Kitsap’s renewed mask directive follows an ‘explosion’ in cases

A renewed directive to wear masks indoors in Kitsap County receives mixed reviews.

This, after a resident of the Washington Veterans Home died of COVID-19; 32 other residents and staff are also infected with the virus.

This mask requirement comes from the Kitsap County Public Health Officer.

On Saturday evening, he told KIRO 7 that the mask warrant was needed because the coronavirus was spreading rapidly here again. He said they’ve seen over 100 cases on some days recently.

But the cleavage on the requirement is apparent in the parking lot of a small shopping center.

Bi-Mart requires masks. The “That One Place” dinner is not.

And a lot more people here agree with this decision.

In this commune where a little more than half of eligible residents are vaccinated against the coronavirus, there seems to be almost unanimity on one question: that no one is obliged to be vaccinated or to wear a mask.

“The fact that you need a mask for the people the vaccine is supposed to help is supposed to prevent it,” said Drake Stensland of Ollala. “So why are we getting vaccinated in the first place? “

And it looks like a bit of COVID fatigue has set in.

“I don’t think that’s fair,” said a longtime Port Orchard resident who declined to give her name. “I think we’ve had our shots. And we did it all. And I think we don’t need to do that anymore.

But just a three-minute drive away, a security guard ordered us out of the Washington Veterans Home property, telling us the house was on lockdown. At least one resident has died and some 32 others, including workers, have been diagnosed with COVID-19.

State data shows 97 percent of residents here are vaccinated. Just over half of the staff were shot.

“Right now we have an explosion of cases in Kitsap,” said Dr Gib Morrow, Kitsap County public health official. “We have seen an approximately seven to eight-fold increase in disease activity in the new cases that started in early July.”

Dr Morrow said he understood residents were fed up with wearing masks. But he said the virus was taking hold in that county and filling local hospitals with very sick people.

“To keep our community, to keep people out of the hospital, we have to do what we can,” said Dr Morrow. “This is just one more layer of protection that needs to be applied now. “

In fact, he said the best way to avoid having to wear masks was to get more people vaccinated. So far, only 52% of eligible Kitsap County residents are vaccinated.

Dr Morrow said there would be no penalty for refusing to mask himself. But he said he hoped residents would comply.

In doing so, they make the community safer and will help ease the burden on health care providers.

Written by KIRO 7 TV reporter Deborah Horne