we were at about 5,000 to 5,500 a day. We’re now around 2,800 to 3,000 a day.”
Among those younger than 18, TPCHD data show 10.2 percent of that age group is vaccinated in the county, compared with 40.9 percent of those 18-29; 52.2 percent of those 30-49, 60.4 percent of those 50-64; and 72.2 percent for those 65 and older.
By race/ethnicity, Native American/Alaska native shows 56.9 percent vaccinated, 48.9 percent of Asians, 33 percent among Blacks, 28.3 percent among Hispanics, 41.9 percent among Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander and 43.3 percent among whites.
The gap between men and women vaccinated remains notable, with 47.9 percent of women and 41.5 percent of men receiving a dose.
As of Tuesday, TPCHD has recorded 51,029 cases and 600 deaths since the start of the pandemic.
For the future, Dunkel ticked off all that the staff was puzzling through now: continued vaccinations, possible booster shot distribution, expanded access and distribution for younger children if approved for the vaccine, school reopenings, more mobile vaccine distribution.
“We are still responding pretty heavily to this,” Dunkel said Tuesday. “There are a lot of things still occurring, there are a lot of things we’re going to be looking toward in the near future that we will need to respond to in the way of COVID, so we’re still going strong for a little while.”
This story was originally published June 30, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
