UPDATED at 4:50 pm: Spokane County officials say the number of Geiger inmates who have tested positive has increased to 52. There are now 10 inmates at the downtown jail who have contracted the virus.
Health officials have talked about the potential negative effects of people gathering for Thanksgiving. Now that it’s about 10 days past Thanksgiving, they say we should soon begin seeing if there’s any evidence of that.
New daily case numbers in Spokane and North Idaho continue to be high, but the hospitalization numbers have somewhat leveled out.
The Covid numbers continue to bounce up and down in Spokane County, in numbers of cases, hospitalizations and deaths.
The health district reported 366 new cases on Monday, on top of 421 reported on Sunday. Those are a return to some of the highest numbers of the pandemic after a few days in the 200s.
The district has reported that fewer than 100 patients from Spokane County, 96 as of today, are hospitalized. That’s down about 10 from the peak of last week when, over a seven-day period, an average of 15 new patients per day were admitted to the hospital.
Deaths are up a bit, with three days in the last week where the health district reported four people passing.
Testing began over the weekend at a new drive-through site in the Spokane Arena parking lot. That’s operated by CHAS Health. The organization says it provides a large enough space to allow testing to be done more efficiently.
On Monday, the county’s detention services department began a more aggressive testing and Covid prevention protocol at the Geiger Correctional Facility and the downtown jail. This after the county reported 39 cases among inmates at Geiger and one at the jail. (see updated numbers at the top of the story)