Delta variant is suspected here; numbers jump but people not nearly as sick

DAYTON-Public Health Administrator Martha Lanman reported to the Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) at the August 2 meeting, the County jumped from two COVID cases the previous Monday to 27. Contact tracing is still ongoing for the active cases. She said that most of the cases were unrelated and this is the highest number the County has seen since COVID hit the State in March last year. Only one is a breakthrough case in someone who is fully vaccinated.

Public Health Officer Lewis Neace, D.O. said the Delta variant is being tested in a State lab. "It's the dominant strain, said Dr. Neace. "There's no doubt. It's all around us. So, I think we can safely assume that it's here. This strain is much more infectious than the original–that's part of the problem. The vaccine does work for it. Yes, there are breakthrough cases. The fortunate thing is they tend not to be nearly as sick. There is protection from the vaccine. It does work. I've been doing a lot of medical literature reading and clearly it does work. Part of the problem is with the hospitalizations going up, the beds are full. Last week, it took me six hours to find a bed for a patient, there are no beds left in the State–none."

"I'd like us to be more cautious," Lanman said to advise the community. "We have school starting in three weeks. I really want to get these cases down. We pulled together last year for our school–our community did and I appreciate that. We still have seniors who aren't vaccinated. We don't want them sick," she said.

"So, I think our message is: if you are sick, call, get tested so you don't get sicker," Lanman said. "Don't try to fight it. Please get tested. We know this spreads in the community so we can protect each other and then we can watch so you don't get really sick before you call and before you test. That's really important. If you are in a crowd that you are not used to being in or you're in close contact, think about wearing a mask again if you are going to be within six feet for 15 minutes. I think those are just good things that we can do. Let's try to keep this to a minimum and let's try to flush it out through our community and get back to hopefully some smaller numbers."

Vaccinations continue to be offered on a regular basis through the Public Health office and at planned clinics. The next clinic will be at school registration on August 12 for children 12 years and older and adults.

Emergency Management Director Ashley Stickland, County Prosecutor Dale Slack and Sheriff Joe Helm discussed the new law restrictions for law enforcement officers, passed by state legislators and signed into law by Governor Inslee that are now in effect.

"We had a meeting, of all 37 elected prosecutors in the State and no two of us can agree on what the laws say," said Slack. "We're not, at this point even 100% sure that the 'Terry Stop' even exists anymore because if you can't use force to restrain somebody–if you pull them over or if you talk to them and they say they don't want to talk to you and you don't have probably cause, you can't stop them. It used to be reasonable suspicion was enough to stop somebody. We cannot even make somebody talk to the police until we have probable cause."

Dispatch is left questioning whether to notify the deputy of calls requesting welfare checks. Helm said deputies can follow-up on these calls and make decisions on a case-by-case basis. Sheriffs and county prosecutors around the state are waiting on the attorney general to clarify these laws. In the meantime, counties are trying to at least regionalize their approach to have some consistency.

Helm plans to hold Town Hall meetings in the community to discuss the new laws. He is already talking about with the hospital, fire district and Blue Mountain Counseling on how this impacts situations they face.

Helm explained, "The welfare check on a grandma who hasn't been heard from in several days, we'll go out, we'll knock on the door, we'll look but there may be no response, no answer, we can't see them in the windows, we have no lead. We can't do anything beyond that. Suspicious activity – we're out, we'll look, we'll check...but no crime is being witnessed and nobody's in imminent threat to harming themselves, we can't do that, we can't do anything. I met with mental health and talked to them and same circumstances. They can call us and ask us to go on a standby because they're dealing with somebody. We can show up and make our presence, but if our presence escalates their behavior, we're probably going to withdraw. If perhaps we show up and our presence is there and the person doesn't agree and their not in the act of imminently harming themselves or somebody else, we can't use force, because you know, probable cause and they're not in that act even though they may be completely gone and need the services. We can no longer detain them, put them in our vehicle and drive them to the hospital for mental health without probable cause of them committing a crime or imminent - at that moment - trying to harm themselves or somebody else."

Helm said that with these laws together with the recent Blake decision allowing drug possession, crime will spike, people will die and suspects will get away, but he also affirmed, "We're going to do the best we can, provide the best services we can but our hands are getting tied by the laws."