Chelan Douglas Health District Switching Focus from Vaccinations to Testing in Battle Against Omicron

The Chelan Douglas Health District is making a major change in its approach to COVID-19 by switching its focus from vaccinations to testing.

New cases in the two county area are at their highest level since the pandemic began, and Luke Davies with the Health District says the case rate will continue to soar over the short term.

"We're running into a point in time where our most aggressive forecasting shows that this week between 10,000 and 30,000 (people) are potentially exposed to COVID-19," said Davies.

CDHD is cancelling its vaccine clinic scheduled for this Saturday in Leavenworth and is closing its permanent vaccine clinic in East Wenatchee on Monday until further notice in order to prioritize testing.

The health district is advising for only people with symptoms to get tested because of high demand and limited staffing.

Testing sites in the area include the Confluence Health triage center at Saddlerock Church in Wenatchee, as well Lifeline Ambulance on Grant Road in East Wenatchee and Lake Chelan Health in Chelan.

Davies says the health district will soon be instructing people with symptoms to bypass testing and simply stay home and quarantine.

"There's going to be a point in time in the next three weeks where if you're having symptoms, we're just going to ask people to assume they have the Omicron variant," said Davies. "That's just how quickly it's going through the population."

Davies says the extreme step is being taken in the interest of keeping strained infrastructure functioning in the next three weeks while there's a staffing shortage and a high demand for care.

The health district is expecting hospitalizations from the Omicron variant to peak at Central Washington Hospital at between 80 and 200, compared to the previous high mark last August of 65. It's working with other health care providers in the area to set an alternate care facility to handle the spike in hospitalizations.

Davies says, based on other areas that have hit their peak such as South Africa, London and New York, new cases of the Omicron should quickly start to subside in Chelan and Douglas counties in about three weeks.

He noted the death rate from Omicron is much lower than from the Delta variant, but said hospitalizations from Omicron will strain the health care system simply because it is much more contagious than previous strains.