It’s just great to see everybody just masks up when they go inside a store; there’s no grumbling about it.”

Kate Dean Jefferson County Commissioner

The COVID-19 death toll in Jefferson County has risen to 20, according to Jefferson County public health officials.

Officials announced the death Friday, and said the person who died was a man in his 50s who was unvaccinated and had a chronic condition.

The county had a cumulative total of 1,322 confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Dec. 3, and the total number of hospitalizations of infected residents was 80. Two people were still hospitalized Friday due to the coronavirus.

Public Health Officer Dr. Allison Berry told county commissioners at their weekly pandemic briefing Monday that the country was experiencing a new wave of COVID-19 cases.

“Around the country we are starting to see the beginning of a winter surge,” Berry said.

“Cases are rising throughout the country,” she added, with a 50 percent increase over a month ago. “And we are unfortunately seeing hospitalizations and deaths start to rise, as well.”

Approximately 1,200 citizens are dying from COVID-19 every day, Berry noted.

“Interestingly, Washington State is currently bucking that trend so it is one of the only states in the country that is not seeing cases rise, at least not yet,” she added. “Currently, our cases are continuing to fall in Washington state.”

Washington has not seen a post-Thanksgiving spike in cases.

“We think a lot of that might well be due to just the sheer number of our population who are fully vaccinated,” Berry said.

Two additional cases of COVID-19 were reported in Jefferson County over the weekend, pushing the total case rate to 1,324.

Berry said Clallam County has had a total of 74 COVID-related deaths, with five people currently hospitalized.

“We aren’t seeing very large scale outbreaks ... but we are seeing multiple small kind of clusters of cases related to Thanksgiving, mostly related to small children,” Berry said.

Berry also noted the Omicron variant of COVID has been detected in Washington.

Though the variant has not yet been detected in Jefferson or Clallam counties, Berry noted: “It is really a matter of time.”

The variant has been found in King County, she added, and said Jefferson County tends to follow King County by about two weeks.

“We are still learning a lot about the Omicron variant. Early data indicates that it is more transmissible than the Delta variants, but we don’t know yet the degree of its severity, whether it is the same severity as prior variants, more severe or even potentially less severe.”

Berry continued to press those who have not gotten shots to get vaccinated.

“I think in Jefferson County, we can take some comfort in the fact that we are actually a very well vaccinated community. Of course, that is patchy, so there are parts of our community that we are interested in shoring up,” she said.

“I think we are in a good position as we go into the Omicron variant, but I do really want to encourage our citizens who have not yet gotten vaccinated. We are seeing more reinfection with this new variant, so now is a really good time to go ahead and get vaccinated,” she said. “And if you have already been vaccinated now is a really good time to go ahead and get your booster.”

County Commissioner Kate Dean attended Monday’s online-only commissioner meeting from Portugal, where she is on her honeymoon.

“It is kind of shocking to be in a country that is over 90 percent vaccinated, and very compliant,” Dean said. “Life is very normal here, and the economy appears to be thriving as well.”

Dean’s comments followed the public input portion of the meeting, where some members of the online audience again complained about “medical apartheid,” vaccinations for children, and the local mandate for people to show a vaccination card for dining-in at restaurants.

Dean said she had found Portugal to be quite different from home.

“It’s just great to see everybody just masks up when they go inside a store; there’s no grumbling about it,” Dean said.

“It’s generally very safe; if you want to go to a bar you have to get tested within 24 hours and have a negative test result to show, and those are available free and at every plaza in town.”

“You know, Omicron is knocking at the door much more here than it is in America. And yet, the anxiety isn’t here because they have such a high rate of compliance and vaccination,” Dean said.

“It’s just really wonderful to be in a place that has kind of gotten it under control, and is considered the first Western country that will be able to respond to it as an endemic instead of a pandemic,” she added.