The Kitsap Public Health District is making plans to prepare for a possible widespread outbreak of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in Kitsap County.
Kitsap health officials stress that no cases of COVID-19 have been found in Kitsap County, and no one is under investigation of having the virus.
The health district is supervising the self-monitoring of seven Kitsap community members who have returned home after traveling to China, according to the district’s most recent COVID-19 incident action plan.
State of emergency
The first case of 2019 Novel Coronavirus in the United States was discovered Jan. 21 in a Washington patient who lives in Snohomish County. The man had recently returned from Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China, where an outbreak of COVID-19 has been ongoing since December. He has since recovered.
A total of 13 cases of the virus have been confirmed since then — three in Snohomish County, and 10 in King County – have been confirmed by health officials.
Two deaths in Washington state — both in King County — have been linked to the virus since Saturday, and Gov. Jay Inslee has declared a state of emergency in response to new cases of COVID-19.
Inslee has directed state agencies to use all resources necessary to prepare for and respond to the outbreak. The state of emergency also allows the use of the Washington National Guard, if necessary. (Last month, the Washington Military Department activated the State Emergency Operations Center at Level 1, the highest level, to help coordinate a statewide response to the threat of COVID-19).
“This will allow us to get the resources we need,” Inslee said in his announcement. “This is a time to take common-sense, proactive measures to ensure the health and safety of those who live in Washington state. Our state agency directors have been actively preparing since the nation’s first case appeared in Snohomish County. Washingtonians can be assured we’ve taken this threat seriously and have been working in collaboration with our health care partners to develop plans and procedures to prepare for what could likely be a world-wide pandemic.”
State health officials said 231 people remain under public health supervision as of March 1.
According to the Washington State Department of Health, that number includes those at risk of having been exposed to novel coronavirus who are monitoring their health under the supervision of public health officials. The number also includes close contacts of laboratory confirmed cases, as well as people who have returned from China in the past 14 days and are included in federal quarantine guidance.
Kitsap officials warn of impact on health district
The Kitsap Public Health Board will get an update on planning efforts to deal with the virus at its meeting March 3 in Bremerton.
In a memo to the board this week, Health Officer Dr. Susan Turner said the health district had pivoted “its focus and planning/work efforts to preparing for a possible widespread outbreak of COVID-19 in Kitsap County.”
Turner said the district had already spent $53,000 and devoted more than 725 hours of staff time on the response to COVID-19.
“We expect this work and expense to increase significantly in the coming weeks and months. This work is exceeding the capacity of our agency and means that many of the regular, day-to-day work and responsibilities of those employees involved in the response are being suspended or cancelled,” Turner said in the memo.
The Kitsap health district’s initial plans will focus on public communications to get the public to understand their role in preventing/controlling an outbreak, and to help prepare the public “for possible significant disruptions in response to a widespread outbreak such as quarantines, isolation, closing schools and businesses, and self-care in the event that healthcare systems are overwhelmed.”
Next steps in Kitsap
The Kitsap health district activated an “incident command system and team” to coordinate its COVID-19 preparedness efforts in early February.
For the past month, the district has helped supervise the self-monitoring of travelers returning to the United States from China or other affected countries, and has also reviewed and updated its pandemic flu plans and other associated policies and procedures.
Other response activities include:
• Continued supervision of residents who are self-monitoring;
• Ordering, obtaining, and testing Personal Protective Equipment for the district’s Communicable Disease staff members;
• Completing procedures for working with a Person Under Investigation (PUI);
• Completing the PUI surge plan;
• Training PUI surge staff;
• Continuing public information activities; and
• Continuing to coordinate with community partners.
The Kitsap Public Health Board will get an update at its meeting Tuesday, March 3. The meeting starts at 10:30 a.m. in the Norm Dicks Government Center, Bremerton.
