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It was a brief return to normal this summer, without a mask warrant for three months.
At the end of June, Governor Jay Inslee addressed a room packed with local health care providers and politicians in the Riverfront Park Pavilion. No one wore a mask. Spokane was reopening. There was reason to rejoice.
A month and a half later, the tide has changed – drastically.
COVID-19 cases are on an exponential rise. The Spokane Regional Health District reported 1,911 new cases in the past week alone.
Hospitalizations of COVID-19 patients are the highest of any pandemic in the state and county.
So what happened? The delta variant has arrived.
The delta variant has been compared to chickenpox in terms of contagiousness. The delta variant is at least twice as transmissible as previous strains of coronavirus. Experts estimate that one person with the delta variant could transmit the disease to five to nine people.
Statewide data shows it. The state is sequencing some positive COVID-19 samples for the variants of concern. At the beginning of June, 31% of the samples sequenced were the delta variant. At the end of July, the delta variant made up 95% of the state’s samples.
The delta variant sends people to the hospital who weren’t there earlier in the pandemic. The average age of hospitalization has dropped significantly, and local healthcare providers are seeing critically ill patients with the virus even though they have no underlying health conditions.
“What’s really scary is when you look at the average age of patients admitted to Spokane – they’re getting a lot younger,” said Dan Getz, chief medical officer of Providence Health Care in Spokane.
The average age of the roughly 100 COVID patients hospitalized in hospitals in Providence in the northwest interior is under 50.
“They are generally healthy people,” Getz added.
Healthy, but not vaccinated.
More than 90% of patients locally and even statewide who are hospitalized with the virus have not been vaccinated against the virus. Healthcare providers are seeing sicker patients and otherwise healthy young people end up in intensive care units on ventilators.
Getz said that although patients recover from the virus and are discharged from the hospital, they do not recover quickly.
“They have been sick for a long time; they could have compromised lung or heart capacity forever because of this disease, and these are things that should be statistically unlikely if you received the full vaccine, ”Getz said.
In Washington, 2 million people are eligible for vaccination but have not received any doses. In Spokane County, that number is about 190,000 unvaccinated people.
These figures do not include all children under 12 who are not eligible for vaccination but who are now potentially more vulnerable to infection.
In previous waves of COVID-19, children have tested positive, but locally, few have fallen seriously ill. In the current wave, some children and adolescents who test positive for the virus require hospital care.
“Children are now admitted to hospital with the primary diagnosis of COVID – that was not true during the January outbreak,” said Dr Mike Barsotti, administrator of Sacré-Coeur Children’s Hospital.
Vaccination rates among eligible Spokane County teens remain extremely low, worrying hospital officials for the next school year.
As of August 16, 57.1% of eligible residents of Spokane County had received at least one dose of the vaccine. Including children who are not eligible for vaccination, this percentage of county residents who are at least partially vaccinated drops to 48.6%.
The younger the person, the less likely they are to get the vaccine in Spokane County. Teens have the lowest vaccination rates among eligible people in the county.
As of August 4, only 32% of 12-17 year olds in Spokane County were vaccinated. This means that in most high school and middle school classes this fall, the unvaccinated will likely make up the majority of students.
Hospital officials are concerned what this low rate and other respiratory viruses like respiratory syncytial virus, called RSV, and influenza with COVID-19 could mean for pediatric hospitalizations this fall.
Barsotti said this fall and winter, the colder weather combined with other respiratory viruses for which children are hospitalized, such as the flu and RSV, create “a potential for a large number of admissions this winter.”
The fifth wave of cases and the hospitalizations that followed this month led state leaders to install mandatory vaccines for workers in several industries, including healthcare, long-term care, education, and healthcare. state agencies. Employees have until Oct. 4 to complete their vaccinations or risk losing their jobs.
Heads of state have also reinstated the mask’s mandate. Beginning Monday, everyone, regardless of their immunization status, is required to wear a face covering in most indoor settings.
When announcing the new terms, Inslee called the delta variant a “new fight” and it’s now a disease of the unvaccinated.
Hospitals are not yet overwhelmed, but capacity is incredibly tight statewide with elective and elective procedures canceled as well as limited visits.
People who choose not to get vaccinated are having an impact on Washington’s health care system as patient transfers become incredibly difficult and all hospitals in the state increase together.
“The current situation is really serious,” Cassie Sauer, CEO of the Washington State Hospital Association, told reporters Thursday. “We are asking for public health and state aid.
Hospitals are canceling surgeries that would require a patient to take a bed. Patients are transferred several hours away from home for care if they can get a bed.
It is not known how long this current surge in cases and hospitalizations will last, but locally the outbreak is likely to continue throughout the month.
“Given the trends we are seeing, we expect to continue to see some cases over the next few weeks,” interim health officer Dr Francisco Velázquez told reporters.
Cases confirmed this week could mean a continued increase in hospitalizations for the following weeks.
In the meantime, those most vulnerable to the adverse effects of COVID-19 remain at risk, including some of those who have been vaccinated. People who are immunocompromised are now eligible for a third dose of a COVID-19 mRNA vaccine, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends them.
While 90% of people hospitalized with the virus are not vaccinated, the remaining 10% are people who have been vaccinated and have had a breakthrough case of the virus.
The majority of these patients are older or have underlying health problems or are immunocompromised.
“These are patients with a history of cancer, leukemia or transplants who did the right thing and got vaccinated but were exposed in the community and are now in intensive care and are fighting for their lives,” Dr George Diaz, provider of infectious diseases at Providence Regional Medical Center in Everett, told reporters last week.
“They have been exposed mainly by unvaccinated people, and unvaccinated people create a risk for everyone,” he added.
Among those hesitant about the vaccine, many cite the emergency clearance of the three available vaccines as the reason they are waiting, saying they are awaiting full approval from the Food and Drug Administration.
Friday’s report says the FDA is set to issue full approval for the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine as early as Monday.
Health officials hope the current mask mandate and vaccine requirements will be enough to bring down case rates. Ultimately, the virus must be contained to prevent unnecessary deaths and keep the state hospital system functioning.
Health Secretary Dr Umair Shah has asked residents to get vaccinated this week, noting that the mask’s mandate is only part of the way to stem the tide of the current wave.
“Together we know that masks and vaccines work better,” Shah said.
“We must not fear COVID-19 and the delta variant, rather we must respect COVID-19,” he added. “It doesn’t matter who you are; if you let your guard down, it will raise its ugly head.
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