No New COVID-19 Cases This Week In San Juans

Contributed Image/CDC

From San Juan County

Since the last update on Fri­day, Feb. 19, total cas­es in San Juan Coun­ty have remained steady at 129. There is one close con­tact of a pos­i­tive case cur­rent­ly in active quarantine.

Orcas Island

There are no new cas­es on Orcas Island since the last update.
There are no pos­i­tive cas­es under active mon­i­tor­ing on Orcas Island at this time.

Lopez Island

There are no new cas­es on Lopez Island. There are no pos­i­tive cas­es on Lopez Island at this time.

San Juan Island

There are no new cas­es on San Juan Island. There are no pos­i­tive cas­es under active mon­i­tor­ing on San Juan Island at this time.

Overall

First off, let’s take a moment to savor the fact that this is our first week with no new cas­es since ear­ly Octo­ber, back when our case count was at a mod­est 32.

Sec­ond­ly, let’s acknowl­edge the incred­i­ble work of the San Juan Coun­ty Health & Com­mu­ni­ty Ser­vices Sur­veil­lance Team. A behind-the-scenes look at our 129 cas­es to date reveals many sit­u­a­tions that could have eas­i­ly led to broad(er) com­mu­ni­ty spread. There is no doubt that prompt and thor­ough inves­ti­ga­tion and detailed mon­i­tor­ing were major con­trib­u­tors to the lack of wide­spread trans­mis­sion. It is worth not­ing that many juris­dic­tions across the coun­try have long ago giv­en up on proac­tive con­tact trac­ing- and have seen an uptick in dis­ease spread as a result.

Final­ly, let’s acknowl­edge the incred­i­ble role the com­mu­ni­ty has played so far. Every­thing from mask­ing up to respect­ing Pub­lic Health guid­ance around quar­an­ti­ning has con­tributed to a com­par­a­tive­ly suc­cess­ful response to date.

This is no small thing.

Islanders, here’s the deal: things are look­ing up. Vac­ci­na­tion rates are increas­ing, cas­es are decreas­ing, schools are slow­ly reopen­ing, the vac­cines appear to be high­ly effec­tive, the days are get­ting longer, and spring is close. These are all good and encour­ag­ing things.

• We’re not going to preach gloom and doom. But there are vari­ants spread­ing and they may cause yet anoth­er surge in cas­es that requires a roll-back. Here’s what we ask:
• Keep up with our basic precautions.
• There’s a lot of room between full lock-down and act­ing like we’re 100% back to nor­mal. Find that mid­dle ground.
• Be thought­ful in our decisions.
• Stay patient.
• Get vac­ci­nat­ed, but please, only when it is your turn.

Thanks, every­one.

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