Vashon’s third spike reaches ‘unprecedented’ levels of disease
Published 1:30 am Wednesday, January 5, 2022
Editor’s Note: Read COVID Updates by VashonBePrepared in Spanish and English at tinyurl.com/yan39zeh.
In the last week, the Vashon Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) recorded 65 new COVID-19 cases (out of 258 tests performed by MRC). That is by far the largest number of Vashon cases recorded in a week since the pandemic began. Vashon’s third pandemic spike has reached unprecedented levels of disease.
In a single week:
• Vashon logged over 20% of all its cases recorded since the start of the pandemic, which began 94 weeks ago.
• Spiked up to a case rate six times the CDC’s “high transmission” rating category for spread of infection.
• Posted a positive test rate of over 25%, twice that of Vashon’s previous high rate in November 2020.
• Lost its status as the safest community in Puget Sound, with a case rate that spiked up to equal the rate on the mainland.
The number of new cases and the rate of spread of infection has increased so rapidly that the Public Health – Seattle & King County (PHSKC) statistics dashboard has fallen behind. It will take some time before this new data will be reflected in the dashboard.
Contact tracing by the island’s Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) shows that most of the new infections resulted from family gatherings for holiday celebrations, with a number of family COVID clusters generating multiple cases per household.
“This is bad no matter how you slice it. Vashon is no longer the safe haven that it has been for the past 22 months,” said Dr. Jim Bristow, MRC Co-Coordinator. “Please follow the advice we gave in our last newsletter. Keep yourself, your household, and our community safer by just assuming everyone around you may have Omicron or Delta. Four important things: Boost, mask, think, and test. Get the booster for optimum protection against Omicron. Mask up to keep the virus out of your nose, airway, and lungs. Think about where you are and who you are around to reduce exposure. And finally, if you have even mild symptoms, get tested.”
Testing at VISD for school-age children, faculty and staff
Vashon Island School District (VISD) announced school closures on Monday, Jan. 3, due to remaining poor road conditions. A late start day on Tuesday, Jan. 4, allowed time for all school-age children, faculty and staff with symptoms or exposures to get tested. MRC helped VISD with both rapid antigen testing and PCR testing on Monday. The all-out effort was aimed at testing as many students, faculty and staff as possible before they came to class on Tuesday, with the hope of slowing down community spread.
Vashon’s Major COVID Spike Follows a Regional Spike by About One Week
In an unprecedented spike, the greater Seattle region and Washington state both set records for new COVID cases. King County reported a 195% increase in positive cases in one week, about a week before Vashon’s spike hit. The county is reporting a rate of 2,000 new cases per day, which is more than 600 cases per 100,000 people.
That transmission rate is six times higher than the CDC’s definition of “high transmission,” and new record high numbers are being reported almost daily. Experts believe the spike has hit because the Omicron variant is extremely contagious compared to previous variants. In addition, the Delta variant still circulates, adding to the disease burden.
High testing rates continue despite last week’s snow. Dr. Zach Miller, an infectious disease specialist with Vashon MRC, pointed out that although this latest outbreak feels scary, “the high rate of positive test results means that testing lots of cases and contacts was exactly the right thing to do. We’re all tired of the pandemic, but testing coupled with vaccines and boosters is the most powerful way we’ll reduce the spread of COVID and get it under control to protect ourselves, our families and our community.”
Omicron is subtler than previous COVID variants, with slightly different symptoms, including sniffles and sneezes that might be mistaken for a cold, so everyone with even one symptom can call the MRC for advice and a testing appointment. The MRC Helpline is at (844)
Make Your Omicron Plan Now
Now that Omicron is the dominant variant in King county, we each need a strategy for preventing it, preparing for it and recovering from it.
Prevent It
• Wear a close-fitting high-quality mask such as a NIOSH-approved N95 whenever you’re indoors among people other than those in your household, or outdoors but not able to maintain distance. When dining or otherwise unmasked around others, sit farther apart.
• Before getting together with people from outside your household, hold a pre-event test party so everyone knows their status before getting together. If anyone’s test is positive, maintain distance (and send them home with food from the gathering). Then help them get a PCR test as soon as possible.
• Get your vaccines, including your booster, and help family and friends get theirs.
Prepare for It
• Have comfort and care items ready in case you or someone else in your household gets sick – whether it’s from COVID-19, a cold, or the flu. Start with broth-based soups, non-caffeinated drinks, facial tissues, over-the-counter medicines and the phone number of your healthcare provider. Add a thermometer and a pulse oximeter for monitoring oxygen levels.
• If someone in the household gets sick, they and everyone who was around them should get tested. Call the MRC Helpline at
• If you live alone, stay home and isolate while sick. Ask friends or family to drop off any needed food and medicines at your front door and check on you daily with calls or texts.
• If you live with others, choose one person, ideally someone vaccinated and boosted, to be the caretaker. Keep other people and pets away from the ill person. The caretaker should quarantine after the person with COVID-19 completes their isolation period.
• Organize different times for using shared spaces like the kitchen or bathroom to reduce household exposure to the ill person. Improve airflow by running a fan or opening a window. Get a HEPA air purifier, or use a box fan with HEPA filters (like those suggested for use against wildfire smoke in the summer) if you can.
• Clean surfaces and wash utensils after each use. Wash hands frequently, and clean doorknobs and light switches. Avoid sharing personal items with people that live with you, such as utensils, towels, or bedding.
• Monitor symptoms, and call your healthcare provider right away if symptoms get worse.
Recover
• Two weeks after you are well again, you can schedule vaccinations or boosters. Vaccinations supercharge the partial natural immunity you get from being sick with COVID-19.
Vashon Gets New Rapid PCR Testing for Procedures and Travel
Vashon Pharmacy has launched a new testing service for proctored (supervised) rapid PCR tests. The supervision makes the test valid for travel or a medical procedure.
Pharmacy owner Tyler Young said that these new rapid PCR tests cost $125, about half the cost of similar services at mainland locations such as testing at clinics around the airport. Unfortunately, the fee won’t be covered by insurance because the pharmacy is not allowed to bill insurance. The charge is needed because logistics and administration are costly for the new service.
Young also said that the Pharmacy is only now starting the service, and limited appointments will be offered at first. To make an appointment for a proctored rapid PCR test, visit tinyurl.com/vashoncovidtest
Mass Booster Site Reopened This Week
The island’s mass booster vaccination clinic reopened on Tuesday, Jan. 4, at Vashon Methodist Church. Make your appointment at: VashonPharmacy.com/COVID. Vashon Pharmacy operates the booster clinic with volunteer support from the Emergency Operations Center (EOC), Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) and Community Emergency Operations Team (CERT). The team has modified operations at the clinic to enhance patient and worker safety. Patients are asked to spend the 15-minute post-vaccination waiting period in their cars and wear an N95 mask inside the building. N95 masks are provided for patients and staff.
You can also get booster shots at your healthcare provider. Both Sea Mar clinic and Vashon Natural Medicine offer boosters, but ask that you call ahead to find out their schedule and how to get the shot. You can also get boosters on the mainland at major medical providers, multiple drug store chains and King County or City of Seattle vaccination sites. Many of these options are open for drop-ins with no appointment required.
Latest Vashon COVID Statistics
Note: These statistics, sourced from Public Health — Seattle & King County (PHSKC) and Vashon EOC, do not include all recent Vashon cases, due to the lag in posting of data to the PHSKC COVID dashboard.
338 = Total COVID cases for Vashon residents since the pandemic began.
67 = New cases since the last weekly report (33 new cases in 14 days)
8 = Patients hospitalized since the pandemic began.
4 = Deaths since the pandemic began.
93.3% = Vashon residents age 12+ who have been fully vaccinated (compared to 86.0% of the total King County 12+ population.
59.7% = Vashon residents age 12+ who have their booster doses (only those 16+ are eligible for boosters)
60.8% = 5- to 11-year-old Vashon residents with first doses of vaccine
For King County, the PHSKC dashboard says unvaccinated people are six times more likely to get COVID, 33 times more likely to be hospitalized for COVID and 45 times more likely to die of COVID.
For more resources and information, visit VashonBePrepared.org. Sign up at tinyurl.com/4smk364m to receive email updates from the group, and/or visit VashonBePrepared on Facebook.
