COVID cases in Washington remain low as the highly contagious BA.2 Omicron subvariant has become the overwhelmingly dominant strain, accounting for 90% of cases in the state, according to state Secretary of Health Umair Shah.
Although there has been a slight uptick in cases in the Puget Sound area, cases and hospitalizations in eastern Washington are low, state Epidemiologist for Communicable Diseases Scott Lindquist said at the media briefing last week.
The state Department of Health (DOH) is less focused on counting every single COVID case, particularly because, with the wide availability of home tests, not all positives are reported, Shah said. Instead, they’re tracking variants to see if they cause serious or mild disease, and keeping tabs on hospitalizations to ensure that the state’s health care system can handle the full range of medical needs. While very contagious, Omicron generally causes only mild illness, they said.
“This is the transition we expected, away from the initial pandemic response to learning to live with COVID,” Lindquist said.
DOH still recommends that people gather outdoors where possible and avoid crowded events, particularly in poorly ventilated indoor spaces. People should keep high-quality masks available for situations without good ventilation, particularly if they don’t know people’s vaccine status, Lindquist said.
