8 more Thurston County residents die of COVID amid 723 more cases in past week
Eight more Thurston County residents have died of COVID-19, and dounty officials confirmed 723 COVID-19 cases in the past week as disease transmission remained high.
The eight deaths included five men, one in his 40s, two in their 70s, one in his 80s and another in his 90s, as well as three women, including two in their 50s and one in her 70s.
The deaths occurred between Aug. 23 and 30 as case counts continued their worrying trend, according to data from Thurston County Public Health and Social Services.
Since March 2020, county officials have reported 120 deaths. The county and the state do not share specifics on each death such as whether those who died were vaccinated or not.
However, the state reported on Aug. 19 that unvaccinated people ages 16-64 are 10 times more likely to be hospitalized than those who are fully vaccinated.
Anecdotally, stressed staffers at Providence St. Peter Hospital have told The Olympian most patients, especially those that require critical care, have been unvaccinated.
With the 723 cases, the county’s cumulative case count reached 14,733, the data show. The added cases come as a fifth wave driven by the delta variant makes its way through a county population that was 52% vaccinated as of Saturday.
County officials reported 676 cases last week and the week prior they announced 723 cases as well, per the data.
In all, there have been 881 hospitalizations in Thurston County and 13,252 cases are considered recovered or recovering, per county data.
Disease transmission trends
State data shows the county had a case rate of 567.7 per 100,000 people between Aug. 9-22. This case rate is only surpassed a 578.35 rate recorded between Aug. 6-19.
That is somewhat higher than the state as a whole, which had a case rate of 534.4 per 100,000 people between Aug. 6-19.
The most recent low rate in Thurston County was 92.8 cases per 100,000 people from June 21 to July 4, according to state data.
Prior to the current wave of disease transmission, the record the state reported for Thurston County was 357.4 cases per 100,000 people from Jan. 2-15.
Thurston County’s recent case rates are lower than all its immediate neighbors. Most notably, Lewis County’s case rate reached 839.9 between Aug. 6-19, according to most recent and complete data.
Just 38.7% of Lewis County’s total population had been fully vaccinated as of Saturday, compared to Thurston County’s 52%.
Meanwhile, state data show a record 12.3% of molecular COVID-19 tests in Thurston County returned positive results between Aug. 9-15. The previous record prior to this wave comes from April 20-26 when the county saw 9.1% of tests return positive results, per the data.
Vaccination progress
While 52% of all Thurston residents have been fully vaccinated, 57.2% have initiated vaccinations, per state data. The county’s total vaccination percentages have increased by around a single-digit percentage point in the past week.
For those 16 and older, state data indicates 61.9% have been fully vaccinated and 67.8% have initiated vaccinations. Once again, the county continues to fall short of its goal of initiating vaccinations in at least 70% of this population.
On Aug. 30, 73.3% of the state population 12 and older had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. This percentage includes aggregate data from the Department of Defense and Veteran Affairs, both of which are not entirely reflected in the state’s data dashboard.
For comparison, 66% of Thurston County residents 12 and older have initiated vaccinations and 60.6% had been fully vaccinated as of Saturday.
In the region
▪ Pierce County had confirmed 62,293 total COVID-19 cases with 657 deaths as of Monday.
▪ Grays Harbor County has seen a total of 5,802 confirmed and probable cases, with 87 deaths as of Sunday, according to state data.
▪ Lewis County Public Health & Social Services reports a total of 7,115 confirmed and probable cases with 86 deaths as of Sunday, per state data.
▪ Mason County has reported 3,200 confirmed cases with 44 deaths as of Monday.
In the state, nation and world
The state of Washington had reported a total of 559,762 COVID-19 cases and 6,534 deaths as of Sunday.
In the U.S., more than 39 million cases had been reported as of Monday with more than 638,600 deaths.
Globally, more than 217 million people had contracted the virus and over 4.5 million people had died of COVID-19 as of Monday, the data show.
