Grant Co. COVID-19 outbreak ends

MOSES LAKE — The COVID-19 outbreak that sickened 47 people and claimed at least two lives at a local long-term care facility is over, according to Grant County Health District Communication Coordinator Lexi Smith. The facility, which was not identified, has gone 14 days without an additional case, Smith wrote in an email to the Columbia Basin Herald. A third death was not immediately attributed to COVID-19 but was under investigation. “Long-term care facilities … house at-risk individuals, and that makes them an area where COVID can circulate in dining rooms and community areas,” Smith said in an interview Thursday. This is the eighth outbreak in a long-term care facility since October 2024, Smith wrote. By comparison, the period from October 2023 to October 2024 saw 19 outbreaks in care facilities and one in a school.