2 new confirmed COVID-19 cases in Thurston County Friday brings total to 8

Two new confirmed positive cases of COVID-19, the illness caused by a novel coronavirus, were confirmed in Thurston County Friday. That brings the county’s total number of confirmed cases to eight.

The two latest patients are both women, one in her 60s and the other in her 50s.

The county is declining to release any additional information about local COVID-19 patients, such as underlying conditions or location, due to privacy concerns.

According to Thurston County Public Health and Social Services, these are the cases confirmed here so far:

• Confirmed March 11: A man in his 50s;
• Confirmed March 13: A man in his 40s and a woman in her 50s;
• Confirmed March 15: A man in his 60s;
• Confirmed March 16: A woman in her 40s;
• Confirmed March 18: A man in his 30s; and
• Confirmed March 20: A woman in her 60s and a woman in her 50s.

Limited testing supplies continue to be a “significant issue” for the state’s COVID-19 response, according to a Thursday news release from the Joint Information Center, despite testing rate and capacity increasing.

Schelli Slaughter, director of Thurston County Public Health, mentioned another data source that can serve as a public health tool in this situation at a Board of County Commissioners meeting earlier this week.

A report from the state shows hospitals in Thurston and across Washington have seen an increase in hospitalization rates for “COVID-like illnesses” — where the patient has a fever or chills, plus cough or shortness of breath, Slaughter told The Olympian in an interview Friday.

“That can kind of give us an indication, especially because we know how this illness is transmitted,” she said.

People tend to reach the point of needing hospitalization about a week into the illness, according to Slaughter.

“So, then you can make some predictions about what is likely going to happen in coming weeks, especially knowing that for every one person that is infected, there will be two more,” Slaughter said. “And the time of which people are exposed to the illness and the time that they then develop symptoms can be anywhere from two to 14 days.”

Of course, that doesn’t mean the people being hospitalized with these symptoms have COVID-19.

“Again, until we receive results as to whether those are actually positive cases or not, they can only be classified as ‘symptoms that were so severe that they required hospitalization,’” Slaughter said.

The majority of cases in Thurston County so far have required hospitalization, she said.

The most recent state data, released Friday afternoon, had not yet assigned these two latest confirmed positive cases to Thurston County. Nearby Mason County still had just one confirmed case, reported earlier this week.

That patient is a man in his 80s, according to Mason County Health Officer Dr. Daniel Stein. The man was tested at a clinic in the Mason General system — Stein did not say which clinic or where in the county the man is located out of concern for patient confidentiality.

Public health nurses have finished a contact investigation and the department is in daily contact with the patient, Stein said.

“He is self-isolated at home, and he is doing quite well and recovering,” Stein told The Olympian Friday evening.

Stein said all providers in Mason County have the ability to test, and that providers are trying to be sure patients they test meet specific guidelines while utilizing resources properly.

“Unfortunately, we don’t have all the testing supplies to test every individual in our county, so we’re using the recommendations from the Department of Health for testing people who are at most risk for developing COVID,” he said. He also pointed out that a positive test doesn’t necessarily change recommended treatment.

Statewide, the total number of confirmed cases Friday grew to 1,524, with 83 total fatalities.

The majority of those confirmed cases so far are in King (793 cases, with 67 fatalities as of Friday), Snohomish (385 cases, with 8 fatalities), and Pierce (83 cases, with one fatality).

The Washington State Department of Health planned to distribute 8,000 new test kits, along with new protective equipment, received from the federal government Thursday to those three counties, according to a Joint Information Center news release.

Nationwide, there were 23,480 confirmed cases as of Saturday afternoon. Globally, there were nearly 300,000 confirmed cases. Only China, Italy, and Spain have more cases than the United States; the US surpassed Germany and Iran overnight Friday.

This story was originally published March 20, 2020 at 5:24 PM.