Mason County News

Friday, Washington state reported 1,047 new COVID cases in a single day. Friday’s number is a new daily high since mid-July.

In light of a potential fall surge, the Department of Health recently encouraged Washingtonians to flatten the curve once again. In Friday’s numbers, we see more evidence that the surge isn’t coming – it’s here. These upward trends threaten the progress we’ve made toward containment, and could impede other important statewide progress in the future.

Mason County Public Health reported nine new cases of COVID-19 in the County on Friday, October 30, 2020. The number of active COVID-19 cases in Mason County is now 56 with still two people hospitalized.

The October 30th, 2020 – 4:00 p.m. news release says: “Since the last release (10/29/20), Mason County Public Health was notified of Nine (9) additional Mason County residents that tested positive for COVID-19. This brings the total to Five Hundred Seventy-Nine (579) positive cases in Mason County.”

Gov. Jay Inslee Friday announced the allocation of $24 million in Coronavirus Relief Funds to purchase approximately 64,000 computing devices for students across the state. These devices will enable students to receive their education in the new COVID-19 remote learning environment. The first shipment of 20,000 devices is expected in the coming weeks.

DEA’s National Prescription Drug Take Back Day brought in nearly a million pounds of unused, expired, and unwanted medications across the country, the largest amount ever collected in the program’s ten years. Americans once again showed their dedication to remove prescription pills from their homes to prevent addiction before it starts.

The Washington State Department of Health (DOH) wants residents to have a fun Halloween while remembering a few key actions you can take to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Deputy Secretary of Health Lacy Fehrenbach has some tips:

Protect yourself, your loved ones, and others while celebrating:

Mason County Public Health reported five new cases of COVID-19 in the County on Thursday, October 29, 2020. The number of active cases is now 53 with two people hospitalized.

The October 29th, 2020 – 4:00 p.m. news release says: “Since the last release (10/28/20), Mason County Public Health was notified of Five (5) additional Mason County resident that tested positive for COVID-19. This brings the total to Five Hundred Seventy (570) positive cases in Mason County.”

Warning to health care professionals with Washington licenses: Beware of scammers falsely claiming to represent the Washington State Department of Health – and don’t send money to anyone without being certain of the recipient’s identity.

That comes in the wake of at least two apparent attempts to defraud Washington providers. One attempt failed, but the other proved costly to a dentist.

During the week of October 18 – 24, there were 14,198 initial regular unemployment claims (down 15.9 percent from the prior week) and 475,441 total claims for all unemployment benefit categories (down 3.2 percent from the prior week) filed by Washingtonians, according to the Employment Security Department (ESD).  

• Initial regular claims applications remain at elevated levels and are at 128 percent above last year’s weekly new claims applications.
• Initial regular initial claims, regular continued claims, Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) initial claims and Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC) initial claims all decreased over the week.

In the week ending October 24, ESD paid out over $145 million for 307,548 individual claims. Since the crisis began in March, ESD has paid more than $11.9 billion in benefits to over a million Washingtonians.

If the weather cooperates, next week construction crews working for the Washington State Department of Transportation will close US Highway 101 ramps at Shelton Matlock Road to install permanent pavement markings.

On Wednesday, October 28, 2020, Mason County Public Health reported another COVID-19 related death in the County bringing the number of deaths attributed to the coronavirus to ten. Of the deceased, six were men and four were women. Five were in the 60 to 79 age group. Four were over 80. And one was between 40 and 59. Mason County health officials also reported two new cases of COVID-19 in the County on Wednesday and said the number of active cases is now 53 with two people hospitalized.

The October 28th, 2020 – 4:00 p.m. news release says: “Since the last release (10/26/20), Mason County Public Health was notified of Two (2) additional Mason County resident that tested positive for COVID-19. This brings the total to Five Hundred Sixty-Five (565) positive cases in Mason County. We have unfortunately been notified of an additional COVID-19 related death of a Mason County Resident. Our thoughts are with the family during this time.”

MasonWebTV Powered by HCC asked Health Officials to explain how an active case becomes inactive.