Thurston County reports 9 new COVID-19 cases Friday

Thurston County reported nine more people have tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday, bringing the weekly total to 71.

Data from Thurston County Public Health and Social Services (TCPHSS) show the cases are in:

• A girl between the ages of 10 and 19;
• A woman in her 20s;
• Two men and two women in their 30s;
• A man in his 40s;
• A woman in her 50s; and
• A man in his 70s.

The new cases brought the overall case total for the county to 649. Of those, the number of people considered “recovered” or “recovering” by the county rose to 320. The county defines recovered as being released from public health isolation.

The number of people who have been hospitalized since the start of the outbreak on March 11 is 55. So far, eight county residents have died from the disease, two of which passed away this week.

In her Letter to the Community, Thurston County Health Officer Dr. Dimyana Abdelmalek addressed her recommendation that K-12 schools, both public and private, keep their buildings shut down for the beginning of the 2020-2021 school year. In her letter she explains that over the past two weeks the county has seen over 150 new cases of COVID-19, indicating that it is still spreading rapidly through communities.

“When you look at the trend in number of cases per week, we have not yet reached a plateau,” her letter reads. “This leads to significant risk of getting COVID-19 in the community, meaning both the people who teach and work in our schools as well as our students have a higher risk of getting COVID-19 and transmitting it to others.”

Her decision was made in agreement with recently released CDC guidelines for school reopenings. In the meantime, Thurston County residents are urged to stay home as much as possible and when out, wear a mask and follow distancing guidelines.

TCPHSS recently tweeted a list of places residents can be tested in the county. Places like Sea Mar Community Health Center and Providence Medical Group Hawk’s Prairie Clinic are two of the places residents can be tested.

IN THE REGION

• Pierce County reported 94 new COVID-19 cases and one new death on Friday. So far in the county, 4,876 people have tested positive and 116 have died from the disease.
• Lewis County reported five new cases, one person is under age 10, one in a person under age 20, one person is in their 20s and two are in their 30s. 185 people have tested positive in Lewis County and three have died.
• Mason County reported four more people had tested positive for the disease, bringing their total to 166 cases with one death.
• Grays Harbor County has reported a total of 88 cases and one death.

AROUND THE STATE NATION AND GLOBE

• Washington State’s Department of Health is reporting 55,803 cases of COVID-19 and 1,564 deaths overall.
• In the U.S. over 4.5 million people have been diagnosed with COVID-19 and 153,138 people have died from it, according to Johns Hopkins University data.
• Globally, over 17.4 million people have tested positive for COVID-19 and 677,017 people have died as a result.

This story was originally published July 31, 2020 at 4:44 PM.