More than 700 people in Spokane County have been diagnosed with COVID since Saturday

November 9, 2020 3:36 PM

Erin Robinson,

Posted: November 9, 2020 3:36 PM

Updated: November 10, 2020 2:19 PM

by Erin Robinson

SPOKANE, Wash. — More than 700 people in Spokane County were diagnosed with the coronavirus over this past weekend.

The county set another gruesome record, with more than 348 new COVID-19 cases diagnosed on Saturday alone.

That marks the county’s highest single-day rate of new cases since the start of the pandemic. The county’s previous single-day high was reported on Friday with 187 new cases.

Saturday was not an anomaly in terms of a significant rise in COVID-19 diagnoses; 162 were reported on Sunday and 202 were reported Monday.

That equates to 712 new cases reported over the weekend, in addition to four new deaths.

The majority of the new cases diagnosed over the weekend were in people ages 20-39. According to the latest data, people ages 20-29 made up 18.8 percent of the new cases, while people ages 30-39 made up an additional 18.8 percent of cases.

Nearly 10 percent of new cases were in children ages 10 to 19 and 12 people were admitted to the hospital on Friday.

Additionally, over the weekend, the 99109 area code reported the highest number of new cases per 100,000 people. There were 35 cases reported from Friday-Sunday; the health district said the new cases within that zip code make for a high rate due to low density.

The recent case increases likely come from people gathering on Halloween. The Spokane Regional Health District had warned the community to be careful and avoid large gatherings during the holiday.

Spokane County has seen some of its biggest case increases following holidays; the same happened on the Fourth of July and Memorial Day, though not to the same extent.

Health experts are now concerned about the upcoming Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. They have warned that there is really “not any safe group gathering.”