Thurston reports 5 new COVID-19 cases Tuesday, shares case total for outbreaks
Thurston County Public Health and Social Services on Tuesday announced five new cases of COVID-19, bringing the county’s total to 1,006 since the pandemic began.
Public health officials also offered case totals for the seven ongoing outbreaks the department is investigating.
The latest five cases skew young: A boy ages 9 or younger, a girl and boy ages 10-19, and two women in their 30s.
According to a letter to the community from Dr. Dimyana Abdelmalek, as of Aug. 30, there had been 72 local cases of the disease in people ages 12 to 19, with one hospitalization and no deaths.
As for the seven ongoing outbreaks, the department included some previously undisclosed information in its weekly data report. An outbreak at the county jail includes nine inmates and four staff, according to the report, for a total of 13. Cases in six other outbreaks, at long-term care facilities, total 10 residents and 24 staff.
The six long-term care facilities are: one skilled nursing facility, two assisted-living facilities, and three adult family homes, according to the report. The state Department of Health now defines an outbreak at a long-term care facility, in part, as one resident or health care worker with confirmed COVID-19.
At a Tuesday county commission work session, Abdelmalek said “we are encouraged by the decline” in transmission rates over the past two weeks, and the department will look for that decline to continue. The state’s risk-assessment dashboard showed Tuesday that 44.4 people per 100,000 in Thurston County had been newly diagnosed with the coronavirus over the past two weeks.
That’s still well over the goal of 25 cases per 100,000 people, but trending in the right direction. Last Tuesday, Aug. 25, the rate was 51.4, according to The Olympian’s reporting.
With Labor Day in sight, Health Officer Abdelmalek is urging locals to keep COVID-19 in mind when gathering over the three-day weekend.
“In July, we experienced a significant increase in our transmission rates and during our investigations, we found Fourth of July celebrations were a significant contributor to this rise,” Abdelmalek wrote in her Tuesday letter. “Continuing to be mindful about masking, distancing, and limiting outside household contacts is essential to bringing our transmission rates down and progressing to a safe return to public life.”
In the region
Pierce County confirmed 52 new COVID-19 cases Tuesday and four new deaths, bringing its totals to 6,725 cases and 150 deaths. The latest county residents to die all had underlying health conditions: a man in his 60s and woman in her 70s from Tacoma, a man in his 60s from Spanaway, and a man in his 90s from Lakewood.
Lewis County reported two more residents have tested positive for the disease, one in their 20s and one in their 70s, bringing the county total to 347 with four deaths. Of them, 172 are considered recovered.
Mason County announced four new confirmed cases, bringing the county’s case total to 348 with one death and 60 cases considered active.
Grays Harbor County reported three new cases for a total of 248 cases and six deaths as of Monday night.
In the state, nation and world
Washington state’s Department of Health reported 74,939 cases total on Tuesday, with 1,931 deaths statewide.
More than 6 million people had tested positive for the disease in the U.S., and more than 184,000 people had died from it as of Tuesday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. The United States has more cases than any other country; Brazil, with 3.9 million cases, and India, with 3.7 million cases, are the only other countries that have even reached 1 million cases.
Globally, 25.6 million people had been diagnosed with the disease as of Tuesday and more than 854,000 people had died from it. That means more than 1 in 5 deaths from COVID-19 have occurred in the United States.
This story was originally published September 1, 2020 at 5:53 PM.
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