Public Health says virus hasn’t reached its peak in county

OKANOGAN – Okanogan County Public Health is reporting that there are now four new cases of COVID-19 with two of the new cases in Mid-County and two in South County, according to Okanogan County Public Health in an update on Sunday, April 25.

While Public Health had said to look for the next update on Monday, they explained their reasoning for the early release.

“We typically do not send out COVID-19 Updates on the weekend, however, we felt it important to keep everyone informed with this number of new cases today.”

Confirmed Cases to date are from the following parts of Okanogan County: nine on the Colville Reservation, five in the Methow Valley, three in South County (Pateros to Malott), five in Central Valley (Malott to Riverside) and one in North County (Riverside to Oroville).

“We continue to stress the importance of continued social distancing. The rise in cases this past week in Okanogan County (nine cases since last Monday) leads us to believe that we are not over our peak. As we are continuing to see cases rise in the county, it is incredibly important that we continue to stay home, practice social distancing and wear a mask when we must leave the house,” states Public Health.

More from Okanogan Public Health:

Our Actions Affect Others

The virus that causes COVID-19 is a sneaky virus. Sometimes it infects people without them even knowing – they have no symptoms and feel perfectly fine, but they are contagious. Sometimes it infects people but only makes them mildly sick and they recover quickly. Sometimes it infects people and they become very sick, require hospitalization and at times die.

Since anyone could be infected and contagious but not have any symptoms, we all MUST take every available precaution to protect each other, including:

• Stay home as much as possible, only leaving for essential trips such as the

• grocery store or doctor’s office

If you must leave home:

• Wear a mask

• Keep six feet between yourself and others

• Wash your hands frequently, cover your cough, and disinfect high tough surfaces often

Our actions affect each and these actions can have serious, even deadly, consequences. Do your part to protect everyone in our community!