3 new COVID-19 cases Friday bring Thurston County’s total to 80
Thurston County’s total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases grew to 80 on Friday when county Public Health announced three new cases.
The latest confirmed cases of the respiratory disease are a man in his 30s, a woman in her 60s, and a man in his 70s.
The county has recorded one death due to complications related to COVID-19 — a man in his 80s who local public health officials say had underlying health conditions.
Officials have said people with confirmed cases live in all areas of Thurston County. They range in age from younger than 20 to in their 80s.
Thurston County Public Health and Social Services on Thursday began providing additional data points regarding cases. Friday, The Olympian spoke to Thurston County Public Health Director Schelli Slaughter and Mary Ann O’Garro, senior epidemiologist for the department, to better understand what the new data points mean.
“We are constantly looking at our data, and the more numbers we have, the more we’re able to share aggregate information and still protect the confidentiality of our people with COVID-19,” Slaughter said.
In addition to confirmed cases — residents of the county who have had a laboratory test for COVID-19 come back positive — and deaths related to the illness, the county now updates the number of people who have been hospitalized and the number of people who have recovered.
The number of hospitalized patients, Slaughter and O’Garro explained, shows Thurston County residents with confirmed cases who were admitted to a hospital — any hospital, not necessarily just in Thurston County — for any amount of time. The number is cumulative and won’t change when a person is released, they said.
Right now, that number shows 12 of the 80 patients have been hospitalized.
A “recovered/recovering” person has been released from public health isolation — separation from others by order of the Thurston County Health Officer — and isn’t hospitalized, according to county public health. That person could still have ongoing health problems or future health problems from having the illness.
According to the county, 58 people fit that description.
Later on Friday, definitions for these terms were posted on the county’s coronavirus web page.
Across the state, nation & world
Mason County’s total number of confirmed cases was 18 as of Friday afternoon, with no deaths.
Lewis County was reporting 17 cases with two deaths — it had previously reported 18 cases, but discovered the person was not a Lewis County resident, according to a press release — and Grays Harbor was reporting 10 cases with no deaths.
The state Department of Health reported more than 9,600 confirmed COVID-19 cases statewide with 446 deaths, as of Friday afternoon. However, the state has acknowledged it has had technical difficulties keeping data up-to-date and it’s difficult to judge how current that count is.
As of Friday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported more than 496,100 cases nationwide with 16,570 deaths and 55 jurisdictions reporting cases, including 50 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. More than a third of the deaths have occurred in New York City.
The U.S. leads the world in confirmed cases, Johns Hopkins University data show, though Italy has reported the highest number of COVID-19 related deaths, at 18,849.
Worldwide as of Friday afternoon, 1.7 million cases have been reported, with more than 102,500 cases resulting in death.
HOW TO LIMIT THE SPREAD OF COVID-19
▪ Stay home.
▪ If you have to go out in the community, keep a distance of 6 feet or more between you and other people.
▪ If you work, work from home if you can.
▪ Avoid contact with people who are sick.
▪ Wash your hands with soap and water, often.
▪ Avoid touching your eyes, nose, or mouth with unwashed hands.
▪ Cover your mouth/nose with a tissue or sleeve when coughing or sneezing.
▪ If you are sick, stay home and avoid close contact with others.
Source: Thurston County Public Health and Social Services.
This story was originally published April 10, 2020 at 5:07 PM.
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