Spokane County broke the 500 mark in new Covid cases for the first time on Monday.
The weekend numbers started innocently enough with the Spokane Regional Health District recording 146 new cases on Saturday. But then Sunday brought 368 cases, the third highest mark of the pandemic, 514 cases for the two days. And then, Monday nearly matched it, 513 new cases.
For the three days, more than a thousand new cases, eclipsing by nearly 100 the high-water mark for a three-day period, set the previous weekend. More than 15,000 Spokane County residents have now recorded a positive test.
North Idaho recorded 246 cases for the weekend, 58 on Saturday and 188 on Monday.
Hospitalizations seem to be leveling off in both places, only 10 new patients admitted for the three days in Spokane; 104 Spokane County residents are receiving care, 105 overall. In north Idaho the hospitalization numbers have fallen by 11 over the last three days with 66 cases recorded today.
Spokane County health officials have recorded the first Covid death of a person aged 10-to-19. Of the 242 people who have passed, 220 have been 60 or older.In northeast Washington, 72 new cases from Friday-to-Sunday, more than three-quarters of those in Stevens County. Whitman County, which has had success keeping the numbers down, recorded 100 new cases over the weekend, 80 of them in people younger than 40.