News Flash

Public Health and the Cowlitz County Incident Management Team understands the public’s desire to learn as much as possible about the on-going response to COVID-19. The team’s Joint Information Center (JIC) is working diligently to share timely and useful information with the public.

Public Health will report the number of positive and negative results daily in Cowlitz County. As of March 24, 2020 there are (3) positive cases and (79) negative results.

Cowlitz County Health & Human Services, in accordance with patient privacy and confidentiality, will only be able to release information that a confirmed case was a Cowlitz County resident, not their city of residence. Dr. Steven Krager, MD, MPH, is the Cowlitz County Deputy Health Officer. Dr. Krager states, “People should assume that the virus can be in any public location. Naming locations that a COVID-19 patient spent time in could give people false reassurance if they did not spend time in those locations.”

Dr. Krager went on to state, “There are likely more cases in Cowlitz County that we are not aware of, and the virus could be on surfaces in public locations. Residents should be staying home as much as possible, particularly those at higher risk.”

Public Health officials follow up on tracing processes to identify individuals coming into close personal contact with individuals testing positive for COVID-19 and the public should rest assured that stopping the spread of COVID-19 is everyone’s top priority.