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COVID-19

Huge supply of PPE set to be distributed in Spokane as 30 new COVID-19 cases reported

Bethany White, Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center supply chain manager, helps stabilize a shifting pallet of protective gowns as the third of five shipments of PPE arrived at Sacred Heart from the state, Saturday, April 4. More supplies are set to be distributed soon.  (DAN PELLE)

With a statewide mask mandate on the brink of going into effect on Friday and cases of COVID-19 on the rise, a large supply of personal protective equipment is slated to be distributed to individuals and organizations in Spokane.

Small businesses and nonprofits that need personal protective equipment can register to pick up supplies Monday through July 2 at the Spokane County Fairgrounds.

After county commissioners allocated $2 million to fund PPE for businesses, the county and Greater Spokane Inc. are planning to distribute those supplies next week. Hand sanitizer, disinfectant, cloth face masks and other gear will be available for businesses that need it to reopen or stay open during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The county ordered child-sized masks to distribute as well, in order to support local day cares.

Businesses and nonprofits with fewer than 50 people must sign up to receive supplies at greaterspokane.org. GSI is also looking for volunteers to help distribute the equipment.

The state is also supplying two cloth face masks to any Washington resident living at 200% of the federal poverty level or below, and the local emergency management agency will distribute those masks to CHAS Health, Spokane Neighborhood Action Partner, Catholic Charities, the Salvation Army and other partners. Spokane County will receive 323,000 face masks through the initiative, and they are set to arrive in July.

GSI is working to translate flyers and informational materials into several languages spoken in Spokane to get information about the supplies to all communities that might need PPE.

The protective equipment will come amid a surge in COVID-19 cases in Spokane County, which added 30 new cases Wednesday, bringing the county total to 1,081 cases.

There have been no new deaths for a few weeks now, but 14 county residents are hospitalized currently. There are also 14 COVID-19 patients from outside the county receiving treatment in local hospitals. A few other patients in local hospitals are considered “people under investigation” for having COVID-19.

These patients are from other Eastern Washington counties as well as inmates from Coyote Ridge Corrections Center, the site of a massive outbreak.

Spokane County Health Officer Dr. Bob Lutz said cases are on the rise among people in their 20s and 30s. While some cases are due to worksite outbreaks, others are due to behavior.

“Young people, especially since Memorial Day, have gotten out and socialized and in doing so they are finding themselves in settings like restaurants and taverns that are putting themselves at risk,” he said.

People in their 20s and 30s make up 40% of confirmed cases in Spokane County, with more than 400 confirmed cases in this age group.

So far, the health district has linked five cases to May 31 protests against police brutality on May 31, Lutz said.

In four of those cases, investigations indicated those who have since tested positive did not contract COVID-19 at the protest itself.

The low number of cases tied to protests is consistent with what modelers found in Seattle, where case data collected 10 days after protests began has not produced evidence that protests led to spikes in case counts.

“At this time, there is no obvious county-level evidence for a protest-driven spike in COVID-19 cases,” the most recent modeling report says, noting that continued monitoring is needed to ensure this remains true in coming weeks.

Lutz noted that community spread continues in the county. While 70% of cases identified since June 8 can be linked to other known cases, 30% cannot.

Lutz has resisted moving forward to Phase 3 of the state’s reopening plan – and he remains opposed to moving forward.

“I just have to see much better data,” Lutz said, noting that the county’s current case counts are twice what they should be to move ahead.

Modelers estimate that the current R-naught is about 1.5 in Eastern Washington, meaning that each infected person usually infects more than one other person. This is common in household outbreaks, when one member can bring the virus home to the whole family.

The county’s percent positivity rate has also increased. Last week, 6% of people tested were positive, which is much higher than the county’s rate even a couple months ago.

Ultimately, following Gov. Jay Inslee’s masking order will be the best way to prevent further transmission of the virus and allow the county to move to Phase 3, Lutz said.

“I believe that if we want to move forward, we need to be doing the selfless act of wearing face coverings,” he said.

Arielle Dreher's reporting for The Spokesman-Review is primarily funded by the Smith-Barbieri Progressive Fund, with additional support from Report for America and members of the Spokane community. These stories can be republished by other organizations for free under a Creative Commons license. For more information on this, please contact our newspaper’s managing editor.