11 more Thurston residents die of COVID-19, 693 more cases reported in the past week
Thurston County officials confirmed that 11 residents died of COVID-19 in the past week, as the county reported 693 new cases.
Hospitals in Thurston County were full Tuesday morning, county Public Health and Social Services director Schelli Slaughter said.
Six men died due to COVID-19, including two in their 60s, two in their 70s and one in his 80s; five women died, including one in her 50s, two in their 60s, one in her 80s and one in her 90s.
The new statistics are for the week of Aug. 30 through Sept. 5. The number of cases is down from the previous week when the county reported 723 cases.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, 130 residents have died due to COVID-19 and there had been 15,426 cases as of Sunday, per PHSS. However, 13,619 cases are considered recovered or recovering.
State data indicates Thurston County had a case rate of 483.8 per 100,000 people between Aug. 13-26. This is down from the most recent peak of 504.1 between Aug. 8-24.
The case rate is still far higher than case rates from previous COVID-19 waves. The highest case rate prior to the current wave was 313.75 per 100,000 from Jan 2-15, per state data.
The fifth wave of COVID-19 started to take off in July and has still not been successfully abated. Thurston County’s most recent lowest case rate was 76.3 from June 21 to July 4, the data show.
Meanwhile, 12.6% of COVID-19 tests returned positive results between Aug. 13-19, according to the latest state data. This is the highest test positivity rate the state has ever reported for Thurston County.
Hospital capacity
Slaughter shared data on hospital capacity during a Board of County Commissioners meeting Tuesday morning. She said local hospitals were treating 82 COVID-19 patients as of Tuesday and 44 of those patients were on ventilators.
“Our ICU (Intensive Care Unit) capacity is at 90% and our regular acute beds at 100%,” Slaughter said. “And there continues to be medical staffing shortages.”
Although there were no available acute beds, Slaughter clarified that hospitals still have surge capacity plans they can implement to treat patients.
“Our hospitals are already creating additional bedroom space by converting some of their places in their hospitals that aren’t normally meant for accommodating patients,” Slaughter said.
Regional hospitals such as Providence St. Peter have been inundated with patients at their emergency departments, which has strained staff and perpetuated long wait times, the Olympian previously reported.
Providence Southwest reported they had 101 COVID-19 positive patients hospitalized at their St. Peter and Centralia hospitals on Sept. 1. From that total, 85 had not been fully vaccinated.
Between the two hospitals, Providence shared that 25 COVID-19 patients were in critical care and 20 of them were on ventilators. Among those in critical care, just one person had been fully vaccinated.
Providence combined data from the two hospitals to protect patient privacy, according to a tweet by the healthcare provider.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, the county reported 897 people have been hospitalized at some point in their illness.
Vaccination progress
Just 52.4% of all Thurston residents had been fully vaccinated as of Sept. 1 and 57.6% had initiated vaccinations, per state data. The county’s total vaccination percentages have increased by less than a single-digit percentage point in the past week.
For those 16 and older, state data indicates 62.4% have been fully vaccinated and 68.2% have initiated vaccinations. The county’s goal is to initiate 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, 67.1% of Thurston County residents 12 and older have initiated vaccinations and 61% had been fully vaccinated as of Sept. 1.
Thurston County Health Officer Dimyana Abdelmalek cited a lack of vaccinations among younger age groups as one factor affecting the recent surge in cases.
“Children under 12 aren’t eligible for vaccine yet and many of our young people have not accessed a vaccine even if they are eligible in that 12 to 30 age group,” Abdelmalek said during the Tuesday meeting.
People under 30 made up 42% of confirmed COVID-19 cases between Aug. 30 and Sept. 5, according to a PHSS weekly report.
Abdelmalek also pointed to the delta variant, a more transmissible version of the coronavirus that has dominated infections in Washington state.
“I definitely continue to recommend that folks do get vaccinated because it does protect people, not only from the significant harms of the COVID-19 infection, but also makes them much less likely to get infected themselves and the potentially transmit,” she said.
Thurston County PHSS is still offering free vaccination events every week. Events are listed on their coronavirus vaccine information website. Residents also can find appointments at local providers such as pharmacies by visiting the state’s Vaccine Locator website. Many supermarket pharmacies are taking walk-ins for vaccines.
Those who have difficulty scheduling appointments online can call the Department of Health vaccine hotline at 888-856-5816 or the Thurston County Public Health and Social Services line at 360-867-2610. Information for Spanish speakers is available at these numbers as well.
In the region
▪ Pierce County had confirmed 63,995 total COVID-19 cases with 680 deaths as of Thursday.
▪ Grays Harbor County has seen a total of 5,991 confirmed and probable cases, with 92 deaths as of Sunday, according to state data.
▪ Lewis County has had a total of 7,403 confirmed and probable cases with 91 deaths as of Sunday, per state data.
▪ Mason County has reported 3,315 confirmed cases with 45 deaths as of Friday.
In the state, nation and world
The state of Washington has reported a total of 575,490 COVID-19 cases and 6,691 deaths.
In the U.S., nearly 40.2million cases had been reported as of Tuesday with 650,000 deaths.
Globally, more than 221.6 million people had contracted the virus and nearly 4.6 million people had died of COVID-19 as of Tuesday, the data show.
This story was originally published September 7, 2021 at 12:57 PM.
