Health director discusses possible school impacts

Skidmore doubts county’s return to phase three

Garth Meyer, Gazette Reporter | Apr 22, 20210

COLFAX — More Whitman County schools could return to online education because of increasing COVID cases.

Whitman County Health Director Chris Skidmore updated county commissioners Monday on the virus and vaccines.

Cases are down “quite a bit” at WSU, while an increase has come in outlying communities in Whitman County, specifically among K-12 student populations. Skidmore said much of it could be traced to an April 1 local sporting event that included different schools from around the county.

Schools in St. John and Endicott both went back to online-only education on April 15 and paused all other activities for two weeks, per Skidmore’s advice.

“We could be recommending one or more schools pausing this week as well,” he said.

He talked about the county being back in Phase Two, and his doubts that it will return to Phase Three at the next evaluation on May 3. It will require the county to meet certain metrics levels in case counts and hospitalizations.

“It’s been pretty rare that we’ve gone through a two-week period and met both of those,” Skidmore said.

For vaccines, he announced another 5,000 doses of Moderna are going to be available at an April 22 National Guard vaccine clinic in Pullman.

Mentioning the national pause for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, Skidmore said the county has not received much of it or expects to, making it a small issue locally.

“We’re mainly a Pfizer county here,” he said.

For Whitman County’s permanent population he estimated that between 20-30% of eligible residents have been vaccinated.

“Right now the challenge is getting people to want the vaccine,” he said.

Commissioner Tom Handy asked about the timing of the two-week data and what it may mean in the next month in Pullman.

“If there’s a bunch of end-of-year (WSU student) parties, and if that shows up on the data we are judged on … we could essentially be shut down again,” Handy said.