3 new cases of COVID-19 in Thurston County Friday, 82 have recovered
Thurston County Public Health & Social Services on Friday announced three more residents have been diagnosed with COVID-19: A man in his 40s, woman in her 60s, and girl under age 19.
The girl is the second Thurston County resident in that age range to be diagnosed since the county announced its first case March 9.
Thurston’s cumulative number of cases has now reached 89; the county reports 82 of those people have recovered or are recovering — up from 76 on Thursday.
The county defines recovered/recovering as a person diagnosed with COVID-19 who isn’t hospitalized and has been released from public health-ordered isolation. So, as of Friday, county public health was actively monitoring just seven cases, a county spokesperson confirmed.
As of Friday, 16 of the 89 residents with confirmed COVID-19 had been hospitalized at some point. The county has reported one death, a man in his 80s with underlying health conditions. Just over a third of county-reported cases here have occurred in people age 60 or older.
The rate of new cases reported has recently slowed in comparison to previous weeks. Local public health officials credit social distancing and stay-home restrictions for the progress.
In an interview Thursday with Thurston Economic Development Council Executive Director Michael Cade and Thurston Chamber CEO/President David Schaffert, Thurston County Public Health Director Schelli Slaughter called social distancing the “greatest tool” for public health right now.
“We’re very encouraged with what we are seeing,” Slaughter said, “But we are definitely not out of the woods yet and we’re continuing to see new cases each day and really monitoring what we need to have in place,” before the county moves into a recovering mode.
Around the region, state and nation
▪ As of Friday, Pierce County had 1,086 confirmed cases with 28 deaths.
▪ Lewis County had 21 known cases with two deaths.
▪ Mason County had 22 cases. Ten of the cases are no longer in isolation and their immediate families have finished their quarantine phase, according to a letter to the community from county Health Officer Dr. Daniel Stein.
▪ Grays Harbor County had 12 cases.
Washington state had 11,152 cases and 583 deaths as of Friday, according to the state Department of Health.
The U.S. leads the world with more than 700,000 cases, Johns Hopkins University data shows. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports more than 33,000 deaths nationwide, including 4,226 “probable” deaths. New York City alone accounts for more than 13,000 deaths.
Worldwide, more than 2.2 million cases have been reported, with nearly 154,000 resulting in death.
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