Spokane health officials announced 14 more confirmed coronavirus cases on Thursday. That brings the total count to 540 with 31 fatalities.
It’s the seventh time in the last eight days that the county has registered at least 10 new cases. Health Officer Bob Lutz says most of those have some link to the recent outbreak at a Spokane pasta factory.
“We have been doing our case and contact investigation and, for the vast majority, we can find links. It may not be the two degrees of separation, but there are degrees of separation which we can then confirm as related to that outbreak," Lutz said.
On a related note, Lutz says the health district has received from the state another 500 Covid testing swabs and some of the liquids needed to preserve test samples. But he says, as the month nears its end, the federal government is still short on the equipment it has promised Washington.