Here’s how many COVID cases affected attendees, workers at Washington State Fair
There were 101 COVID-19 cases among people who either attended or worked at this year’s Washington State Fair in Puyallup, which ended Sept. 26, according to a summary of local case investigations.
“While we have not linked any cases directly to the fair or confirmed an outbreak related to the fair, we have identified at least 101 Pierce County residents who either tested positive for COVID-19 as part of the fair’s staff testing or who attended the fair during their infectious or contagious period,” Karen Irwin, COVID-19 communications lead for the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department, told The News Tribune via email in response to questions.
She added, “One case of COVID-19 is too many, but with more than 800,000 people attending the fair this year, these early numbers are encouraging.”
Hospital officials prior to the fair’s opening warned of the potential for the fair to place stress on already overburdened area hospitals struggling to deal with an influx of COVID patients. August saw 653 deaths statewide, more than double the number from August 2020.
Several fair attendees wrote The News Tribune to criticize what they saw as lax mask enforcement at the event.
Dina Lorraine, Department of Labor & Industries media representative, told The News Tribune in response to questions that 23 “concerns” about the fair had been submitted to the state since Sept. 2, with 18 masking complaints filed between Sept. 3-15.
“The Department of Health sent the complaints to the local health jurisdiction for initial contact,” Lorraine told The News Tribune on Sept. 17. in response in an earlier inquiry.
As for what happened after that, “We did follow up with fair organizers to make sure they know the rules about masking,” Lorraine told The News Tribune via email on Tuesday.
“It is up to the individual business, in this case the Washington State Fair, to ensure attendees are masked in crowds of 500 or more,” Lorraine wrote.
The fair this year operated under a health order issued by Dr. Anthony Chen, director of TPCHD, requiring attendees and those working the fair to wear facial coverings both inside buildings and outdoors regardless of vaccination status. The order came ahead of a similar state mandate for outdoor events involving 500 or more people.
The fair tested employees each day, and 369 people received a COVID-19 vaccine onsite in an effort to raise vaccination rates in the county, which for now has only about half the total population fully vaccinated.
Attendance for this year’s fair was down from previous years of a million-plus, dropping to about 816,000, according to organizers. The fair was canceled in 2020 because of the pandemic.
Nearly two weeks after the fair’s opening, TPCHD told The News Tribune that more than 20 COVID-19 cases under contact trace investigation involved individuals who either attended or worked at the fair while in the contagious or exposure phase.
