Wenatchee Times

On the heels of reopening, Chelan and Douglas counties also saw more testing and higher COVID-19 cases,  Wenatchee World reported on July 22. 

Both counties were given the okay to advance to Phase 1.5 on June 10 after only 16 new cases were reported that week, which marked the lowest since April, when tracking began. While the numbers initially went down, after the reopening, the coronavirus cases saw a major spike. 

During the week of July 15, 168 people in the counties tested positive, which was twice as much as the week before and 10 times as much when the counties first reopened. 

While more testing was considered a factor, Dr. Jason Lake, chief medical officer-elect for Confluence Health, said the increase is concerning. 

“More importantly than the number of tests we’re doing is the percentage of those tests we’re doing that are returning positive,” he told Wenatchee World. “At the lull of COVID, we were getting about a 2% return rate on those tests and now we’ve hit 10% or more, even up to 15% or 16% percent positive on many of the days over the past three weeks or so. Obviously, that’s a concerning trend.”