Local residents are being encouraged to head to the hospital if their bodies are telling them that something is wrong.
The advice comes amid a backdrop of a rising number of patients in emergency rooms with higher levels of sickness.
Summit Pacific Medical Center in Elma saw one COVID patient each day from June 4-7, but none from June 8-10. But the hospital’s emergency department has seen an influx of seriously ill, non-COVID patients with more than 50 from June 4-10.
“Our team has been seeing an influx of patients in our emergency department and those patients have a higher acuity of illness, meaning they are sicker,” said hospital spokeswoman Nichole Pas.
“We believe we’re seeing the effects of patients delaying their care either due to fear of COVID, or they assume hospitals are too busy with COVID patients to care for them. Neither are true.”
Pas continued, “Summit Pacific wants to remind community members that we are here to care for you, and it is safe to seek care. Please don’t wait until your illness has progressed, as you could be unknowingly putting yourself at risk.”
At Harbor Regional Health Community Hospital in Aberdeen, there were just three COVID patients during the week, said hospital spokesman Chris Majors. He said the hospital continues to run near capacity with its current staffing levels, but there “were a few beds available” on Friday morning.
“We continue to struggle with staffing shortages and thus increased stress for those who are here,” said Majors. “While nurses and nursing assistants are the most noted, we currently have 100 open positions, 88 at the hospital and 12 with the medical group.”
Majors said the jobs were “wide ranging” and he encouraged anyone looking for work to check out the job listings at ghcares.org.
Cases
The number of new COVID-19 cases reported in Grays Harbor County is finally dropping after a spike in late May.
The week of June 3-9, there were 81 new cases reported, according to Grays Harbor County Public Health. There were 99 cases the previous week, and 148 the week before that period. The county did surpass 4,500 cases for the duration of the pandemic, with the most recent week’s total raising that number to 4,518.
The rate of new cases over a two-week period per 100,000 population dropped from 420.2 June 2 to 306.5 June 9, continuing a steady drop since last May. It’s still well above the state rate of 116.8 and the third highest in the state, but still nowhere near the rate of 633.5 posted in Lincoln County.
There were two new deaths reported in the county June 7, initially raising the death total to 75. That total was adjusted by the state Department of Health to 74 on Wednesday.
Vaccinations
As of June 7, 61,536 doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been put into the arms of Grays Harbor County residents, according to state Department of Health data.
According to that data, just under 44% of the population has had a first dose, and 38.42% is fully vaccinated. The state rate is 51.27% and 44.98%, respectively.
When adjusted to cover just those age 16 and older, in Grays Harbor County just over 53% has had a first dose and just under 47% stand fully vaccinated. The state rates are slightly under 64% and a little over 56%, respectively.
State public health officials say the state is still on track to hit its 70% goal of the population getting its first vaccination to reopen the state June 30. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention numbers state Washington is already at 70%, but the state metrics don’t match.
The Washington Department of Health chalked the differences up to the state counting the population age 16 and older, while the CDC counts those 18 and older, as well as to different population stats used by both agencies.
