August sees county's highest surge of virus yet

LINCOLN COUNTY—It took 18 months since COVID-19 was first confirmed in the United States for Lincoln County to see its highest surge of the coronavirus to date, but August saw a spike of 180 new cases.

However, only eight cases resulted in hospitalizations. Two patients died of the virus, one age 63 and the other age 79. One of the eight hospitalizations was in a person fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

“While we have COVID patients being treated in Lincoln and Odessa hospitals at this time, we have had patients flown to Spokane and to hospitals on the west side of our state,” Lincoln County...