23 new COVID cases on San Juan Island, zero cases elsewhere

The San Juan County Department of Emergency Management reports 23 confirmed or probable new COVID cases on San Juan Island since March 4. Neither Orcas Island nor Lopez Island reported a new case in the last week. The 23 new cases bring the total case count to 1,247.

In their media release, the County discussed the mask mandate that expires tomorrow:

When we wake up on Saturday morning, masks will no longer be required in public settings, including schools — but please note that some locations, including healthcare and long-term care facilities, will still have masking requirements in place. There are also federal requirements for transportation systems, including ferries and air travel, that will continue to require masking.

While many of us will be excited to take our masks off, we should remember that the masks we wore dramatically reduced disease spread by protecting both ourselves and those around us. With masks off, there will likely be a resurgence of flu and other respiratory illness and possibly a bump in COVID cases as well. Let’s all wear masks if we’re sick and in a public setting, including school. It’s pretty much common sense and basic decency at this point.

Assuming you are vaccinated and boosted, it still makes sense to mask up if you’re going to be interacting closely with someone who is high risk or are in a setting (e.g., indoors with large numbers of people) in a higher risk setting.

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