PACIFIC COUNTY — As cases of covid-19 continue to pile up in Pacific County and the highly transmissible delta variant now makes up most new cases in the country, the Pacific County Health and Human Services Department is now urging all residents — regardless of vaccination status — to once again mask up indoors.

The recommendation comes following updated guidance earlier in the week from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which urges people to wear a mask in an indoor public space if they live in a county with high or substantial covid-19 transmission. Pacific County is one of the 13 counties in the state currently with a high level of transmission.

The CDC’s metrics used to identify a county’s transmission level are the number of new cases per 100,000 people over a seven-day period, and the percentage of covid-19 tests that come back as positive over a seven-day period. On July 28, the county health department reported 23 new cases in the county over the previous seven days, the most in a weekly period in more than two months.

In a news release announcing the recommendations, the health department said that the county’s active case rate has increased a remarkable 288% over the past month. Since March, 94% of Pacific County cases have occurred in people who were not fully vaccinated. On Wednesday, the county also reported its 14th death due to the virus.

“The covid-19 vaccines continue to be highly effective at preventing severe illness that can lead to hospitalization and death, even among those infected with the delta variant,” the department said. “A small proportion of people who are fully vaccinated may still get covid-19, but infections in fully vaccinated people tend to be mild.”

The change in guidance from requesting only unvaccinated people to wear a mask in public to asking everyone in highly transmissible areas to wear a mask indoors comes as new data shows that fully vaccinated people who are infected with the delta variant may be able to easily spread the virus to others, even if they themselves are asymptomatic. A mask mandate is still in place for unvaccinated people in Washington state, even though that segment of the population have undoubtedly been defying the order and are putting others at risk.

In Pacific County, nearly 50% of residents have received at least one dose of a covid-19 vaccine, with more than 45% of the population being fully vaccinated. The county’s numbers lag well behind statewide and national numbers, and local health officials believe the vaccination rate on the peninsula is appreciably higher than it is in the rest of the county.

Since the pandemic began, about 65% of all reported cases in Pacific County have come from people who list a Raymond or South Bend address as their permanent residence, while 25% have come from people listing a peninsula address. In July, however, 54% of cases have come from people residing on the peninsula.