The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

DAYTON—There are six new cases of COVID-19 since Tuesday, October 29, as reported by Public Health Administrator Martha Lanman to the County Board of Health on Monday.

She said the six cases in Columbia County are from two different sources and are unrelated. There were 13 tests performed over the weekend.

Lanman said she and Dayton School District Superintendent Guy Strot have agreed to allow in-person instruction at school to proceed.

“We feel like the kids are safer in school,” she said. “They’re not going to these houses where there is direct contact.”

Lanman also reported 15 active cases of COVID-19 in Garfield County, with seven tests pending. Those cases are from seven different and unrelated sources, she said.

“It is really community spread over there,” she said.

Lanman is asking for heightened caution.

“Masking is important, as well as not coming to work when you’re sick,” she said.

Her advice is to stay home from work for at least a day or two if you experience sore throat or body aches, even if there is no elevated temperature.

She said asymptomatic spread is real.

Since March, 932 people have been tested for COVID-19 in Columbia County, 22 people have tested positive and are recovered, and eight people out of county have tested positive and recovered. There has been one death.

Information about COVID-19 is posted on the Columbia County Health Department Facebook page.