Spokane’s daily Covid counts continue to be a little elevated over the level from the last few months.
The health district reported 76 cases on Wednesday and 24 people hospitalized with the virus. That’s up about 10 from the same time last week.
Health Officer Francisco Velazquez says those numbers could go up a bit in these days after Bloomsday.
“We’ll probably see a few cases just because of the presence of BA.2 in the community and the fact that there were so many people, not necessarily running in the great outdoors, but actually congregating in other places," he said.
Velazquez says the presence of the virus and readily available home tests likely kept many people from participating in Bloomsday. That, he says, will tamp down any potential surge. Others who were there wore masks.
If that’s the worst of it, he says, it will be a good thing because it shows the community can get back to normal activities.
“People were able to participate and enjoy is a good thing because it affects positively the mental health and the wellness of the community and that is a balance that we have really worked to maintain throughout the pandemic," he said.
Meanwhile, flu-related illnesses and deaths have slowly rebounded in Spokane County after an abnormally quiet season last year.
Velazquez says 45 people have been hospitalized with flu since last fall and four have died, compared to one hospitalization and no deaths last year.
He says the measures taken to prevent the spread of Covid have also worked to keep flu transmissions down. That includes vaccinations.
“We actually did relatively well in the state of Washington with flu shots in general. I think there were two groups were not as well as we would like them to be. One were pregnant women and the other, I think, were young adults,” he said.
The state Department of Health reports 13 flu-related deaths statewide so far this season. That compares to zero deaths in the 2020-21 season and 114 deaths in 2019-20.
Spokane’s Covid case rate is less than half of the state’s case rate and about a quarter of that in King County.
