Clark County reports two additional COVID-19 fatalities, 38 more cases

Clark County Public Health reported two new fatalities from COVID-19 on Friday and 38 new confirmed cases.

The fatalities were a woman in her 50s who had an underlying medical condition and a man 80 or older with underlying conditions undetermined, according to Public Health.

The two new deaths follow the death earlier this week of a 34-year-old man who had no known underlying health conditions. The deaths came after nearly three weeks without any reported deaths in Clark County.

Clark County Public Health Officer Dr. Alan Melnick has warned that Clark County will see more deaths in the coming weeks if these high infection rates keep up.

Clark County’s death toll from COVID-19 reached 32 on Friday. The total number of confirmed cases to date reached 1,166.

Twenty people were hospitalized with confirmed COVID-19 cases, with another 12 hospitalized who are under investigation for COVID-19.

Of the 32 deaths reported to date, 21 were male and 11 were female. The highest death rate is among those 80 and over, with 20. Five deaths were reported for those in their 70s, three for those in their 60s, one for those in their 50s, one for those in their 40s, and two for those in their 30s. No deaths have been reported for those under 30.

The infection rate, which totals the number of confirmed cases in a 14-day period by 100,000 population, rose to 54 on Friday, more than double the benchmark set by the state for allowing the county to move forward to a more relaxed Phase 3 reopening.

Washington Secretary of Health John Wiesman said Wednesday that if cases of coronavirus continue to increase statewide, it was unlikely that a current statewide pause for counties looking to advance from their current stage of reopening will be lifted at the end of the initial two-week time frame.

Wiesman said that not only will a continuation of daily increases keep counties paused where they are, officials will have to consider whether they need to roll back reopening in counties by whole phases, or make other changes.

Source: https://www.columbian.com