Spokane County Health Officer Bob Lutz says he may reimpose new restrictions due to increases in the county’s number of daily cases.
Today [Wednesday], the health district reported 122 new cases. It’s the seventh day in the last three weeks in which new case numbers hit triple digits. During that time, the case levels have been similar to days in July and August, the peak of the county’s pandemic era.
Last Friday, Lutz issued a statement expressing his concern about the current levels. Today [Wednesday] said he’s considering what he might do to address those.
“I’m definitely looking at our data and are there areas that are really consistently hot spots. If I’m able to identify that and, if again, the collective effort isn’t there to address those that we continue to see the same, if you will, sectors light up, then that would be where I really leverage and try to make some changes to prevent that transmission," he said.
Lutz didn’t tip his hand about what he might do or when he might take action.
Due to the increase in cases, he said the county has hired another contact tracing team from the Public Health Institute in Oakland. That organization has had two 10-person teams working to help the health district’s contact tracers follow the spread of Covid through the community.
