COVID cases edging lower

Matt Baide | Sep 16, 20210

Mason County recorded 149 cases of COVID-19 last week, decreasing once again from the previous week.

As of Tuesday, there are six people hospitalized in Mason County with COVID-19 and one hospitalized outside of Mason County. There were two additional deaths this week.

There have been 320 cases in the last 14 days and the rate per 100,000 has decreased to 492.

Mason Area Command provided an email update that positive test results are being sent right away while negative results are taking longer to report back.

Mason County Director of Community Services Dave Windom said according to recent New York Times data, the county has a 13% positivity rate and is comparable to other counties around the area.

“We need a denominator. Without all those negatives applied you can’t get your ratios right,” Windom told the Journal. “Everybody is just overwhelmed. There’s lots of testing, they need to get positive results out to people and the negative results are taking longer.”

Windom said that Mason County is seeing a similar trend to delta variant data around the world, with a steep increase followed by a steep decline, but the cases have plateaued following a decline and he said he hasn’t figured out why that is yet.

“It went up, dropped and now it’s at a plateau, sawtooth plateau,” Windom said. “Something different is happening here and I haven’t exactly got a finger on it yet. It’s about half of the peak, at a plateau, which is interesting.”

Windom said he thinks the county COVID cases have peaked, and hospital availability is getting better with a few beds opening up, but the hospital is still about 90% full.

Testing kits are also difficult to get and Windom said the demand in testing supplies rose last month.

The email also stated that Mason County is 50% vaccinated among all ages. Windom said this number is based on New York Times data, although the county department of health data says 48.4% of Mason County is fully vaccinated. He said he believes this discrepancy is based on census data not being updated.

Despite the discrepancies, Windom said he hopes to continue to vaccinate more people in the county.

“The recent uptick in COVID really has brought it to everybody’s attention,” Windom said. “COVID moved down in the age groups, affecting younger people and I think it got some attention of some folks. The message is out there, and the vaccination rates will come up. We’re also waiting to see what will happen with boosters and pediatrics as well.”

The Forest Festival Volunteer Board decided to cancel the Paul Bunyan Grand Parade and fireworks show Saturday due to COVID data.

Mason Area Command stated the importance of people staying home from work while sick.

“It shouldn’t matter if someone has a cold, flu or COVID, they should stay home if they are sick,” the email states. “We also need to remind people to be kind to each other. Many people are still fighting annual allergies and are not sick.”

“We tried to push on and move forward with these events but the COVID numbers, event outbreaks and the like, have guided us to the decision to keep our community safe and cancel these events,” The Mason County Forest Festival Volunteer Crew said in an email to the Journal.

Gov. Jay Inslee announced last Thursday a new mask mandate required for all outdoor activities with more than 500 people, which started Monday.

This new mandate prompted an email from the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association, reminding masks are required for outdoor sporting events with more than 500 people, which possibly includes Shelton and North Mason football games. Calculating 500 people includes fans, event staff, bands and anyone else who may occupy seating areas. Coaches, players, officials and other personnel on the field along with cheer, dance and drill squad on the sidelines are not counted.

“The Governor’s Office and State Department of Health will allow our extracurricular activies to continue so long as they trust that our member schools will enforce the mandate at each and every event,” the email states. “We urge you to work with your facility managers and event staff to actively enforce and model these guidelines, without exception.”

President Joe Biden announced employers with more than 100 workers are required to be vaccinated or test weekly for the virus, which affects about 80 million people.

According to the Mason County visitor’s guide, the new requirement includes Mason County, Taylor Shellfish, Sierra Pacific Industries, Walmart, Fred Meyer, Alderbrook Inn, Mason County PUD No. 3 and Fungi Perfecti.

There is a vaccine requirement federally for health facilities that receive federal Medicare of Medicaid also must be fully vaccinated.

Biden is signing an executive order to require vaccination for employees of the executive branch and contractors who do business with the federal government, with no option to test out of the requirement.