As the COVID-19 pandemic appears to be winding down, health officials continue to express concerns about the threat of the virus variants. Five new cases were confirmed in Clallam County Saturday for a total of 1,335 since the pandemic began 14 months ago. No numbers were available for Sunday.  Jefferson County has not had any new cases since May 15th.  However, Jefferson County Health Officer Dr. Tom Locke says they’re not of the woods yet, expressing concerns about high COVID rates in nearby counties like King, Pierce and Kitsap. He told the Peninsula Daily News it’s kind of impossible that we will stay disease free for the next month. Locke and Clallam County Health Officer Dr. Allison Berry say that the virus variants are the primary source of new cases when they do show up. The UK and California variants have been seen Clallam County.  One variant from India has been seen in the county.

BERRY:  “The vaccines are still incredibly effective against them. We’re really seeing primarily transmission among unvaccinated people and certainly hospitalization among unvaccinated people.  But I think it is an important reminder that the variants are very serious and they can make you quite ill. So if you are not yet vaccinated, now is a really good time to go ahead and get vaccinated.”

The good news, she ways, is vaccinated people are essentially able to gather in large groups indoors, if everyone is vaccinated, including places like houses of worship.

“As we plan for church, we are cautious. We try not to regulate the churches because there is that important separation. But, as a recommendation, if I were running a congregation I would highly recommend that you either assess vaccine status of your folks coming in, or require everyone to wear a mask and still space them out. One interesting thing is, if you’re a fully vaccinated group, you can sing. So I know choirs have been really wanting to come back. A fully vaccinated choir around a fully vaccinated congregation, can sing. In fact a fully vaccinated choir not next to a fully vaccinated congregation can sing. And so I would encourage vaccination among those groups. You really could get your services to feel a lot more normal.”   

Even choir members don’t have to socially distance and can sit close to one another during rehearsals.

“Yea.  If you’re vaccinated.  Yea can sing right next to somebody else. Which is kind of fun. Yes, carrying a tune is helpful.”