Another Thurston County resident has died of COVID-19 as case total surpasses 600

Thurston County announced on Tuesday that another resident has died from COVID-19 and 15 more people have tested positive for the disease, bringing the overall case total to 609.

Thurston County has identified the latest person to have died from the disease as a man in his 60s with underlying health conditions. Seven people in the county now have died after being infected with COVID-19, and all of them had underlying conditions.

Data from Thurston County Public Health and Social Services show the new cases are in:

• Two girls between the ages 9 or younger;
• A boy between the ages of 10 and 19 years old;
• Four women in their 20s;
• A woman in her 30s;
• Three men and two women in their 40s;
• A man in his 50s; and
• A woman in her 60s.

At a county commission work session Tuesday, Health Officer Dr. Dimyana Abdelmalek told commissioners a few clusters of cases have been traced to an out-of-state baseball tournament that took place at the end of June or beginning of July. And, over the weekend, Abdelmalek said three barbecues were the origins of new cases.

She emphasized that these barbecues were attended by family and friends, and generally fit in a category of activities that aren’t obviously high risk. Contact tracers and investigators are hearing that a gathering was a person’s “one exception” to otherwise strictly following public health guidelines, she said.

“It can even be just a small lapse around people that you know and love, and we’re seeing a little bit of that this week,” Abdelmalek said.

Thurston County spokesperson Meghan Porter did not identify which baseball team was the source of new case clusters, how many cases it was the source of nor which state they had traveled to, saying the county had to be careful about sharing information that could identify members of the community.

Of the 609 cases that have been reported in the county since March 11 when the first case was discovered, 308 are considered “recovered” or “recovering” by the county, meaning they are no longer public health isolation.

A total of 46 people have been hospitalized for treatment at some point and now 7 people in Thurston County have died from the disease.

ZIP code map update

Thurston County’s COVID-19 Weekly Update released today reveals which areas of the county have new cases, how many tests were conducted during the week and the demographics of those who test positive for the disease.

Every ZIP code in the county saw an increase in cases during the week of July 20, according to the report:

• 8 new cases in 98501;
• 9 new cases in 98503;
• 16 new cases in 98513;
• 20 new cases in 98516;
• 4 new cases in 98506;
• 9 new cases in 98502;
• 3 new cases in 98512;
• 3 new cases in 98579;
• 4 new cases in 98589
• 5 new cases in 98576; and
• 6 new cases in 98597.

Less than 10 cases are from the 98531 ZIP code, but the area did see an increase in cases, too, which means all Thurston County ZIP codes had increases in COVID-19 cases last week. This is the second week in a row where all ZIP codes had increases in cases.

Data from the update also shows COVID-19 cases are still disparately affecting Black and Hispanic communities, but less so. In previous weeks, Black county residents made up 9 percent of COVID-19 cases while only accounting for 3 percent of the total county population. Now, Black residents account for only 6 percent of county cases.

Hispanic people, who are put into the ethnicity category of the county’s data table, went from making up 9 percent of the county population and 29 percent of cases at the beginning of the month to now making up 26 percent of cases.

From July 20 to July 26, 1,986 COVID-19 tests were administered in the county. Of the tests taken that week, 3.7 percent came back positive. A total of 21,637 tests have been administered in the county with a total of 2.6 percent coming back positive.

In the region

• Pierce County reported 77 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday with 3 new deaths stemming from the disease. A total of 4,626 people have been diagnosed in the county and 124 people have died.
• Lewis County announced one new case in a person under the age of 20, bringing the county’s total to 164 cases with three deaths.
• Mason County has reported a total of 142 cases with one death.
• Grays Harbor County has reported 88 cases and one death.

Around the state, nation and world

• Washington state’s Department of Health is reporting 54,205 cases of COVID-19 and 1,548 deaths stemming from it.
• In the U.S., more than 4.4 million people had tested positive for the disease and more than 150,000 people had died from it as of Tuesday, data from Johns Hopkins University shows.
• Globally, more than 16.8 million cases had been reported as of Wednesday, with nearly 663,000 deaths.

Olympian reporter Sara Gentzler contributed to this report.

This story was originally published July 28, 2020 at 4:55 PM.