PACIFIC COUNTY — The covid-19 vaccination rate in Pacific County jumped to nearly 60% over the weekend, after the county and local providers had their best week administering the vaccine in four months.

Some 245 county residents received their first dose of a covid-19 vaccine last week, bringing the county’s first-dose rate to 59.8% among the total population. It’s the most initial vaccinations administered in a single week in Pacific County since early August, when fears over the Delta variant were peaking.

The county’s initial vaccination rate ranks 16th out of the state’s 39 counties. Among the 18 counties with a population of 50,000 or fewer, Pacific County ranks fifth.

The jump in vaccinations locally comes as concern about the newly identified Omicron variant persists. Cases have risen modestly in Pacific County in recent weeks, with 33 new cases being reported in the county last week, raising the pandemic total to 2,183 cases. The case rate rose to 300.3 as of Dec. 12 — the first time it’s risen above 300 since late October.

The county health department also reported one additional death over the past week, raising the toll to 38. Another two county residents were hospitalized by covid-19, bringing the total number of people hospitalized by the virus to 124.

Omicron surging

Meanwhile, the New York Times reported Tuesday that researchers testing coronavirus samples in Washington state have recorded a rapid rise in cases with a mutation that is characteristic of the omicron variant, mirroring trends that have emerged in countries like South Africa, Britain and Denmark.

University of Washington researchers found that 13% of 217 positive coronavirus case specimens collected Dec. 8 had the mutation. That was up from about 7% of samples they had tested from the day before, and 3% from the day before that — in a region that had its first identified cases only two weeks ago.

“It’s clearly looking like it’s rising really quickly,” Dr. Pavitra Roychoudhury, a UW researcher told the Times.

Dr. Trevor Bedford, who studies the spread and evolution of viruses at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, said the omicron numbers are still too small to have a large impact on overall case numbers, but he said that would likely change by next week as it continues to displace the virulent delta version of the virus.

“There is an inevitable very large wave of omicron,” Bedford said. “It’s going to happen.”