Local COVID cases go up again

The Grand Coulee Dam area has had an additional three cases of COVID-19 confirmed in the past few days. 

A July 20 update from the Grant County Health District said they received an additional 59 cases between the evening of July 17 and 5 p.m. on July 20, including one in the Grand Coulee area of Grant County.

“There is widespread community spread in Grant County,” the district wrote in its daily report online Monday. “It is not limited to one employer, community or household.”

They then received another 20 cases by 5 p.m. July 21, including another case in the Grand Coulee area, bringing the Grand Coulee area of Grant County to a total of five.

Grant County as a whole has confirmed 1,010 cases, including eight deaths. 

Okanogan Public Health reported 149 additional cases between July 17 and July 20, including a case in Coulee Dam.

The county has had three deaths and a total of 444 cases, 310 of which are from only the past 14 days, making for an incident rate of 725.5 cases per population of 100,000 over a two-week period. 

That number is relevant because the criteria for a county to move up a phase in Washington’s Safe Start Recovery Plan is to have fewer than 25 cases per population of 100,000 over a two-week period.

Okanogan and Grant County are both in Phase 2 of the recovery plan. 

Lincoln County is in Phase 3, having experienced only six cases so far, and Douglas County is in modified Phase 1, with 544 cases and four deaths, according to the Washington State Department of Health. 

The state as a whole has 48,575 cases, according to DOH data updated at 11:59 p.m. on July 20. That number includes 1,465 deaths, or 3% of confirmed cases.