VANCOUVER, Wash. — From ocean beaches to the wooded Columbia River Gorge, Southwest Washington covers a lot of ground. In many ways, Clark County is the center of it all. Then there's Cowlitz, Skamania, Wahkiakum, Pacific and Lewis counties.
People in those smaller counties have been dealing with the coronavirus, too. And with a recent drop in cases, they've doing better in most ways.
“It is kind of hard to generalize. They all kind of have their unique ebbs and flows to the pandemic, but we're seeing a general trend downwards similar to other parts of the state and the country," said Dr. Steven Krager, deputy health officer for all of Southwest Washington.
He said while the numbers are better, the drop has stalled.
“I'm worried that we've kind of hit the bottom in general in terms of case numbers, and this is kind of our floor," he said.
Cowlitz County, with a population of roughly 110,000, is second in size to Clark County’s roughly 500,000 residents, and lately has been trending in a similar fashion with COVID-19 cases.
New cases in a two-week period in Cowlitz County were 183 per 100,000 residents on March 23. Health officials are hopeful that was a temporary spike from the 146 new cases over a two-week period reported March 15. However, it's still better than the 191 cases per 100,000 over a two-week period in February or the 481 cases per 100,000 back in January.
Other smaller counties like Skamania County are doing better in terms of new cases, but they all have felt the effects of pandemic illnesses and shutdowns. The state reopened businesses statewide at 50% capacity on Monday.
Vaccinations are a big part of the solution and Washington's smaller counties are on par with Clark County on a per capita basis, with 18- 20% of the population with at least one dose so far, according to Krager.
He said public health must play a bigger role in getting shots into arms in more rural areas.
“Honestly they're filling the gap," Krager said. "I think in some of those smaller counties where there's not as much health care access. So, they kind of have to be that driving force behind vaccination, and we can't rely on health care partners as much.”
Whatever the size of the county, one thing Dr. Krager sees coming is a need to convince as many people as possible that getting vaccinated is the right thing to do.
“It's the right decision for their health it's the right decision for the community's health and for our counties to open up safely," he said.