WA Sees Rise In COVID Cases, But Deaths & Hospitalization Hold Steady

OLYMPIA, WA — After a long lull, case counts are on the rise once again in Washington. Though any uptick in case counts can be a cause for concern, the state's top health leaders say the upward swing is not unexpected, and marks a new phase as the pandemic becomes endemic.

"We are in this transition point from counting every single case to paying more attention to variants, the hospitalizations, the deaths and having testing sites alerting us to see an increase in actual cases," said State Epidemiologist Dr. Scott Lindquist at a DOH briefing Wednesday. "That is our path for living with COVID."

Many Washingtonians are eager to avoid returning to the restrictions and lockdowns of old. It's fortunate, then, that despite the rise in case counts, severe cases, hospitalizations and deaths remain relatively flat.

One reason severe cases have stagnated even as case counts have climbed: the omicron BA.2 subvariant. The subvariant is Washington's dominant COVID-19 strain, making up 91.2 percent of all cases sequenced between April 3 and April 9. While still highly infectious and responsible for COVID-19 surges in eastern America and Europe, the BA.2 subvariant has also been linked to milder COVID-19 cases than the first omicron strain.

That's good news for anyone who was worried about future restrictions or lockdowns. Most of Western Washington's transportation agencies dropped mask requirements earlier this week. Though most COVID-19 restrictions have been lifted and will likely remain lifted, doctors are asking Washingtonians to be careful, and help limit this new uptick in cases.

"While restrictions continue to ease, please keep a mask handy for use in confined or crowded settings and in situations where you don't know the health of those around you," said Dr. Umair Shah, Washington Secretary of Health. "Please be kind to those around you who choose to continue wearing a mask."

The state continues to urge residents to get tested if they have COVID-19 symptoms, but the Department of Health says that logging daily case counts is likely to become less important as COVID becomes more akin to a seasonal disease like the flu.

"The need to count every case is not realistic," Lindquist said Wednesday. "What is more important is our deaths. We had less than 6 deaths today."