COVID cases declining in Mason County

Matt Baide | Dec 02, 20210

Mason County COVID-19 cases are in decline with 142 confirmed cases since Nov. 23.

The 7-day case rate per 100,000 has declined from 167.6 on Nov. 23 to 88.4 on Nov. 30. The 14-day case rate per 100,000 is 269.6. The county is 54.1% vaccinated.

Mason County Public Health made changes to their COVID reporting, including turning the case reporting of the data to the state Department of Health. Public Health continued to report out numbers using various reports from the Washington Disease Reporting System, but found the reports were returning different numbers than the state was reporting on the state data dashboard, and so Public Health now reports data from the state data dashboard only, which is on a slight delay.

At the Mason County Board of Health meeting, Director of Community Services Dave Windom gave a presentation on the county’s COVID outlook. He said the county is averaging 19 cases per day, which is a 29 percent decrease from two weeks ago and since the beginning of the pandemic, 1 in 11 residents have been infected for a total of 6,161 reported cases. Windom said when the number hits 6,400 reported cases, it will have infected 1 in 10 residents.

Rates are in decline when looking at daily cases, the 14-day case rate, hospitalization rates and death rates. Rates in schools have decreased after peaking in October. Windom said that 46% of COVID deaths in Washington are from long-term care facilities.

Mason County Public Health Officer Dr. Keri Gardner said since Sept. 1, the county has recorded 38 deaths out of the 80 total during the pandemic.

“Overall, we feel like vaccinations are slowly picking up and the death rate is definitely declining as well as cases,” Gardner said during the meeting.

Windom started the presentation by saying cases have decreased, but are still high, although Mason County is not considered a hot spot any longer. The county had its worse wave of COVID in October. The county received their first 77,000 pediatric doses in early November.

“Our message is the same as it has been which is COVID vaccinations work to decrease how seriously ill somebody gets if they have a vaccine breakthrough infection and it decreases deaths,” Gardner said. “We are strongly encouraging folks to vaccinate themselves, anyone they know that’s in a vulnerable population. A booster shot if they’re already vaccinated and then vaccinating children.”

Community and Family Health Manager Lydia Buchheit said at the Board of Health meeting that 712 pediatric doses have been administered so far.

“There was a lot of public outcry in the Shelton area when they did the teenagers and a number of the schools, I’m not saying all of them, but a number of the schools had decided they didn’t want to have that come up again so we’re trying to work on some different ways to do it,” Buchheit said at the meeting.

The county has been working with large employers and the Mason County Economic Development Council about testing procedures once President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate is implemented in early 2022.

“We sent out test kits to some of the larger employers to see which test kits they like,” Windom said during the meeting. “We’ve got some orders. We’re pausing to make any orders for more test kits to see if Washington is going to do a vaccine and test or vaccine and terminate, kind of like what happened with healthcare and teachers and state workers. We’re waiting to see what happens there.”