Coronavirus: 77 confirmed cases, another person hospitalized

GRANT COUNTY - There are 77 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus in Grant County as of Friday evening, with one new case each reported in the Quincy area and in Warden, according to the Grant County Health District.

Of those 77 confirmed cases, eight are currently hospitalized, with one person having recovered from their previous hospitalization earlier this week, according to the health district. There are also 34 “probable” cases, which includes people with symptoms of the virus who have had close contact with a person known to have been sickened with COVID-19.

Friday was the second day in a row with only two additional confirmed cases, a marked deceleration from the increases of last week, but health district staff caution that it is still too soon to say if the rate of transmission in Grant County will continue to slow.

Quincy has been the epicenter of the outbreak in the county, with 37 confirmed cases total, just under half of the county’s total. Moses Lake and the Mattawa area each have 12 confirmed cases.

Ephrata is now reporting eight confirmed cases, Warden is reporting four, Royal City is reporting two and Soap Lake is reporting a single case.

In addition to tests that have come back positive, 584 have come back negative. That means just under 12 percent of tests have come back positive, down from nearly 15 percent late last week but still markedly higher than the 8 percent statewide average--a worrying sign of the prevalence of the virus in the community, said health district Administrator Theresa Adkinson in an interview earlier this week.

There are an estimated 218 tests that are still pending results, according to the health district. However, hospitals have previously reported that this estimate is an undercount.

As of Friday evening, women made up just over 58 percent of all confirmed cases in the county, while just over 79 percent were 60 years old or younger.