Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Virus cases rise in Lincoln County after dropping to near zero
DAVENPORT – 6th Street Café and Pizza and Romriell Dentistry are temporarily closed due to COVID-19 issues amongst employees. Both closed their doors last week and will be closed through the start of next week.
COVID-19 rates had plummeted in Lincoln County by the beginning of July, but the widespread Delta Variant has caused a surge in local cases.
The county had seen 25 new cases in a 14-day span as of July 30 and has had nine more cases this week, creating 34 new cases in a 19-day span.
The county had almost zero COVID-19 cases at the beginning of July, but cases are rising again. Davenport had most of the new cases in the county as of July 30 with 18, with just three cases in Wilbur, two in Reardan, one in Harrington and one in Odessa.
Three new people have been hospitalized, with one being a 35-year-old and the others in their 60s.
Two cases are from people battling their second round of the coronavirus, and the vast majority of new infections are among the unvaccinated, according to the Lincoln County Health Department.
“The grand majority of cases are unquestionably amongst the unvaccinated,” health department community health director Jolene Erickson said. “This week, they’ve all been unvaccinated except one, I believe.”
As of July 24, 90.7% of the county’s COVID-19 cases were amongst the unvaccinated, according to state records.
Just 44.7% of county residents eligible for the vaccine have opted to get the shot.
Breakthrough cases are still possible. In Washington, 4,241 cases of COVID-19 amongst the vaccinated have been recorded through July 24. However, that is out of over 4.4 million state residents that are fully vaccinated, showing less than 0.1% of people fully vaccinated in Washington have contracted the virus.
96.5% of COVID-19 cases statewide are in unvaccinated individuals. Only 52 vaccinated individuals have died of COVID-19 in Washington.
“The vaccine works. It is reducing illness and it is preventing hospitalization and death,” Lincoln County public health administrator Ed Dzedzy wrote in an email. “The higher our vaccination rate becomes, the less impact the virus can have on our friends and relatives and on our community.”
6th Street announced Wednesday, Aug. 4 they would be closed until at least Aug. 10. The restaurant was previously scheduled to re-open that day. The popular new restaurant in town previously faced a closure in early July due to a shortage of pizza dough from the restaurant’s supplier. Locals showed their support for the restaurant via Facebook and Instagram amidst the second round of closures.
Romriell Dentistry will be closed until Aug. 16, according to a voicemail greeting left when attempts were made by The Times to contact the business.
Drew Lawson is the editor of the Davenport Times. He is a graduate of Eastern Washington University.
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