Cheers: To savoring the Couve. Over the past four months, the Savor the Couve program provided 3,728 dinners and raised $182,672 for local restaurants and nonprofits. The program, launched in December, partnered with five local restaurants each Thursday to offer five-course takeout meals for two. Diners would place an order and pick up their meals in a drive-thru operation.
The coronavirus pandemic has required creativity on the part of businesses and customers. Sponsored by the Greater Vancouver Chamber of Commerce, Visit Vancouver USA and ilani, Savor the Couve provided a unique outlet for local restaurants and gave diners a chance to try restaurants that were new to them. Cheers go to all participants, especially patrons who helped out the restaurants during a trying time; The Columbian has published numerous letters to the editor from local residents praising the program. We hope it won’t take another pandemic for restaurants to revive Savor the Couve in the future.
Jeers: To vaccine breakthroughs. COVID-19 vaccines have been life-changing for many in our community, but they are imperfect. State health officials are investigating reports of a handful of “vaccine breakthrough” cases in which people contract the disease more than two weeks after being fully vaccinated.
Such cases are inevitable with any vaccine, and they appear to be rare with coronavirus. More than 1 million people in Washington have been fully vaccinated, and epidemiologists report evidence of 102 breakthrough cases – about 1 for every 10,000 vaccinated people. Most important, those who contract the disease despite being vaccinated typically experience mild symptoms, and officials reiterate the importance of all eligible people receiving the vaccine.
