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Vashon Has Worst Pandemic Week So Far

Published 1:30 am Thursday, December 3, 2020

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Graph courtesy PHSKC and Vashon EOC This graph tells the story of Vashon’s spike in cases that reached a new record peak in the Thanksgiving holiday week. That means COVID-19 has hit Vashon harder than at any time during the previous eight months of our emergency activation. In just one week, Vashon recorded about one-third of all its cases to date — 22 new cases out of the total of 64. That spike explains the nearly vertical line in this graph plotting the seven-day rolling average of all positive cases among Vashon residents with a red line, against the background of the rising day-to-day new cases.
Graph courtesy PHSKC and Vashon EOC Many people have asked if increased testing prior to Thanksgiving artificially inflated the number of cases discovered. A key number watched by experts is the positivity rate — the percentage of positive cases for a given number of tests. As this graph shows, the positive case rate has been rising sharply on Vashon during November. A rising positivity rate means COVID-19 is more and more common in the general population. In October, only about 1% of those tested had COVID-19. But by the end of November, one in ten of those tested were infected. (Note: The Nov. 24 column includes results only from the Vashon MRC testing site due to incomplete off-island test data from PHSKC.)
Graph courtesy PHSKC and Vashon EOC Taking King County as a whole, the sharp rise in new COVID-19 infections has been especially strong among 20- to 39-year olds, followed by the 40- to 59-year olds, as shown on this graph. Although seniors who fall ill tend to have more severe effects, all ages can and do contract the disease.

THE VIRUS

Vashon cases spiking: The number of Vashon residents infected by COVID-19 spiked dramatically over the Thanksgiving holiday week. There were 22 new positive tests recorded by Public Health — Seattle & King County (PHSKC) between Saturday, Nov. 21 and Sunday, Nov. 29. The new cases raise the Vashon total case count to 64 since record-keeping began in March, according to statistics from Public Health — Seattle & King County (PHSKC).

Vashon resident hospitalized: Public health confirmed this week that a Vashon resident has been hospitalized due to COVID-19, the second hospitalization from Vashon since the pandemic began. The first was back in April. It is important to point out that federal law and medical ethics require the utmost confidentiality to protect the privacy of patients. The people of Vashon will feel like helping the individual in some way but we cannot reveal the patient’s identity.

PANDEMIC IMPACTS

Family and workplace sources: Most of the COVID-19 cases on Vashon have come from two directions: family or other social gatherings and worker-to-worker contacts. Even the cases related to out of state travel have involved family visits or workplace contacts that took place at the travel destination, after which residents brought COVID-19 back to the island. “Unfortunately, once COVID-19 infects one member of a household, other members of the family often get sick,” observed Dr. Zach Miller, volunteer infectious disease specialist on the Vashon Medical Reserve Corps team. “This can be quite difficult for a family. For example, we have had several cases in the past few weeks where one person got infected and most or even all of the family members ended up testing positive for COVID-19.”

Please, a post-Thanksgiving appeal: The Vashon Medical Reserve Corps has issued a special appeal to families and friends who decided to get together for Thanksgiving. “No matter how careful you think you have been, the disease is now everywhere,” warned Dr. Ina Oppliger, co-coordinator of the Vashon MRC. “If you gathered for Thanksgiving with anyone outside your household, please be extra cautious and consider that you may have been exposed. We are very concerned that the current spike in cases on Vashon may be merely the beginning. We may face an even bigger explosion of cases coming out of the holiday. The next 14 days will be crucial as we monitor the post-Thanksgiving incubation period.”

School district nutrition program: The school district’s food service operation has been disrupted due to a positive test for a staff member. It appears that the school breakfast and lunch program might be closed temporarily, but the Vashon Food Bank has stepped in to help fill the gap. Food will be available by going to the Vashon Island High School pick-up location during normal pick-up hours from 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on scheduled school days. An existing stock of prepared meals makes it possible to serve the Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program (ECEAP) the rest of this week and to supply today’s needs for Vashon Kids and Camp Sealth. The district is helping those programs make provisions if there is an extended food service suspension. The disruption of the food service operation has been required by the district’s decision to go beyond normal exposure action protocols and be extra safe, asking all food service staff to get tested. Standard procedure is to require anyone going for testing to quarantine, so that means there aren’t enough staff available to operate, which in turn has forced the district to suspend its in-house food service operations due to the staff shortage. The situation is still under study and it will take a few days for test results to come back. That information will help the district make decisions about food service operations going forward.

Engels Repair & Towing: The Maury Island gas station and garage, Engels Repair & Towing, has closed for a precautionary safety quarantine. Pending the results of more COVID-19 testing, Engels hopes to reopen on Monday, Dec. 7. The business shut down immediately when one of the staff tested positive, even though the staff member was not working in a position with frequent public contact. The owners have done deep cleaning disinfection, following guidelines from the Medical Reserve Corps.

Island Queen: The owners of Island Queen restaurant in uptown announced they have closed temporarily as a precaution, due to secondary exposure of staff to COVID-19. The business is disinfecting and staff is being tested to make sure it’s safe to reopen.

Sugar Shack: After COVID-19 tests for the staff and deep cleaning of the restaurant, Sugar Shack restaurant reopened on Monday, Nov. 30 following a two-week precautionary shut down.

COVID-19 VACCINE

Vaccine early assessment for Vashon: The Emergency Operations Center and Medical Reserve Corps have conducted an early assessment of the island’s COVID-19 vaccination capacity and offered support to the organizations that will dispense vaccine when it becomes available. The support being offered includes coordinated public information communications by the EOC Community Engagement Team on why and where to get the vaccine, as well as support from the EOC Logistics Section if needed. The assessment has been conducted based on lessons learned from the recent successful seasonal flu vaccination program and the VashonBePrepared response to the 2009 H1N1 virus pandemic.

Three likely dispensers: Vashon’s three likely dispensers of the COVID-19 vaccine include Vashon Pharmacy, Vashon Natural Medicine Clinic, and the Sea Mar Community Health Center clinic at Sunrise Ridge. All three have emphasized that the availability and challenges of COVID-19 vaccination distribution on the island are not yet clear and, although the national news coverage of trial results is very positive, much uncertainty remains. It could be some months before the vaccine is generally available to the public on Vashon.

Vashon Pharmacy: Owner Tyler Young reports that he has registered Vashon Pharmacy for COVID-19 vaccine dispensing with his pharmaceutical supplier. He will not be able to participate in Phase 1 of the state’s vaccine distribution because that is for long term care facilities and is being handled by Walgreen’s, CVS and other government-contracted entities. However, he expects Vashon Pharmacy to be part of phases 1, 2 and 3 to vaccinate front line workers and the initial general population distribution, beginning as soon as February or whenever general distribution takes place. He has requested 7,500 courses of the vaccine but emphasizes that he will not receive his entire allotment at one time.

Vashon Natural Medicine (VNM): Clinic owner Kelly Wright reports Vashon Natural Medicine is getting set up with the state via the clinic’s standing as a Washington State Vaccine Program provider. VNM will have enough vaccine for the clinic’s patient population based on state guidelines. The clinic has a Registered Nurse dedicated to the administration of vaccines and a total of six people who will be able to give vaccine shots. Wright remarked on the refrigeration requirements for the vaccine but says they are looking forward to being able to provide the injections.

Sea Mar Community Health Center: Senior Vice President Jesus Sanchez indicates that Sea Mar will be ordering vaccines for all of the Sea Mar clinics, including Vashon. He said the timetable for distribution remains unknown and the actual distribution program has not yet been established, including the final rules for priority distribution that will come from the federal and state governments.

EMERGENCY OPERATIONS

Emergency Operations Center (EOC): The EOC activated in response to the pandemic emergency on March 12, nearly nine months ago (267 days ago).

Medical Reserve Corps/Spike Response: The MRC leadership, responding to the spike in Vashon cases, put out an appeal for Vashonites to report their positive tests that were done off-island. The information will help MRC volunteers conduct contact tracing on Vashon, a step being taken because contact tracing efforts by Public Health — Seattle & King County and state Department of Health have been overwhelmed. The Vashon MRC phone number is (844) 469-4554.

Medical Reserve Corps/Testing: Traffic continues to be very heavy at the MRC COVID-19 testing site. The team of MRC and CERT volunteers recently set a new one-day record of 45 tests.

Vashon COVID Relief Fund: The VashonBePrepared Board of Directors has reaffirmed the four operational priorities for the Relief Fund, as the organization prepares for what the pandemic will bring in 2021. The priorities continue to be health, food security, housing security, and economic recovery.

Vashon EOC & Medical Reserve Corps: The vaccination team completed an assessment of Vashon planning to date for the COVID-19 vaccination program. The vaccine will likely not be available to the general public for months but could arrive as early as February (see story above).

Volunteers: The surge in COVID-19 cases drove up the demand for volunteer hours in the most recent reporting week. A total of 37 volunteers contributed 414 hours of work to VashonBePrepared’s pandemic emergency response. That brings the total volunteer time since activation to just over 18,400 hours. FEMA values each volunteer hour at $31.72 and that means VashonBePrepared volunteers have contributed almost $585,000 worth of in-kind service to the island community. The total includes hours contributed by the Vashon EOC Team, Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), Medical Reserve Corps (MRC), and Community Care Team (CCT). VashonBePrepared also gives thanks for the hundreds of hours not included here but contributed to the community by the staff and volunteers at our local social services agencies.

ABOUT

This information is compiled from the Situation Reports produced by the EOC Situation Section and provided to The Beachcomber to help islanders stay informed and safe. To receive reports and other emergency information emails, go to VoiceOfVashon.org/AlertSignup.

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