County passes 200 COVID-19 cases as three more are reported

Over 200 people have been diagnosed with COVID-19 in Thurston County since the first case was discovered on March 11.

Two women in their 20s and a man in his 40s were diagnosed with COVID-19 on Wednesday, the county announced, bringing the total count to 201.

Of the 201 cases discovered since March 11, 173 people have “recovered” or are “recovering” according to data provided by Thurston County Public Health and Social Services. Four people in the county have died as a result of being infected with the respiratory disease. The four people were all over age 65 and had underlying health conditions. Three out of the four were from Thurston County assisted living facilities where outbreaks occurred.

The new cases come as Thurston County submits its application to move into Phase Three of the Safe Start Plan. Dr. Diana Yu, Thurston County’s Acting Health Officer, said Tuesday after two weeks of increasing case numbers, that she wouldn’t be afraid to recommend a move back to Phase Two if the application is approved, people continue to ignore safety measures and cases continue to rise.

Washington State Department of Health announced they had made a mistake in recording COVID-19 test results that were negative. The amount of negative antibody test results were added to the number of negative molecular test results, causing the total negative results to be incorrectly inflated by 13 percent, the Department of Health said in a press release.

The amount of positive test results, while unaffected in terms of the number of people diagnosed, has gone up from 5.5 percent to 6.2 percent because of recalibration for negative results.

IN THE REGION

• Pierce County confirmed 17 new cases on Wednesday, bring there total to 2,175 diagnoses with 83 people dying from the disease.
• Lewis County has submitted their application for Phase Three of the safe start plan, which according to the county is currently under review. No new cases were announced on Wednesday. 41 cases in total have been reported and three people have died after testing positive in Lewis County.
• Mason County also reported no new cases on Wednesday, where they also have 41 total cases of COVID-19. So far, one person has died as a result of catching the disease.
• Grays Harbor County reported no new cases on Wednesday, keeping the count at 21 confirmed cases and no deaths.

IN THE STATE, NATION AND WORLD

• Washington State has 26,531 COVID-19 cases, with 1,231 citizens dying from the disease, the Washington State Department of Health reports
• In the U.S., over 2.1 million people have been diagnosed with COVID-19 and 117,663 people have died from it, data from Johns Hopkins University shows.
• Globally, more than 8.3 million cases of COVID-19 have been reported and 447,581 people have died as a result.

This story was originally published June 17, 2020 at 4:11 PM.