Thurston County adds 25 COVID cases on Tuesday. Is disease activity declining?
Thurston County added 25 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday.
The state reported the county had a case rate of 193.1 cases per 100,000 over the two-week period from April 27 to May 10. This is down from a peak of 215.5 cases per 100,000 from April 19 to May 2 but still about 2.5 times greater than the most recent low of 77 cases per 100,000 between March 4-17.
As of Tuesday’s count, the county has now had 9,557 cases since the county first started recording cases about 14 months ago. No new deaths have been reported since Friday, leaving the death toll at 91.
Of the total number of COVID-19 cases in Thurston County, 8,642 are considered recovered or recovering and 555 people have been hospitalized at some point in their illness, per the county.
In a weekly report, the county reported four ongoing outbreaks at congregate care settings, including at an adult family home, nursing home, supported living facility and assisted living facility. In all, 56 such outbreaks have been reported since March 2020.
The county may be entering a decline in COVID-19, according to state data, but disease activity remains relatively high. For now, Thurston County will remain in Phase 3 of Gov. Jay Inslee’s Healthy Washington reopening plan, which will end COVID-19 restrictions by June 30 statewide.
Confusion about masks
On Thursday, Inslee said the state will follow new guidance on face covering from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This comes after the CDC announced that fully vaccinated individuals no longer need to wear masks in many settings.
However, the state departments of Health and Labor & Industries have yet to officially update their guidance on face coverings.
Public Health and Social Services director Schelli Slaughter told the Board of County Commissioners Tuesday that it’s imperative residents continue to follow COVID-19 safety guidelines.
“We recommend that people continue to physically distance, wash their hands and do everything they can to protect themselves and their family, their colleagues and others in the community from getting COVID-19,” Slaughter said.
In Thurston County, just 43.9% of the population has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and only 35.73% were fully vaccinated as of Tuesday, according to state data. This means most of the county is still not vaccinated months after vaccines first became available.
In the region
▪ Pierce County confirmed 78 new COVID-19 cases and one new death on Tuesday, bringing its totals to 47,295 cases and 552 deaths.
▪ Grays Harbor County has reported 4,123 confirmed and probable cases and 68 deaths as of Tuesday.
▪ Lewis County Public Health & Social Services reported 3,860 confirmed cases and 62 deaths as of Tuesday.
▪ Mason County reported five new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday for a total of 2,127 cases with 31 deaths.
In the state, nation and world
The state Department of Health has now reported a total of 424,050 COVID-19 cases and 5,653 deaths as of Tuesday.
In the U.S., nearly 33 million cases had been reported as of Tuesday with just over 587,100 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data.
Globally, 163.9 million people had contracted the virus and 3.39 million had died as of Tuesday, the data show.
This story was originally published May 18, 2021 at 6:29 PM.
