Ended pandemic or not, Covid is here to stay

After a nice break for a couple weeks, the infection control nurse at Coulee Medical Center had to get back in the saddle the third week in September with three employees out with Covid-19.

And as of Monday night, reported CEO Ramona Hicks to the hospital district board, five more employees were isolating due to exposure and 10 more were testing for it.

The hospital has lost 710 working days among staff, due to the covid pandemic.

Covid-19 isn’t going anywhere, officials say, but there are still precautions to take to prevent yourself, and others, from getting it.

Noting a recent remark by President Joe Biden that the pandemic was over, CMC’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Sam Hsieh, said, “That depends on who you ask.”

Hsieh pointed to the fact that the U.S. is still reporting 71,000 new cases a day and about 400 deaths. Around the world, he said, about half million people get it every day; about 2,000 die.

People who are still vulnerable don’t tend to feel like it’s over, including his 80-year-old dad who is demanding more be done to stop it. His brother, a busy 35-year-old, will tell you it’s over, Hsieh said.

Americans are “kind of split in the middle,” Hsieh said, with 46% having returned to pre-pandemic lives, and 57% “still somewhat concerned.”

“It is really kind of the vulnerable population that we really need to think of, and it probably should be the focus moving forward,” Hsieh said, adding that Covid will likely never go away completely. “We will have to live with it.”

According to the Grant County Health District, the Grand Coulee/Electric City area of Grant County has seen 400 total covid cases since the pandemic began, 42 more since The Star’s last update two months ago on July 27. Additional cases have been reported to county health each week since then.

As of Sept. 22, Grant County had an incidence rate of 103 cases per 100,000 residents, down from 238 on July 21 but still much higher than the 26 cases per 100,000 residents reported on March 31. 

The state as a whole shows a case rate of 93 as of Sept. 26, according to the Washington State Department of Health.

Official case rates are widely viewed as undercounted due to home testing kits and an associated lack of reporting.

The state seems to be experiencing a surge in cases.

According to the New York Times, as of Sept. 26, the average number of new daily cases in Washington is 1,080, with 2,742 reported that day, marking a 22% percent increase in the 14-day average.

Washington, out of 1.8 million cases in the state, 14,316 people have died from Covid.

“We now know that COVID-19 is here to stay for the foreseeable future,” the DoH website reads. The site includes helpful links related to masks, vaccinations, treatments, testing, and more at https://doh.wa.gov/emergencies/covid-19.

In Washington, masks are still required in health care settings and in adult prison and jail facilities when the county in which the facility is located has a medium or high  COVID-19 Community Level, as listed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC currently lists almost all counties in Washington as having “low” community levels of covid, with only a few southern counties, including Walla Walla, Klickitat, Columbia, and Skamania counties being listed as “medium.”

At all levels, including low, medium, and high, the CDC recommends to:

• stay up to date on vaccination, including recommended booster doses,

• maintain ventilation improvements,

• avoid contact with people who have suspected or confirmed COVID-19,

• follow recommendations for isolation if you have suspected or confirmed COVID-19,

• follow the recommendations for what to do if you are exposed to someone with COVID-19, and

• if you are at high risk of getting very sick, talk with a health care provider about additional prevention actions.