Thurston County reports 7 new COVID-19 cases Thursday

Thurston County Public Health and Social Services reported seven new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, bringing the week’s total to 58. This is the second highest week for COVID cases for the county after last week’s total of 80.

County data shows the cases are in:

• A boy 9 years old or younger;
• A girl between the ages of 10-19;
• A man in his 20s;
• A man in his 30s;
• A woman in her 40s;
• A woman in her 50s;
• A man in his 90s.

Over the past three weeks, weekly case totals have doubled from where they were when the county first entered Phase 3 of Gov. Jay Inslee’s Safe Start Plan. Thurston County Health Officer Dr. Dimyana Abdelmalek said in her weekly Letter to the Community that the “significant increase” in cases, particularly among younger residents, “can be attributed to this age group attending more gatherings, being too close to others, and traveling throughout the state and outside of the state.”

Abdelmalek also said in many instances, children are being infected by other members of their households. If a family member contracts the disease, they should separate themselves from their family for two weeks of quarantining. Other members of the household should try to stay in as much as possible, leaving only for essential trips, Abdelmalek wrote.

Since the first case was reported March 11, 437 Thurston County residents have been diagnosed with COVID-19. Of those, 277 are considered by the county as “recovered” or “recovering,” meaning they are no longer under public health isolation. A total of 41 people in the county have had to be hospitalized for treatment over the course of the pandemic. So far, five people from the county have died due to COVID-19.

In the region

• Pierce County reported 89 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday. A total of 3,485 people have tested positive for the disease and 101 people have died because of it.
• Lewis County reported three new cases on Thursday, all three in people in their 40s. All told, 115 people have tested positive, 34 of which have recovered.
• Mason County added four new cases on Thursday, bringing the total to 72 cases and one death.
• Grays Harbor County did not report any new cases on Thursday. So far, 56 people in the county have been diagnosed with the disease and 1 has died.

Around the state, nation and world

• Washington state’s Department of Health reported the statewide case total was 44,313 and deaths had risen to 1,427 as of Thursday.
• In the U.S., nearly 3.6 million people had been diagnosed with COVID-19 and 138,291 people had died from it, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
• Globally, almost 13.8 million cases and 589,000 deaths had been reported as of Thursday.
  
  

This story was originally published July 16, 2020 at 5:30 PM.