Local COVID rates continue to increase

Snohomish County has now had three straight weeks where the COVID-19 case rate has doubled, leading to case rates which far surpass any other time in the pandemic.

“You don’t need to be an epidemiologist to know we have a problem here,” said Dr. Chris Spitters, Snohomish Health District health officer, during a press briefing on Jan. 11. “We’ve had successive doublings in the past three weeks, up to 11,000 cases reported in Snohomish County residents,” in the week of Jan. 2 to 8.

About two percent of Snohomish County residents have had a positive COVID test in the two weeks between Dec. 25 and Jan. 8.

“When you factor in those who were asymptomatic and those who were pursuing testing but unable to get it, that’s probably around 8 to 10 percent,” said Spitters.

The two-week average case rate rose to 2,023 per 100,000 people, which is more than quadruple any of the peaks from previous waves of the disease.

“It really does blow the lid off of prior peaks in the pandemic,” said Spitters.

Current projections estimate another week or two of case rate increases followed by a slow decline.

“This is a projection, not a promise,” said Spitters.

Hospital capacity remains the biggest concern for local officials.

On Jan. 7, Snohomish County hospital beds used for COVID-19 patients became higher than at any other previous point.

“We’re up to 176 beds used in Snohomish County hospitals as of yesterday [Jan. 10],” said Spitters. “These figures eclipse the prior peak that was established about a year ago."

Hospital occupancy is running high currently.

“There’s very few available beds and this COVID surge has put pressure on the system to provide care and challenges on the ability to provide care for all individuals,” said Spitters.

At Providence Regional Medical Center Everett the number of beds being used for COVID has increased 500 percent since Christmas Eve and the number of patients in intensive care has tripled since then, according to Jay Cook, chief medical officer at the hospital.

“In the past three weeks we’ve really seen a dramatic increase of COVID cases in our community and in our hospital,” said Cook.

More healthcare workers are becoming sick during this wave of COVID-19.

“The Omicron variant is the predominant strain now and it is very transmissible. There has been a marked increase in the number of caregivers who have become infected, which is really affecting hospital staffing,” said Cook.

Policies have been put in place to reduce hospital traffic.

“We’ve also once again had to limit visitation to the hospital,” said Cook.

They’ve also postponed procedures which could be set back a couple of weeks without causing harm.

“These are not trivial procedures. They are essential and need to be done, but the doctors have determined they are not likely to cause harm if they are postponed by two or three weeks,” said Cook. “By that time we hope that we can resume these procedures."

Cook noted that patients receiving intensive care are typically unvaccinated.

“We still see, and this has been consistent in the pandemic, that about 90 percent of the patients to be sick enough to be in our intensive care unit are not vaccinated,” he said.

As cases surge locally, the demand for testing has become strained as well.

“As more people have become infected the demand for more tests has really skyrocketed and we recognize the need for more capacity to ensure that people can get tested when they need to,” said Snohomish County Executive Dave Somers.

Multiple agencies are attempting to purchase test kits right now.

“I’ve asked the Department of Emergency Management in Snohomish County to begin the process of purchasing an additional 150,000 home test kits,” said Somers. “Those kits are going to take a few weeks to arrive."

Both the state of Washington and the Snohomish Health District are also planning to purchase test kits.

The Health District is working on logistics about how to distribute those kits equitably to residents.

“That is still three to four weeks off,” said Spitters.