Jefferson County recorded 305 COVID-19 infections in September, nearly one-third of the 1,000 local cases during the 19 months that we’ve been in the pandemic. We had 175 cases in August, our previous peak. Together, August and September of 2021 account for 48% of all the COVID-19 infections recorded in Jefferson County. The steep rise these last two months coincided with the lifting of some COVID-19 restrictions and the rapid spread of the Delta variant, which now accounts for virtually all new infections in the U.S. As is true in most places with increasing infection rates, hospitals in Clallam, Jefferson, and Kitsap counties have sometimes filled to capacity. The vast majority of recently hospitalized COVID-19 patients were not vaccinated.