COVID-19 weekly update

GRANT AND ADAMS COUNTIES — As of Monday evening, May 4, Grant County had 182 confirmed cases of COVID-19. That is up 24 cases from 158 on Monday, April 27.

Mattawa added four new cases this past week, bringing its total to 42. Royal City and Warden’s numbers held at 12 and four cases, respectively.

Around the county, Quincy’s total rose from 53 cases last Monday to 68 cases this Monday. Ephrata and Moses Lake each added two new cases. As of Monday evening, Ephrata had 16 cases; Moses Lake had 34. Soap Lake continued to hold steady at four cases. This week, the Grand Coulee/Electric City area had its first confirmed case of COVID-19.

As of Monday evening, there were 69 tests pending. So far, 1,701 tests have come back negative.

Currently, nine people are hospitalized and 71 have recovered. There are 34 probable cases reported.

Of confirmed cases, 79 are male and 103 are female. Thirteen are between ages newborn and 18 years old. Eighty-one cases are between the ages of 19 and 40. In the 41-to-60 age range, there have been 58 confirmed cases. The 61-to-80 age range has had 29 cases. There has only been one case in an individual over 80.

In Adams County, only one new case was confirmed in the past week. On Monday, April 27, 48 confirmed cases had been reported. The following day, one of the cases was found to have been a Grant County case and was removed from the Adams County total. The total confirmed in Adams County remains at 48 as of Monday evening, May 4. Currently, 45 individuals have recovered, and no one is hospitalized.

The total number of individuals tested for COVID-19 is 336. Of those, 273 are negative. Two tests are pending.

As of Friday, May 1, three individuals under the age of 19 had tested positive. Eighteen individuals in the 20-to-39 age range were positive. In the 40-to-59 range, there were 17 confirmed cases. Ten cases have been reported in the 60-to-79 range. No one over the age of 80 has tested positive. The number of male and female cases is 24 each. Of those confirmed cases, 43 have been from Othello, three from Lind and two from Ritzville.

In the wake of the COVID-19 shutdowns, Samaritan Healthcare in Moses Lake has said that its management and medical providers are taking temporary pay cuts and other employees are taking voluntary furloughs to cut expenses. Those and other reductions are projected to save Grant County Hospital District No. 1 about $6.9 million at a time when Samaritan faces operating at a financial loss due to service restrictions put in place to combat the COVID-19 outbreak. The cuts were to take effect on Monday, May 4.

In March, Gov. Jay Inslee ordered hospitals to halt all non-essential surgeries and medical services, as deemed by state officials. Employees idled by the restrictions were offered the option of a temporary furlough, said Gretchen Youngren, Samaritan director of development and communications. Administrators and managers took a 20 percent pay cut, according to a Samaritan press release. Medical providers (doctors, physician assistants and nurse practitioners) also took pay cuts, although percentages were not specified.

The cancellation of services caused a net loss of $765,705 in March. Samaritan also incurred expenses preparing for a possible increase in patients ill with COVID-19. That wave of COVID-19 patients didn’t materialize. Chief Executive Officer Theresa Sullivan said at the April 28 meeting that hospital officials have been asked to prepare a plan in case the virus recurs in the fall.

Cheryl Schweizer contributed to this report.

Rachal Pinkerton may be reached via email at [email protected].