Snohomish County is at risk of being one of the next counties to return to Phase 2 reopening when the state revalues COVID-19 data on May 3rd.
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To be able to stay in Phase 3, large counties must have 200 or fewer new cases per 100,000 residents for two weeks and five hospitalizations or less per 100,000 residents last week. As of Tuesday, Snohomish County has already exceeded one of those thresholds, with 205 new cases per 100,000.
For new cases, the county has seen their numbers double in less than a month, rising more than 250% from a minimum of 85 cases per 100,000 in March. The 950 cases the county recorded during the week of April 4 were also the highest one-week total Snohomish County has seen since the start of last November’s fall and winter wave. .
While hospitalization compliance is maintained for now, the county is approaching the limit with 4.6 per 100,000 residents during the week ending April 10 and Dr. Chris Spitters, the county’s health officer. Snohomish said Tuesday that he believes the region “is likely to exceed or approach” the five hospitalization benchmarks by May 3.
“This puts us on the threshold and in grave danger of returning to phase 2,” Dr. Spitters warned. “Without moderation, these trends could return to phase 1 shortly thereafter.”
As for what is causing these recent rises, Dr. Spitters believes an increase in large unmasked meetings among community members is likely to be to blame.
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“A quick exploration of social media feeds is a good qualitative indicator,” he described. “We just gathered too many people in meetings with friends or family who aren’t completely vaccinated, who don’t wear masks, and who don’t stay away.”
Snohomish County Health posted on Facebook on Tuesday: “There have been many outbreaks of COVID among youth sports teams. These outbreaks are putting the Snohomish community and the county at risk of phase-out.
Still, Spitters indicated that it may not be too late for Snohomish County to turn things around before May 3rd.
He advises residents to continue masking and avoid meeting other people outside their home in large groups of unvaccinated people.
“If we start that approach right away and do all these things right, I think we can have a reasonable chance of avoiding the tightest restrictions,” he said. “Going back a phase is painful and carries a very heavy burden for many, but it is towards this that we will head in the coming weeks if these figures do not turn around. It has already happened and will happen again if we do not change course. ”.