PIERCE COUNTY, Wash. Pierce County is struggling with another COVID-19 case as it returns to Phase 2 and as the larger population qualifies.
Anthony Chen, director of the health department in Tacoma-Pierce County, said vaccines are a long-term strategy to fight the coronavirus, but masking, social distance, hand washing and restricted gatherings are the first line of defense.
“There is no way we can vaccinate from this,” Chen told The News Tribune on Thursday, given the current restrictions on the vaccine in the state.
His message reflects what state health officials have warned amid increasing incidents. Masks, hygiene and social distance remain important tools for everyone to adopt, state health officials said in their Wednesday briefing. They estimated that it would take at least 70 percent of the population to be vaccinated before the herd immunity was affected.
Pierce County is now just over 19 percent fully vaccinated, according to state information listed on the State Department’s COVID-19 dashboard, lower than the surrounding counties in the Puget Sound region.
According to the governor’s office, the warning is included, including the delay in reporting and vaccines administered via the Department of Defense.
In the numbers provided by Government Secretary Jay Inslee, by March 17, at least 23,934 doses of vaccine had been administered to Pierce County residents to more than 14,186 residents.
In a Facebook Live Townhall of April 6, the commander of the 62nd Airlift Wing, Col. Erin Staine-Pyne said about 40 percent of McChord Field’s population had taken the COVID-19 vaccine, The News Tribune reported on April 14.
Meanwhile, the nationwide business rate has been rising since mid-March. The province’s 14-day rate per 100,000, measured by TPCHD, was 14.3 on March 14, the last drop in the number before it began its climb to 200. Daily business totals ranged between 80 and swung to 200 on certain days.
On Thursday, the rate per 100,000 was 210.2, exceeding the statistics of the Roadmap to Recovery Phase 3, which requires less than 200.
The numbers reported by Pierce County tend to skew lower than the state record for its statistics on the Roadmap to Recovery, which determines the phases for each state.
The numbers differ from those reported for the Roadmap to Recovery statistics, based in part on different time points in measurement and different cases. The state also contains some probable cases and cases among people living at JBLM, according to the Department of Health in its update Thursday.
Inslee announced Monday that Pierce County, along with Cowlitz and Whitman counties, will return to Phase 2 of the state’s Roadmap to Recovery. Phase 2 limits restaurants, retailers and gyms to 25 percent capacity, below 50 percent in, among other rules.
Chen said he is not surprised that Pierce County has retreated and feels it is necessary to protect residents and businesses from major outbreaks.
WHO IS BONDED?
Pierce has seen increasing cases since mid-March. Chen supports another big boom after the spring break.
“We have seen that we get a bruise after any big holiday,” he said.
Chen said school overseers told him students hold parties and hold parties after football games. The cases among young adults are leading, Chen said.
The COVID-19 data from the health department reports that about 15 percent of the cases affect people under the age of 19; people in their 20s are responsible for 21 percent of reported cases; people in their thirties are 19 percent; and those in their 40s are 15 percent of reported cases. People 50 years and older are 30 percent.
According to the state Department of Health, cases for ages 35 and younger accounted for about 64 percent of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Pierce County for the first week of March, compared to about 74 percent for the first week of April.
Dr. State Health Minister Umair Shah said at a Department of Health briefing last week that the largest increase across the country was due to younger people, ranging from ten to thirty.
“But in many ways, we’re also seeing a lot of age groups increase, and that’s a concern for us,” Shah said.
WHERE DOES INFLUENCE HAPPEN?
The health department works with 35 schools, 49 businesses, six churches and seven health care facilities, Chen said. Many of them are not considered ‘outbreaks’ by the Department of Health, which requires two or more cases.
The department is still seeing an increase in cases and outbreaks in some institutions.
“We are starting to see more churches or religious places of worship, with more cases, with outbreaks,” said Kim Steele-Peter, director of the TPCHD Public Communicable Diseases Branch.
Steele-Peter said all the activities that indicate a healthy community – going to school, participating in sports, going to church, walking with friends.
“All of these things are a disadvantage in this pandemic, because they are also ways we transmit,” she said.
The outbreak data on TPCHD’s website shows 80 enterprises with a total of 385 reported cases of coronavirus. These include retailers with a total of 44 cases reported by COVID-19, child care centers with a total of 41 reported cases and shipping and delivery companies with a total of 38 reported cases, according to the dataset.
Among the listed businesses with outbreaks in the past 28 days, Walmart in Spanaway has the highest number of COVID-19 reported cases with 30 cases.
Only businesses with 60 or more employees and 10 or more confirmed COVID-19 cases are listed on the health department’s page.
In a letter to Inslee and lawmakers, Pierce County leaders argued last week that the province “does not see outbreaks in businesses” and that matters come from “private and home social gatherings.”
The letter was signed by Victoria Woodards, Mayor of Tacoma, Bruce Dammeier, CEO of Brussels, Bruce Kendall, President and CEO of the Tacoma-Pierce County Economic Development Council, and Tom Pierson, President and CEO of Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber.
In a statement sent to The News Tribune on Sunday, Chen said the province was still seeing “cases and outbreaks in all institutions” and that the health department was concerned about the upward trend.
Chen says an increase in cases has put employees and students in quarantine for two weeks, causing disruption in income and learning.
The Department of Health does not track the number of staff and students who need to be quarantined, but some school districts, such as Tacoma, share the number of people or students who had to be quarantined due to COVID-19. This month, more than 20 people have been quarantined at Tacoma Public Schools so far.
The health department lists care facilities with ten or more COVID-19 cases on its website. Currently, Rainier School in Buckley has been the most affected, with 54 cases in the current outbreak in the past 28 days and 92 cumulative cases.
FAXING ATTITUDE
Chen said there are people who have questions or concerns about the COVID-19 vaccines, such as religious organizations, minority groups and political groups about the speed with which the vaccines were developed, what the vaccinations contain and overall safety.
The health department has set up community coordinators to reach groups most affected by the coronavirus, including native Hawaiians and other Pacific, Hispanics and Blacks islanders, and work with more than 80 groups in vaccination strategies, Chen said. .
Vaccine information is available in different languages. Clinics are being set up in churches, community centers and workplaces so that individuals can be vaccinated in areas they visit regularly.
Chen said last year that there were small camps of people who were strongly for or against being vaccinated, and a large middle group of undecided people. Now there are many out of the middle who get the chance because they have seen people they know without consequences, he said.
Chen heard incorrect information about the vaccines, such as side effects, including infertility.
“We are all working as hard as we can to overcome any obstacles and address concerns,” he said.
One of the biggest groups the health department has struggled to reach is rural, conservative men, he said. Chen said staff are working to contact the people to overcome misinformation and inequalities in health.
“The point is, my job is to take care of 905,000 people and make them healthier, and I need to find a way to get them on board,” Chen said. “Our job is to protect all the people in Pierce County.”
This story was published by The News Tribune.