If you are looking for the old COVID Situation Reports, they can be found here.
COVID Update: Tuesday, September 7:
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COVID Update
McMurray Middle School COVID Exposure Test Results: All Clear
Rapid Response Keeps Kids and School Staff in School
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COVID Test Results
Test results have come back from yesterday’s rapid response testing operation at McMurray Middle School. All have tested negative, which means 14 McMurray Middle School students and four staff members are cleared for school today.
Rapid Response
News came on Sunday, the 5th, that a student had tested positive for COVID at McMurray Middle School. A team of Vashon Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) volunteer physicians and Vashon Island School District staff, supported by the Emergency Operations Center, went into action. The student was isolating safely at home, but it was important to do contact tracing and get testing underway as soon as possible for those potentially exposed when the student was in class earlier in the week.
The aim was, as always, to help contain any potential spread of the disease. In addition, it was also important to clear potentially infected students and staff so they would hopefully not miss any school if their tests came back negative. Fortunately, that was the result: All the COVID tests came back negative.
Labor Day Testing
By early yesterday morning, Labor Day, contact tracing had been completed and potentially exposed student families and staff members had been invited to come for testing early in the day. The team put together a rapid response pop-up testing operation.
Drive Up Testing: Manow Castellote (right) coaches his 12-year-old son Dario Castellote as they responded to a call for COVID-19 testing at McMurray Middle School. Dario was one of 14 McMurray Middle School students and four staff members tested by the team of MRC and School District staff. All have been cleared to return to school. (Photo by Rick Wallace by permission of student and parent.)
Cars of parents and kids and staff members streamed into the driveway in front of McMurray starting at 8:00am. Three volunteer MRC doctors checked people in and instructed them on how to do the nasal swipe and put the swab into the special test kit vials and seal them.
Within an hour, all tests were completed. One of the MRC docs loaded the test samples into his car and drove to the Seattle laboratory, which had agreed to get all the tests done by evening. Fortunately, all were negative. Since it had been almost a week since the initial exposure, that means any infection should have developed by then. So, the one test was enough to clear everyone for school today.
What You Can Do
If you have not received a call from the contact tracing team, you are in the clear. However, if you are still concerned and have questions, you can call the MRC hotline at (844) 469-4554.
The most important advice from Vashon Medical Reserve Corps: Get vaccinated. And wear a mask indoors and outdoors, whether vaccinated or unvaccinated. You can get more information and counsel at VashonBePrepared.org.
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Actualización sobre COVID-19
Resultado de pruebas de COVID en la secundaria, McMurray: Todos negativos
Una respuesta rápida, mantiene a los niños y empleados EN las escuelas
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Resultados de las pruebas de COVID
Recibimos los resultados de las pruebas de ayer gracias a la rápida respuesta que tuvimos en la secundaria. Todas las pruebas fueron negativas, lo que significa que 14 de los estudiantes y 4 de los empleados se les ha autorizado para que regresen a la escuela hoy.
Respuesta Rápida
La noticia nos llegó el domingo 5, cuando nos informaron que uno de los estudiantes de la secundaria McMurray había tenido una prueba de COVID positiva. Un grupo de médicos del Cuerpo de Reservas Médicas (MRC) y los empleados del Distrito Escolar, con apoyo del EOC actuaron de inmediato. El estudiante estaba en casa aislado y se empezó el rastreo de las personas que hubieran podido haber estado en contacto con él la semana anterior.
La meta, como siempre, era la de contener la dispersión del virus/enfermedad. Agregado a ello, también era importante identificar a los estudiantes y empleados que pudieran haber estado expuestos, para que no perdieran ningún día de escuela si sus pruebas resultaban negativas, lo que fue el caso.
Prueba de COVID: Manolo Castellote le explica a su hijo Darío Castellote de 12 años, como hacer la prueba de COVID-19 como parte del programa de rastreo. Darío fue uno de los 14 estudiantes y 4 empleados de la escuela secundaria McMurray a quienes se les hizo la prueba. (Foto de Rick Wallace, con permiso del estudiante y padre de familia.)
Pruebas de COVID el día del trabajo
Para ayer por la mañana, Dia del Trabajo, el rastreo de casos estaba completo y a todas las personas que se habían identificado con riesgo de exposición, se les había hecho la prueba.
Empezando a las 8 de la mañana, los autos de los padres con los hijos y los empleados empezaron a circular enfrente de la escuela secundaria McMurray. Tres médicos voluntarios del MRC checaron a la gente y les indicaron como hacer la prueba y como insertar el cotonete o isopo en el tubo que se incluye al hacer la prueba.
En el lapso de una hora, se habían terminado todas las pruebas. Uno de los médicos del MRC manejo a Seattle para llevar las pruebas al laboratorio, que había estado de acuerdo en tener los resultados para esa noche. Afortunadamente, todos los resultados fueron negativos. Como ya había pasado casi una semana desde la exposición inicial, lo que se espera es que cualquier infección ya se haya desarrollado para estas fechas. Así que la prueba que se les hizo fue suficiente para que todos pudieran volver al trabajo y a la escuela hoy.
¿Qué Puede Usted hacer?
Si usted no recibió una llamada del grupo que hizo el rastreo de casos, es porque no fue necesario. Pero, si por alguna razón está usted preocupada o preocupado y tiene preguntas, por favor llame al MRC, marcando el: (844) 469-4554.
El mensaje más importante que podemos recibir de los médicos del MRC: ES EL DE VACUNARSE. Por favor usen cubreboca en espacios tanto interiores como exteriores, al margen de que estén vacunados o no. Para obtener mas información, visite: VashonBePrepared.org.
COVID Update: Saturday, September 4:
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-New Cases Continue Surge on Vashon
-Vashon New Case Rate Well Below Mainland King County
-Data Shows Vaccination and Local Action Are Working
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COVID Surge Continues
The Delta variant began hitting Vashon in early July triggering the spike in new cases shown in the graph below comparing the case rates of Vashon and King County. We are currently averaging roughly one new case per day on Vashon after having only a single new case in June.. A combination of factors is driving the increase in island cases. The Delta variant is significantly more infectious than prior variants, and that puts all unvaccinated people at increased risk. In addition, although the vaccines confer strong protection against hospitalization and death from Delta, infections of vaccinated individuals are now occurring regularly — nearly 60% of Vashon’s cases in the past two months. These cases usually produce symptoms but have not caused hospitalizations or death on Vashon. However, vaccinated individuals can and do transmit COVID. Another major factor in Vashon’s increased COVID case rate is summer travel. A large percentage of the island’s new cases have been traced back to travel outside the region, and a lot of people are traveling right now. It was holiday travel that fueled the most serious spike of the pandemic in November and December of last year.
Comparison to Mainland
This week the total case count on Vashon climbed to 156 since the pandemic began. That’s an increase of 27 cases in the last month. Although the situation on Vashon merits concern, the recent case rate statistics for the mainland are much worse. For example: fewer than 2% of all COVID tests on Vashon have been coming back as positive. By contrast, in mainland King County the rate of positive tests has been almost ten times worse, or almost 20%.
Vashon New Cases Up, But Countywide Significantly Higher: The case rate for Vashon residents has been running about one-third of the case rate in mainland King County, mainly due to the island’s very high vaccination rate but also thanks to strong contact tracing and action by island businesses and organizations. However, being safer is not the same as being safe. There remain many at risk individuals on Vashon including as many as 1,000 children not yet eligible for vaccination. Keeping the total number of COVID cases on Vashon as low as possible is the most important way for us to protect those children. (Data Source: Public Health — Seattle & King County)
Vaccination and Local Action
Vashon’s vaccination rate continues to increase, now up to 94.6% of Vashon residents aged 12 or older who have initiated vaccination. About 84.5% are fully vaccinated. That full vaccination figure puts Vashon in the top four of King County communities.
An analysis of all King County residents shows that vaccination has been working. Unvaccinated people are seven times more likely to get COVID.
Hospitalization Rate Much Higher for Unvaccinated Who Contract COVID-19: A countywide analysis shows that an unvaccinated person is 36 times more likely to be hospitalized compared to a vaccinated person. The number of hospitalizations for unvaccinated people is particularly noteworthy since the unvaccinated are now a relatively small fraction of King County residents. County public health experts also say unvaccinated individuals are 67 times more likely than vaccinated people to die of COVID. (Data Source: Public Health — Seattle & King County)
Another contributing factor to Vashon’s relatively good COVID safety record has been local action. The Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) contact tracing team has been helping those infected with COVID or exposed to it to understand the importance of full quarantine periods. In addition, MRC and the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) have fulfilled more than a dozen requests for safety consultations in the last two weeks from businesses and other island organizations.
Your Job
We need your assistance to help keep Vashon safe. Get vaccinated. If you haven’t completed your vaccination series, get your second dose. Either way, if you have COVID-like symptoms, or have possibly been exposed to someone with COVID, please call the Vashon Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) for testing guidance: (844) 469-4554. Get detailed information on testing at VashonBePrepared.org/COVID/Testing.
Mask Up
To minimize COVID spread, the MRC strongly supports the new universal masking mandate ordered by the Governor and the state Department of Health. With few exceptions, everyone must mask in public spaces and crowded outdoor settings, including those who have been vaccinated. The mask mandate includes all students, teachers, and staff at schools.