Covid-19 update

There was one reported case of covid-19 in the past week in Wahkiakum County, bringing the cumulative total of officially reported cases to 310, with one case considered currently active.

The Washington Department of Health is reporting that 30 hospitalizations and six deaths can be attributed to covid-19 in Wahkiakum County.

According the the WA DOH dashboard, 74 percent of the population age five and up in the state of Washington are fully vaccinated. The percentage of people age five in up in Wahkiakum County that is fully vaccinated lags far behind at 51.5 percent.

“It's been a few days and no associated individuals have tested positive, so this is likely a one-off,” Wahkiakum Health and Human Services Director Chris Bischoff said of the new case this week.

However, he notes that covid-19 numbers are on the rise again.

“The northeast United States is experiencing an increase in covid-19 cases,” he said. “In some states the rise is pretty dramatic. In Washington state some of the bigger counties like King are also starting to see a rise in cases. Our neighbors Clark, Cowlitz, and Pacific are not seeing any of that rise in cases at this time.”

"Both Moderna and Pfizer are working on revising their booster shots,” Bischoff said. “Moderna has announced that their reworked booster is more efficacious in combating the newer variants of the virus.

"The data on this has not been released and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control have not evaluated it yet. Moderna is aiming to have their updated booster available this fall.”