Thurston adds 51 COVID-19 cases, may return to limited in-person learning in a few weeks
Thurston County added 51 new COVID-19 cases Tuesday and no new deaths, as the county health officer announced a path toward recommending limited in-person learning at public schools.
The county’s total number of COVID-19 cases now stand at 5,055 and 56 deaths due to the disease, according to the latest data from Thurston County Public Health and Social Services. The county also reported that 304 people have been hospitalized at some point in their illness, with 4,112 patients considered recovered or recovering.
Additionally, the county reported six on-going outbreaks in congregate care settings for a total of 40 such outbreaks since March.
About 6.7% of COVID-19 tests over one week between Dec. 18 and Dec. 24 have come back positive, according to county data.
Regarding vaccinations, department director Schelli Slaughter said health care providers have administered 1,116 of the 4,375 doses of COVID-19 vaccine the state allocated to the county as of Dec. 27. The doses are for people in Phase 1A which includes high-risk health care workers, medical first responders and staff and residents at high-risk congregate care settings, Slaughter said at a board of county commissioners meeting Tuesday.
“So that’s about 25% of our Phase 1A, as of last week, that has been vaccinated,” Slaughter said. “So we have some work to do over these next couple of weeks.”
Slaughter said the county is following vaccine guidance issued by the state Department of Health. She said the county expects to hear later this week which groups of people will be eligible for vaccination in the next phase.
As the county moves through the phases, Slaughter said the department will directly administer vaccines as part of mass vaccination planning. This will include mobile outreach and vaccine clinics that will target under-served populations, she added.
Schools
Health officer Dr. Dimyana Abdelmalek announced Tuesday that she may recommend a cautious return to in-person learning for school children if county transmission rates meet certain metrics in the next few weeks.
Abdelmalek recommended schools move to distance learning on Nov. 6, citing high and increasing transmission rates in Thurston County. On Dec. 16, Gov. Jay Inslee issued new, more flexible metrics for in-person learning that Abdelmalek is now incorporating into her guidance, according to her latest letter to the school community.
Under the new metrics, COVID-19 activity is considered high if there are more than 350 cases per 100,000 people over two weeks, moderate activity is 50 to 350 cases, and low activity is less than 50 cases over the same time period. Thurston County is in the moderate range with 237.2 cases per 100,000 between Dec. 12 and Dec. 25, according to state data.
In her letter, Abdelmalek said she would recommend a cautious return to in-person learning for elementary and middle school students if Thurston County remains in the moderate range for a majority of days in the three weeks after the New Years holiday. However, she said she would consider testing, hospital and public health capacity before issuing such guidance.
If she does recommend a return to in-person learning, she said it would include using a hybrid learning model and small groups in accordance with the latest state guidelines.
“The COVID-19 pandemic in our county is dynamic,” Abdelmalek wrote in the letter. “If the situation changes, my guidance may also change to reflect the best available science and data.”
In the region
▪ Pierce County announced 210 new COVID-19 cases and five new deaths due to the disease Tuesday. The county has reported 26,723 cases and 312 deaths total.
▪ Lewis County reported 15 new cases on Tuesday for a total of 2,276 cases and 21 deaths.
▪ Grays Harbor County announced Monday that it will defer daily case counts to the state COVID-19 dashboard. The state reported Tuesday that Grays Harbor has had 2,410 total cases and 27 deaths.
▪ Mason County reported nine more cases Tuesday for a total of 1,281 with 16 deaths.
Around the state, nation and world
The state Department of Health had reported 258,767 confirmed and probable cases and 3,541 deaths as of Tuesday.
In the U.S., over 21 million cases had been reported as of Tuesday afternoon with at least 357,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data.
Globally, more than 86.3 million cases had been reported and 1.87 million people had died as of Tuesday, the data show.
This story was originally published January 5, 2021 at 5:35 PM.
