13 new COVID-19 cases reported in Thurston County Tuesday
Thurston County Public Health and Social Services on Tuesday announced 13 new COVID-19 diagnoses in county residents, continuing a rise in cases over the last two weeks that Health Officer Dr. Dimyana Abdelmalek has called “concerning.”
County data show these latest cases were confirmed in:
- A boy age 9 or younger;
- Two men in their 20s;
- Two men in their 30s;
- One man in his 40s;
- Two women in their 60s;
- One woman in her 70s;
- One woman in her 80s; and
- Three women in their 90s.
The new cases bring the county’s case total to 1,479 residents confirmed positive since the first case was discovered here in March. A total of 1,132 are considered “recovered” or “recovering,” meaning they aren’t hospitalized and have been released from Public Health-ordered isolation. They may still have ongoing health problems as a result of the illness.
Twenty residents have died due to COVID-19, and 105 have been hospitalized at some point in their illness.
At a county commission work session Tuesday, Dr. Abdelmalek called the recent rise in case counts “concerning.” The last two weeks have logged the most cases per week of the entire pandemic. Still, the most recent state Department of Health data puts transmission levels in the county in the “moderate” range, she said.
Data available on the DOH risk assessment dashboard Tuesday was only current through Sept. 28. However, Abdelmalek said the latest data, which she said the state was working to confirm, was from Oct. 8. It showed Thurston County’s rate of new cases per 100,000 people over 14 days was 59, she said.
The state considers rates between 25 and 75 to be “moderate.”
An update on ongoing outbreaks
Data updated Tuesday shows there are six ongoing congregate care outbreaks under investigation in the county. An updated weekly data report released Tuesday did not include the sixth outbreak, but showed data current through Sunday, Oct. 11, for the other five.
As of Oct. 11, a total of 46 cases and one death were attributed to the five outbreaks:
- Adult Family Home 1: Five residents and 15 staff had tested positive, with one death;
- Adult Family Home 2: Two residents and five staff had tested positive;
- Assisted Living Facility 1: Seven residents and seven staff had tested positive;
- Assisted Living Facility 2: One resident and three staff had tested positive; and
- Nursing facility: One resident had tested positive.
The sixth outbreak is at a nursing facility, according to Thurston County Public Health’s COVID-19 spokesperson Magen Johnson.
Abdelmalek said Tuesday the department is seeing what it saw in July: While transmission rates increase, the number of outbreaks also is rising. More COVID-19 circulating in the community means there’s an increased likelihood of those who care for vulnerable populations bringing it to those communities, she said.
In the region
▪ Pierce County announced 66 cases on Tuesday, giving the county 8,690 total. The county announced one new death, a woman in her 60s from Puyallup with underlying health conditions. A total of 182 Pierce County residents have died.
▪ Lewis County reported three new cases, increasing the county total to 645. Eight Lewis County residents have died of COVID-19 since the pandemic began.
▪ Mason County added three cases and no new deaths, for a total of 510 cases and eight deaths.
▪ Grays Harbor County on Monday reported 603 cases and 11 deaths.
Across the state, nation and world
Washington state had reported 94,775 cases with 2,211 deaths as of Wednesday, according to the Washington State Emergency Operations dashboard.
In the United States, 7.9 million cases and more than 216,000 deaths had been reported as of Wednesday, Johns Hopkins University data show. Washington state ranks 25th in the nation for the number of deaths attributed to COVID-19.
Globally, more than 38.3 million cases had been reported and nearly 1.1 million people had died as of Wednesday, the data show.
This story was originally published October 13, 2020 at 7:16 PM.
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