Spokane County confirmed 15 more cases on Wednesday, bringing the county total to 629.

There are currently seven county residents in the hospital.

Lutz said it’s important for people to remember that people of all ages can contract the virus. He said he met with a woman in her 20s who was recovering from the virus but had been in the intensive care unit with serious complications.

“To say that this illness does not impact young people to the same degree that it affects older people, that’s not the case,” Lutz said, noting that underlying medical conditions and how much of a “dose” of the virus or exposure a person has to it seems to affect its severity.

Some counties surrounding Spokane have applied to move into Phase 3 of the governor’s reopening plan, including Pend Oreille, Stevens, Ferry and Lincoln counties. These counties have seen very few, if any, new cases in the last three weeks and meet the majority of the governor’s new criteria to advance.

The state health department will review these counties’ applications, and they will need the stamp of approval from Secretary of Health John Wiesman to move forward.