The State of COVID-19 in Okanogan County: January, 2022
January 27, 2022 Okanogan CHI Meeting Summary
Overview of current COVID activity in Okanogan County:
This COVID variant acts more like a flu or a bad cold (Omicron stays in the upper airway), far fewer people are hospitalized than previous variants, not a lot of hospitalized children so far.
People are testing multiple days in a row when they have been exposed or have symptoms, they can be negative with the first test and not get a positive result until day 4 or longer.
Many clinics are running out of testing supplies, DOH is working on solutions
We may be nearing a peak in this surge (we are usually 1-2 week behind the westside of the state). School athletics are furthering cross-county infection.
DOH is likely to shift from reporting positive tests to reporting hospitalizations because the reporting is too demanding to keep up with.
Vaccination rate is relatively flat at 48% across the county, see your town’s vaccination rate here. Misinformation is the biggest challenge to getting more people vaccinated.
How are our hospitals and clinics doing in this surge?
Hospitals, clinics, and many nursing homes are struggling with capacity:
There are above average numbers of people in hospitals and healthcare facilities in general who are not necessarily COVID affected.
Many patients could be staying at home or seeing a provider, instead they are coming into Emergency Departments. Some of the disease care that was put off during COVID is now accelerated into more extreme health issues, which increases the overall work of healthcare facilities.
Significant operational challenges are arising as staff test positive and cannot return to work until they are clear again.
Hard to transfer a patient to a higher level of care or ICU because beds are full in other places and extreme weather hampered movement several times this winter.
“We're in a world of hurt for healthcare professionals.” Many people are leaving healthcare, they are burned out and tired, leaving a shortage of healthcare workers in the wake, e,g, there are 73 openings at confluence for Medical Assistants.
There are more positive people testing positive than are being reported on the COVID site. How do we best help explain his discrepancy?
There are more positive COVID-19 cases in the community right now than are represented in the incidence rate on the OCPH data page. Before cases can be reported, they are verified and entered into the Washington State Disease Reporting System (WDRS). This is where DOH and LHJs pull data from to track cases across the state. In Okanogan County right now, there is likely a ~3-5 day lag between when someone tests positive using an antigen (rapid) test and when that case appears in the OCPH update (assuming that OCPH is notified of the positive test--we know not every positive home test result is reported to OCPH!).
OCPH has moved to a weekly reporting window to allow for that lag time and to compare weekly trends that can indicate when the current surge appears to have peaked and begins to decline. Besides home tests, OCPH must manually enter all positive test results from EMS testing (AeroMethow, Fire District 15), some schools (those who are not using the CDC Simple Report tool, which links directly to WDRS) and Mid-Valley Hospital & Clinic. It takes approx 15 minutes to manually enter one positive test result into the database. To make it easier to report a home test kit positive result, OCPH has just launched an easy online reporting form
https://okanogancountycovid19.org/home-test-for-covid/. Instead of calling OCPH, community members can fill out the quick form online, and then OCPH will follow up.
People have COVID symptoms but often don’t test positive for 5 days or more. How should employers navigate this in their policies and practices?
Employers should set their guidelines and communicate the plan with employees. It might involve something like asking employees the following when they come to work:
Do they feel ok (fever, scratchy throat)?,
Does anyone in their household have covid?
Were they in close contact (indoors, less than 6' apart for more than 15 min) with someone who was covid pos?
If yes, the employer could ask the employee to take a rapid test (ideally, employer would have home-tests on hand and they could do one right then). If employee tests negative, but has symptoms, employer could choose to have them stay home or make sure all employees wear N95 masks in indoor work spaces. If employee has a fever, they should stay home until the fever has been gone for >24 hrs without meds.
If someone has symptoms and they are at work, N95 masks for everyone inside is the best way to keep all employees safe. Anyone who tests positive, should isolate at home for 5 days, and then wear an N95 mask for another 5 days. The updated CDC guidance for isolation/quarantine after exposure, or positive COVID-19 test, is here: https://okanogancountycovid19.org/tracing-isolation-quarantine/
How can CHI members best support the capacity challenges facing hospitals and other healthcare entities right now?
Spread the message:
Go to the appropriate place for appropriate services so we can get doors open for community visits and ERs, help healthcare use its resources very well right now
Keep people out of emergency rooms when possible
Come to your providers’ appointments when they are scheduled (health systems are working hard)
Support long-term plans to grow the healthcare workforce:
To try to get more people into the profession through tracks that community colleges, hospitals, public health and clinics are developing (we’ll talk about that more at the CHI)
Leverage community health workers to keep healthcare engaged with patients
This is time to support each other. There is no quick fix to covid or staffing shortages, healthcare folks could all use care and support right now.
