110 total cases of COVID-19 in Thurston, after 3 more announced Friday
With the addition of three new confirmed positive cases of COVID-19 Friday, Thurston County’s total reached 110. The latest three to be diagnosed were all men: one in his 20s and two in their 40s.
Of those 110 cases, Thurston County Public Health considers 97 “recovered” or “recovering,” meaning the department is monitoring just 13 residents’ cases — the rest have been released from public health-ordered isolation.
The county has still announced just one death, a man in his 80s with underlying health conditions.
Ten residents have been diagnosed since Monday. The highest number of residents diagnosed in one week thus far was 31, the week of March 30. Last week, when eight residents were diagnosed, was the first single-digit week since March 16.
While local public health officials are encouraged by a general slowdown in the number of cases announced per day and a declining percentage of tests coming back positive here, they consistently stress the importance of continuing to follow social distancing guidelines and other public health guidance, such as frequent hand-washing and sanitizing surfaces.
On Tuesday, Thurston County Public Health Director Schelli Slaughter told county commissioners the department receives a daily report on local hospitals’ bed capacity, ventilator capacity, ICU capacity, and days on-hand of personal protective equipment. She did not share specific numbers from those reports, but Slaughter said hospital executives were reporting they had sufficient bed capacity to treat people with COVID-19 along with other patients.
Eighteen residents with confirmed cases have been hospitalized so far, according to county data. However, residents of other counties who seek care here are not counted in that total.
On Friday, Gov. Jay Inslee announced he will on Monday extend the statewide stay-at-home order through May 31, while also laying out a plan to reopen businesses in four phases.
In the region:
▪ Pierce County announced 27 new cases and no new deaths Friday, bringing its total to 1,457 with 51 deaths.
▪ Lewis County had announced 29 cases with three deaths.
▪ Mason County had announced 24 cases with one death.
▪ Grays Harbor County was still reporting 12 cases.
AROUND THE STATE, NATION AND WORLD
The state Department of Health was reporting 14,327 total confirmed cases Friday with 814 deaths.
More than 1 million people have contracted the disease in the U.S., and more than 62,000 have died from it, according to Centers for Disease Control data.
There were more than 3.1 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 worldwide and more than 213,000 deaths as of Friday, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
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