OKANOGAN – Okanogan County Public Health is reporting 149 new COVID-19 cases since last Friday, with 107 new cases in Brewster alone.

All total there have been 444 positive cases on Okanogan County since testing began here. In addition to Brewster’s 107 cases, Public Health reports 14 in Okanogan, four in Malott, three apiece in Oroville, Tonasket and Pateros and one in both Carlton and Coulee Dam. All 149 positive tests were reported between July 17 and July 20, 220.

The number of cases reported in the past 14 days is 310, working out to a two-week incident rate of 725.5 cases per 100,000 people. The number of deaths in Okanogan County remains at three, according to the agency.

From Public Health’s COVID-19 website https://okanogancountycovid19.org/covid-19-data/:

Data Notes

July 21, 2020: Given the increased volume in testing, we are not able to report total negative tests, total tests, and pending tests at this time.

Individuals who have passed away are counted in the Confirmed Positive Case counts.

If an individual is tested more than one time, each test will be counted in the samples sent for testing. However, if an individual has more than one positive test, that individual will only be counted one time in the Confirmed Positive Cases.

Active Cases: Okanogan County Public Health considers all cases reported within the past 14 days to be Active Cases. This is based on isolation and quarantine guidelines along with our most current understanding of the infectious period. It is important to note that this is an approximation as there are some individuals with COVID-19 who experience severe symptoms for much longer than 14 days and would still be considered an active case.

Recovered Cases: Unfortunately, Okanogan County Public Health is not currently able to report recovered cases. It is difficult to define a point of recovered for COVID-19 cases because the recovery process from COVID-19 varies widely and can be very long (weeks to months). Many people have improvement in symptoms and complete their isolation period but still experience lingering symptoms, such as fatigue, making it very difficult to determine number of recovered cases. We know this is an important number, but we must prioritize follow-up with active cases in isolation and those in quarantine.