Thurston County reports 21 new confirmed COVID-19 cases Monday
Thurston County added 21 new confirmed COVID-19 cases and no new deaths due to the disease on Monday, bringing the county’s total to 301 diagnoses and two deaths over the past week.
In all, the county has reported 4,654 COVID-19 cases and 52 deaths since the first case was discovered here in March, with 286 people hospitalized at some point in their illness. The county considers 3,980 residents recovered or recovering, according to the latest data from Thurston County Public Health and Social Services.
A person is considered “recovered” or “recovering” if they’re not hospitalized and have been released from public health-ordered isolation. They could still have ongoing health issues as a result of the illness.
The county is still reporting nine ongoing outbreaks in congregate care settings, with 40 total reported to-date.
The weekly total of 301 cases is a decrease from the previous week’s total of 366, which followed an all-time weekly high for the county of 485 cases. The number is still elevated, though, when compared to counts earlier in the pandemic: Before mid-November, Thurston County hadn’t seen more than 200 cases in a one-week period, county data show.
In the past week, 5.2 percent of COVID-19 tests taken in Thurston County have come back positive.
The most recent data available on the state’s COVID-19 risk assessment dashboard shows that Thurston County’s rate of new diagnoses per 100,000 people over two weeks was just under 252 for Dec. 1-14.
Using totals from the last two weeks and the same population the state uses to calculate Thurston County’s rate (285,800), the up-to-date rate as of Monday would be lower, at 233.4 per 100,000 over two weeks. The state’s goal rate is fewer than 25 cases.
That rate is a key piece of state guidance around reopening schools and the economy. The county does not release its own, more current calculation.
Previously, Health Officer Dr. Dimyana Abdelmalek explained in letters to the community that the reason for that had to do with the state reporting positive results from just PCR (nasal swab) tests while the county reported results from both PCR and antigen tests.
The state Department of Health started including antigen-positive test results in its dashboards earlier this month. However, a spokesperson said the county is still not providing a more current statistic and cited a desire to avoid confusion by providing a different number than the state’s dashboard.
In the region
- Pierce County added 101 cases and two new deaths Monday for a total of 24,569 cases and 283 deaths.
- Lewis County reported three new cases and no new deaths Monday, giving it a total of 2,036 cases and 21 deaths.
- Grays Harbor County, home to Stafford Creek Corrections Center where there’s an ongoing outbreak, has reported 308 new cases since Dec. 22. In all, the county had reported 2,005 cases and 21 deaths as of Monday night.
- Mason County reported a total of 38 new cases Monday, representing all the new cases since Dec. 24. In total, the county has reported 1,177 cases and 15 deaths.
Around the state, nation, and world
The state Department of Health has reported 238,672 confirmed and probable cases and 3,195 deaths as of Monday.
In the U.S., 19.3 million cases had been reported as of Monday with nearly 335,000 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
Globally, more than 81.2 million cases had been reported and 1.77 million people had died, the data show.
This story was originally published December 28, 2020 at 4:36 PM.
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