HANCOCK — Houghton County saw its highest rates of COVID-19 cases of the entire pandemic so far in the past week.

The weekly case rate in Houghton County peaked at 698 per 100,000 on Oct, 28, dropping to 642 as of Monday. Over the previous week, there were 229 cases, according to state figures.

Before last week, the previous high point was on Dec. 8, when the rate was at 574 per 100,000. The Centers for Disease Control of Prevention considers anything above 100 weekly cases per 100,000 to be high risk.

Baraga County is also seeing high rates (621.3 weekly cases per 100,000, 51 cases over the past week as of Monday), though that represents about a third of the county’s peak last November.

Ontonagon County (209.8 weekly cases per 100,000, 12 cases last week) and Keweenaw County (472.8, 10) are also in the CDC’s high-risk area.

The Western Upper Peninsula Health Department’s five-county area is expected to pass 8,000 total COVID-19 cases this week, including a weekly rate topping 300, said Kate Beer, health director for WUPHD.

Numbers are up among both the school-age population and adults, Beer said. General community spread is one of the main drivers. Beer said the health department also had trouble keeping up with the difference in schools’ methods of contact tracing and quarantine.

“Each school is doing the base level of contact tracing and case investigation,” she said. “However, some are doing a better job than others at keeping kids out.”

Hospitalizations locally are also rising. The five-county area had averaged between seven and 10 at a given time, Beer said. Now, it runs between 15 and 20.

Another metric the health department uses to gauge severity is emergency room visits. They doubled across the region from September to October, though they have started to slip, Beer said.

Beer expects cases will continue to rise in the short term.

“Now the rest of the U.P. is seeing a little bit of a decrease, so we’re hopeful we’ll see that also,” she said.

As cold weather drives more people inside, the WUPHD is also seeing more seasonal illness such as colds and flu, Beer said.

The National Guard will assist the WUPHD in several vaccination clinics this month. One will be held from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., Nov. 18 at 821 Water St. in Hancock. The Ontonagon Fire Hall at 315 River St. will have two more clinics this month — from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Nov. 10 and Nov. 17.

All clinics will have Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, and a limited amount of Pfizer.

The number of new vaccinations continues to be flat, Beer said, though the health department is seeing a “pretty decent” demand for booster shots. Beer did not have figures for what percentage of eligible people have gotten a booster.

Vaccines will also be coming soon for younger children. The Pfizer vaccine for children 5 to 11 received federal authorization this week. Clinics and pharmacies should start to offer the vaccine in the coming weeks, Beer said. The health department is still looking at its staffing and seeing what it can make available, Beer said.

“We’ve had some shipments come into the area already … it’s a matter of educating staff on the right size of the dose, and making sure that we have the correct physician’s orders in place to administer those doses,” she said.

Beer reminded people to continue to take precautions against COVID, such as washing their hands. People should also stay home if they know they’re sick.

“if you do test positive, make sure you isolate and notify your close contacts,” she said.