6 more Thurston residents died of COVID-19, 519 more cases reported in past week
Thurston County confirmed Monday that six residents had died and 519 contracted COVID-19 in the past week.
Five men died due to COVID-19 — one in his 50s, three in their 60s and one in his 70s — and one women in her 40s died. The cases and deaths were added between Nov. 8-14, according to data from Thurston County Public Health and Social Services.
There have been 21,684 confirmed cases and 227 deaths in the county from March 2020 to Sunday, according to the county. The county considers 20,566 cases recovered or recovering as of Monday — meaning 1,118 cases remained active.
The county’s weekly case county has remained in the 500s but steadily decreased over the past four weeks. Last week the county reported five deaths and 524 cases.
The county’s two-week case rate fell to 359.5 cases per 100,000 people between Oct. 21 to Nov. 3 after reaching 432.7 from Oct. 11-24, per data from the state Department of Health. The record high case rate in Thurston County was 523.4 from Aug. 19 to Sept. 1, the data show.
Nine people were hospitalized with a confirmed case of COVID-19 over the past week, per PHSS. Since the start of the pandemic, the data show 1,335 people with COVID-19 have at some point been hospitalized.
The county reports its responding to 15 ongoing outbreaks at congregate care settings. To date, there have been 102 such outbreaks.
At school settings, the county reports that outbreaks prompted six closures from Nov. 1-7.
The Tumwater School District saw three closures that week involving 20 cases. In the Tenino School District, eight cases in extracurricular activity settings led to two closures. Another closure involving three cases affected extracurricular activities in the Rainier School District.
School outbreaks for the past week had not been updated as of Monday.
The state reports the county had a hospitalization rate of 7.6 per 100,000 people between Oct. 28 to Nov. 3. This is down from a recent high of 13.4 from Oct. 21-27.
About 91.7% of intensive care unit beds over a seven-day period were occupied in the West region, which includes Thurston County and some of its neighbors, as of Sunday. The data show 28.1% of ICU beds were occupied by COVID-19 patients in the region as well.
Hospitals in the region were 91.4% full over a seven-day period as of Sunday, per the data, while COVID-19 patients accounted for 14.8%.
From February to September, state data show 78.1% of cases (8,065) in Thurston County were in unvaccinated individuals. Meanwhile, 16.8% of cases (1,733) were in fully vaccinated individuals, per the data.
PHSS does not share the vaccination status of those who die due to COVID-19 because they do not have access to that data, a county spokesperson previously said.
Vaccinations and tests
Just 58.6% of all Thurston residents were fully vaccinated as of Saturday and 63.4% had initiated vaccinations, per state data. The county’s vaccination rate increased by less than a single-digit percentage point over the past week.
Meanwhile, the data show about 73.8% of Thurston residents 16 and older have initiated vaccinations and 69.6% have been fully vaccinated.
As of Nov. 8, 79.6% of the state population 12 and older had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 73.5% had been fully vaccinated. 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, 73.8% of Thurston County residents 12 and older have initiated vaccinations and 68.3% had been fully vaccinated as of Nov. 13.
Thurston County PHSS continues to offer free vaccination events every week. Events are listed on their coronavirus vaccine information website.
Eligible residents 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.
There have been no updates to COVID-19 testing data since Sept. 15. PHSS says the state Department of Health paused this data release to increase capacity so it can process an increasing number of tests.
The DOH does not expect to restart its reporting of testing data until about Nov. 30, according to its data dashboard.
PHSS offers testing at various locations throughout the county, but this is limited to people with symptoms or who may have been exposed by a close contact.
People also can get tested at pharmacies such as Rite Aid and Walgreens, but appointments may be limited. Over-the- counter COVID-19 antigen tests also are available at pharmacies.
In the region
▪ Pierce County had confirmed 94,420 total COVID-19 cases with 890 deaths as of Monday. Pierce County has a population of about 905,000.
▪ Grays Harbor County has seen a total of 9,021 confirmed and probable cases, with 140 deaths as of Thursday, according to state data. Grays Harbor County has a population of about 75,000.
▪ Lewis County has had a total of 10,491 confirmed and probable cases with 158 deaths as of Thursday, per state data. Lewis County has a population of almost 81,000.
▪ Mason County has reported 5,238 confirmed cases with 72 deaths as of Monday. Mason County has a population of almost 67,000.
In the state, nation and world
The state of Washington has reported a total of 750,477 COVID-19 cases and 8,934 deaths from the beginning of the pandemic to Thursday.
As of Oct. 29, the state estimated its effective reproductive number over time was 0.86 on Oct. 23, indicating the number of infected people may be decreasing. This metric measures the average number of new people that one COVID-19 positive person infects.
In the U.S., about 47.2 million COVID-19 cases had been reported as of Monday with more than 764,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data.
Globally, more than 253.7 million people had contracted the virus and over 5.1 million people had died of COVID-19 as of Monday, the data show.
This story was originally published November 16, 2021 at 11:53 AM.
