Covid-19 confirmed in 16th Wahkiakum resident

Wahkiakum County Health and Human Services (WHHS) has received positive test result notifications for four new covid-19 cases in Wahkiakum County residents.

The 16th case was reported late Tuesday. Wahkiakum School District Superintendent Brent Freeman told The Eagle that the person is connected with the district.

In a Wednesday morning news release, Wahkiakum County Health and Human Services (WHHS) Director Chris Bischoff said the individual is in self-quarantine and is symptomatic. The individual is a district staff member. Because of the stringent measures in place within the school district and the fact this person was part of a tight cohort, the district will remain open. This is the only known case affecting the school.

The 13th case was reported Monday, and the 14th and 15th were reported early on Tuesday. Two of the cases are associated with the Naselle/Grays River Valley School District, and the third is associated with one of the first two persons.

All individuals are in self quarantine, Bischoff said in announcing the developments.

"We are working to identify anyone who may have an exposure risk because of contact with the people. Those people with close contact will be notified by WHHS staff.

Pacific County is working with Naselle schools to coordinate covid response.

"We have expected this; we have planned for this," Bischoff said. "We continue to coordinate with partner agencies to monitor for the disease in the county. WHHS works every day to identify, track, and follow up on cases of potential disease exposure to protect people’s health. The COVID-19 virus is new, but state, federal, and WHHS public health response is not.

The current risk of COVID-19 in Washington is still high. Public health is identifying 100s more positive cases of the disease in the state every day.

"We know that the disease is spreading in Washington from person to person, but we have little evidence of that in Wahkiakum." Bischoff said.

Bischoff said the Washington Department of Health is incorrectly reporting only 11 cases in Wahkiakum at this time. WHHS working to correct this information.