Health officials stress importance of distancing and face masks as case counts continue to climb in Eastern Washington

The pandemic is far from over.

A statewide report released this weekend shows that several regions in Eastern Washington, including Spokane, have yet to see their peak of COVID-19 cases. Other regions include Yakima and the Tri-Cities.

Public health officials are warning that lax adherence to physical distancing and mask directives will result in more cases, deaths and a much slower transition into the next phases of Gov. Jay Inslee’s reopening plan.

In short, Spokane County Health Officer Dr. Bob Lutz warned that he is seeing evidence of community spread of the novel coronavirus. That means the county is still far from being ready to move into Phase 3 of the reopening plan.

“The last couple weeks, in light of opening up into Phase 2 and people taking those recommendations liberally, we’re continuing to see new cases, and some of them are potentially in the community, and if I have community spread, that will challenge us to go forward in any timely manner,” Lutz said.

Local health officials recorded 40 new cases over the weekend in Spokane County, bringing the total to 842 in the county, with nine people in the hospital receiving treatment for COVID-19.

The county is far from meeting metrics state health officials will use to determine when the county can advance to Phase 3. Lutz, who would have to make a recommendation to the health district’s board to apply for Phase 3, said the county will not be advancing to Phase 3 in the next couple weeks.

By state standards, Spokane County would need to have less than 130 cases in two weeks to have a level enough case count to advance to Phase 3. More than 350 people in Spokane County have tested positive for COVID-19 in the last three weeks alone.

The health district has about 80 people trained to do contract tracing, including both student volunteers and health district staff, but each new confirmed case brings with it a web of contacts that must be called and asked to quarantine or get tested.

Lutz said he is planning to speak with modelers at the Institute for Disease Modeling, which helped write the report published by state health officials over the weekend. He said a lot of the modeling goes back to the “R naught” number, which refers to the reproduction rate of the virus. That number is increasing in both Western Washington and Eastern Washington, where it is above one. This means that for every person with COVID-19, they are infecting at least one other person and usually more than that.

The Department of Health report says “additional interventions” are needed to prevent exponential growth of the virus; Lutz said he would work with state health officials should those types of actions be necessary. Indoor settings, like restaurants and taverns where people can stay for longer periods of time, as well as work settings where employees must be in close proximity to one another create opportunities for the virus to spread if appropriate precautions are not taken.

COVID-19 can spread from person to person even if the one who has the virus does not have symptoms, which makes transmission potentially easy and hard to detect. Lutz said time and space have a lot to do with transmission as well.

Statewide businesses are required to protect their employees with appropriate face coverings and sanitize their spaces, however the onus is largely on community members, not businesses, to follow appropriate physical distancing and wearing face coverings when out at those businesses, whether they are retail stores or restaurants.

“I do not want employers and employees to try to enforce masking, but it’s frustrating for me that when we have such a simple intervention that works, people won’t do it,” Lutz said.

Community members not wearing masks is one of several reasons Lutz believes the county has increased its case count. In Phase 2, residents should not gather with more than five people outside their own household, and wearing face coverings in public where a person cannot stay six feet apart from others is also advised.

More testing has yielded more cases, but Spokane’s case counts also are due to outbreaks and some community spread. So far, Lutz said, health officials see no indication that protests against police brutality that drew thousands of people in recent weeks have led to higher rates of coronavirus infections in the community.

Twenty- and thirty-somethings make up the highest concentration of case counts in Spokane County, and Lutz said young people may not show a lot of symptoms when they have the virus, making it more difficult to detect and also easier to spread without realizing it. He said many young people are working in jobs deemed essential, where they might be contracting the virus, while others are likely not following public health guidelines.

Anne Soiza, an assistant director at the Washington State Department of Labor & Industries, said they have received more than 4,000 complaints to date of businesses not following safety and masking protocols issued by L&I. They have contacted hundreds of businesses so far in response, she said, sending letters as well. The department can enforce the COVID-19 masking and sanitation requirements with inspections and fines.

In many communities, however, while businesses are protecting their workers, many customers are not.

“I think communities need to step up and take ownership for hand washing, distancing, wearing masks and disinfecting if they want to open up further,” state epidemiologist Dr. Scott Lindquist told reporters on Monday.

Lindquist said the Institute for Disease Modeling report from the weekend is a warning. Washington has more than 26,000 confirmed cases, with 1,221 deaths due to COVID-19.

“If you want a haircut, wear a mask,” he said. “You will not enjoy these freedoms in our phases until we can demonstrate we can control this. I hope we do not go backwards, but that is a concern.”

As of Monday, 79 prisoners and 34 staff members at Coyote Ridge Corrections Center in Connell have contracted COVID-19, with more than 1,000 inmates in quarantine after possible exposure. The Washington Department of Corrections is transferring inmates who need more medical attention to Airway Heights Corrections Center. So far, 17 people have been transferred. Inmates transferred to Airway Heights do not count as a part of Spokane County’s incidence rate, Lutz said, but they might need to use the area’s hospitals, which could affect Spokane’s hospital bed capacity.

Spokane County has had 14 hospitalizations in three weeks, and Lutz said eight of the nine people currently hospitalized are in intensive care units.

“That’s not a good sign for me, so be patient,” Lutz said. “I really ask you to do the things we have been talking about, but until our numbers look better I will not support us moving ahead.”

Across state lines in Idaho, where the state has reopened into Phase 4, which allows bars and nightclubs to reopen with some capacity restrictions, the Panhandle Health District reported its first death due to COVID-19 in Kootenai County. The five-county region now has 126 total cases confirmed.

Editor’s note: This story has been edited to correct the spelling of the term “R-naught.”