OKANOGAN – On Tuesday, June 23, kanogan County Public Health is reporting six people have tested positive for COVID-19 since their previous update last Friday. The new cases are from Brewster.

So far there have been 88 confirmed cases in the county, since testing began back in March and there have been two deaths and 66 recovering.

Of the 2316 samples sent for testing, 2158 have returned negative test results and there are 70 test results pending.

Mandatory Facial Coverings

Gov. Jay Inslee announced a statewide public health order by Secretary of Health John Wiesman that will require people to wear facial coverings in public settings. The order requires face coverings when people are indoor in a public area and outdoors in a public area when six feet of physical distancing cannot be maintained. The order goes into effect Friday, June 26.

Check the Governor’s webpage for more information when available: https://www.governor.wa.gov/.

Okanogan County was approved to move to Phase 2 on June 5. All counties are required to be in each phase for a minimum of three weeks. In addition, there are target metrics that counties need to meet.

The Incidence Rate (number or new cases per 100,000 population per 14 days) is a metric that is closely monitored to determine a county’s readiness to move to the next phase. The target for this metric is 25 cases/100,000 people/14 days. As of today, the Incidence Rate for Okanogan County is 49.1 cases per 100,000 people in 14 days.

More Information Available

The next COVID-19 Update will be Tuesday June 30, 2020. Case counts are updated daily Monday through Friday at: www.okanogandem.org/novel-coronavirus19-covid-19.

Washington State Department of Health Call Center 1-800-525-0127 Press # after the prompt.

Education & Information www.doh.wa.gov/emergencies/coronavirus.

Text the word “coronavirus” to 211-211 to receive information and updates on your phone

Okanogan County Alerts Sign up for alerts like these from Emergency Management at: https://www.okanogandem.org.