COVID-19 Cases Surging In Clark County

VANCOUVER, Wash. — The number of COVID-19 cases in Clark County are up 50% in the past month with 2,000 new cases in four weeks.

Last week, the county saw 100 cases per day.  Tuesday, there were 277.

Officials say this surge is dramatically impacting their ability to adequately do contact tracing.  Clark County Public Health is now focused on prioritizing cases and identifying where exposures may have occurred.

“We believe these changes will allow us to more quickly interview cases, ensure they are isolated while contagious, and identify priority locations that may need our help to prevent or mitigate an outbreak,” said Dr. Alan Melnick, Public Health director and county health officer.

Clark County Public Health recommends:

Everyone who tests positive for COVID-19 will be instructed to isolate at home until they are no longer contagious. Those who test positive and have symptoms of COVID-19 can end isolation when:

• they’ve been fever-free for at least 24 hours without using fever-reducing medicine AND
• other symptoms are improving AND
• at least 10 days have passed since symptoms began.

Those who test positive but do not have symptoms can end isolation when at least 10 days have passed since the date of their first positive test.

Cases will be provided with instructions on how to isolate until they are no longer contagious and will receive daily text messages during their isolation period through a secure system called Sara Alert. Through case interviews, Public Health will identify priority locations where someone who tested positive may have been while contagious. If an exposure occurred at a priority location, Public Health will work with the facility to identify close contacts and provide guidance on quarantine and testing.

Cases will also be provided a handout about quarantine and will be asked to notify their close contacts that they may have been exposed to COVID-19.  Cases will need to notify anyone they were in close contact with from the two days before their symptoms began until they started isolation. Close contacts include everyone who:

• was within 6 feet of the sick person for more than 15 minutes
• was near the sick person’s coughs or sneezes
• lives in the same home as the sick person
• cared for the sick person

Close contacts should quarantine at home for 14 days from the last day they were in close contact with the sick person. They should not go to work, school, child care or church, or participate in other social or community activities during quarantine.

Additional guidance and resources are available on the Public Health website.