Eastern Washington still has a week or two before omicron peaks, health officials say

The good news: There’s an end in sight.

The less good news: We are a few weeks away from that in Eastern Washington.

State health officials said COVID cases and hospitalizations appear to be plateauing and potentially declining in Western Washington, a sign that omicron may have peaked on the West Side. As with previous waves of the virus, Eastern Washington is expected to follow, but that will likely be in one to two weeks.

For now, cases continue to be sky-high and hospitals are slammed.

The most recent seven-day average from state data show that about 30 people are dying from COVID-19 every day.

State Epidemiologist Dr. Scott Lindquist said the end of the epidemiological curve is typically an increase in deaths, but omicron deaths do not appear to be at the higher rates seen during previous waves, like delta.

In other news, a new subvariant of omicron, BA.2, has been detected in Washington and may be associated with increases in cases in other countries, but at this point, state health officials are not concerned.

“I don’t want us to chase our tails with numbers of subvariants, every variant has a subvariant,” Lindquist said. “And I’m not interested unless it has clinical importance, which it has not shown any clinical importance at this point.”

About 25% of patients in local hospitals have COVID-19, Spokane County Health Officer Dr. Francisco Velázquez told reporters on Wednesday. He said the region still has a few weeks before he expects cases to plateau and, in the meantime, he asked residents to get vaccinated and boosted if they haven’t already to prevent the need for hospitalization should they catch omicron.

Those who are vaccinated are less likely to be hospitalized with the virus than those who are not, state data show.

Here’s a look at local numbers

The Spokane Regional Health District reported 712 new COVID-19 cases and 21 additional deaths.

There have been 1,213 deaths due to COVID-19 in Spokane County residents.

There are 205 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 in Spokane.

The Panhandle Health District reported 195 new COVID cases and nine additional deaths on Wednesday.

There have been 850 deaths due to COVID-19 in Panhandle residents. The district has an additional 5,000 cases backlogged.

There are 116 Panhandle residents hospitalized with the virus, and Kootenai Health is treating 92 COVID patients.