After a tumultuous holiday season where the Enumclaw area experienced its highest daily COVID-19 counts since the pandemic began, cases have fallen dramatically back to pre-holiday levels.

According to King County data, daily coronavirus counts dropped from a record high of 97 on Jan. 10, with a 7-day average of 52 cases per day, to between one and three cases every day around Feb. 28, with a 7-day average of 1.3 cases. The last time Enumclaw experienced such low COVID case levels was in November 2021, before Thanksgiving.

The city has seen more than 3,560 cases overall since the pandemic began. Enumclaw’s case count increases when a local resident tests positive for COVID at any official testing site in King County; people who live outside Enumclaw, but who may get tested at the local testing site, do not add to the city’s overall count. Additionally, at-home tests are not added to King County’s counts.

According to county data, 17 percent of all cases were attributed to those between the ages of 20 and 29; 17 percent for those aged 30 to 39; 15 percent for ages 40 to 49; and 14 percent between 10 and 19. Only 8 percent of cases were reported for those aged 60 to 69, and 4 percent for ages 70 to 79 years old, and 3 percent for and 80-plus.

Hospitalizations also appear to have slowed, as none were reported between Feb. 8 through 28; the city’s total number of hospitalized locals is 130.

According to King County data, 26 percent of those hospitalized were between 60 and 69 years old; another 21 percent were those aged 80 and above; 25 percent of those aged 70 – 79; and 17 percent for those aged 50 – 59.

Enumclaw saw only 38 coronavirus deaths, the vast majority of which occurred in March and April 2020, when the pandemic began. King County does not record the ages of those who died like with COVID cases and hospitalizations.

While it appears case counts and hospitalizations appear to be slowing, it’s unclear if this pattern will hold with the lifting of several county and state mandates; King County lifted on March 1 its vaccine verification requirement to be admitted into restaurants, bars, and entertainment venues, and the county and state plan to lift the indoor mask mandates March 12.

VACCINATION RATES

The 98022 ZIP code area reports slightly more than 71 percent of residents 12 years of age and older having received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine; this is up a little more than 1 percentage point since The Courier-Herald’s last COVID update in mid-January.

The amount of locals 12 years old and older who are fully vaccination has also increased, from just over 65 percent mid-January to close to 66.4 percent as of Feb. 23.

The percentage of fully-vaccinated individuals lags behind King County as a whole, which reports 87.7 percent of the 12-plus population having completed their vaccine series. It’s also less than the nation’s 73.5 percent of those 12 and older who have been fully vaxxed, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.