Thurston County adds 55 new COVID-19 cases Wednesday

Confirmed cases of COVID-19 increased by 55 on Wednesday, bringing the running total to 4,431, according to Thurston County Public Health and Social Services.

The county also updated the number of people hospitalized at some point during their illness to 261, up from 251 on Tuesday. That number includes 14 people who have been hospitalized in the past week.

Fifty people have died to date, including a man in his 70s on Sunday.

The county is now reporting nine congregate care outbreaks, down from 18 on Tuesday.

The percent of tests that came back positive over the past week is 5.9 percent, county data show.

In the region

▪ Pierce County on Wednesday announced 343 new cases and one new death. The county has reported 23,396 cases and 278 deaths since March.

▪ Lewis County reported 20 new cases and no new deaths on Wednesday for a total of 1,967 cases and 21 deaths.

▪ Grays Harbor County announced 21 new cases Tuesday night, giving the county 1,697 cases with 21 deaths.

▪ Mason County reported 14 additional cases and one additional death on Wednesday for a total of 1,139 cases with 15 deaths.

Around the state, nation and world

The state Department of Health had reported 230,202 confirmed and probable cases and 3,162 deaths as of Thursday. Washington ranks 29th among the states for the number of deaths from COVID-19.

In the U.S., 18.6 million cases had been reported as of Thursday with 328,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data.

Globally, more than 79 million cases had been reported and 1.74 million people had died as of Thursday, the data show.

This story was originally published December 23, 2020 at 6:21 PM.