Submitted by San Juan County
Note: Current positive case numbers are available online at the County Case Data Dashboard, https://www.sanjuanco.com/1682/COVID-19-SJC-Case-Count. As indicated on that page, these numbers are only updated after case confirmation is complete, usually daily. It is possible that other information sources in community may be quicker to report on new cases, but ensuring privacy and accuracy is critical for this official information source.
Since the last update on Friday, Jan. 22, total cases in San Juan County have increased from 97 to 102. Three new cases are on San Juan Island, and two on Orcas. Note that approximately 53 individuals who are close contacts of positive cases are currently in active quarantine.
Orcas Island
There are two new cases on Orcas Island. The following details are known about those cases:
• Both of these cases are tied to hosting out of state visitors, the cases are not related, nor are they related to previous cases.
There is one positive case being actively monitored on Orcas Island at this time.
Lopez Island
There are no new cases and no positive cases being actively monitored on Lopez Island at this time.
San Juan Island
There are three new cases on San Juan Island. The following details are known about those cases:
• One of these cases is tied to a previous positive case.
• One of these cases is related to returning home to the island after out of state travel.
• One of these cases has an unknown source of transmission at this time. There are two positive cases being actively monitored on San Juan Island at this time. As always, please note that the number of cases actively being monitored may be lower than the number of new cases due to the specifics of onset of symptoms, date of testing, test of test results, etc. Not all cases announced as “new” are necessarily still in their infectious period.
Overall picture
While over all case trends in Washington state and nationally continue to decline, cases tied to one of the more infectious variants are on the rise. While what those variants will mean for case numbers is still uncertain in timing or volume, islanders should expect things to get worse before they get better.
Current safety protocols are not going away anytime soon.
With February break coming up for schools, staff, families, employers, and others should all review our holiday travel guidance, https://www.sanjuanco.com/DocumentCenter/View/21332/Hot-Topic-33-Holiday-Travel. Almost all of the cases over the last two months have resulted from travel or hosting of guests.
Clearly, vaccine distribution is front and center. The latest information is available at https://www.sanjuanco.com/1737/COVID-Vaccine-Info.
