20 more Thurston residents die of COVID-19 as virus activity remains high
Thurston County confirmed 20 new deaths due to COVID-19 and recorded 2,807 new cases over the past week.
Thirteen men died due to COVID-19: one in his 30s, two in their 40s, two in their 50s, four in their 70s, three in their 80s and one in his 90s. Seven women also died: one in her 40s, one in her 50s, one in her 60s, two in their 70s, one in her 80s and one in her 90s.
Public Health and Social Services confirmed the cases and deaths between Jan. 24-30, but they did not necessarily all occur that week. In all, PHSS has recorded 40,630 cases and 283 deaths from March 2020 to Monday.
The county considered 35,478 cases recovered or recovering on Monday — meaning 5,152 cases remained active.
From Jan. 17-23, the county reported a record 3,800 cases and 10 deaths. The previous record weekly case count was 3,709 from Jan. 3-9. The most recent case count is considerably lower, but still exceptionally high in the whole of the pandemic. The surge has been driven by the more transmissible Omicron variant that was first detected in early December.
State data show the county saw an alarming 3,019.6 cases per 100,000 people from Jan. 2-15. This rate dropped to 2,796.9 between Jan. 5-18. During the first two weeks of December, the county had a case rate of 284.9.
Before Omicron, the previous record high case rate in the county was 523 from Aug. 19 to Sept. 1, the data show.
Outbreaks
The county reports it’s responding to 57 ongoing outbreaks at congregate care settings. As of Monday, there have been 170 such outbreaks — three more than the previous week.
At school settings, PHSS data indicates there are 24 closures involving 128 cases from Jan. 17-23. From Jan. 10-16, the data show there were 17 closures involving 70 cases.
The most cases were found in the North Thurston Public Schools. From Jan. 17-23, there were 20 closures and 103 cases. The previous week, the same district saw 9 closures involving 37 cases.
Between Jan. 10-16, Rochester School District saw one closure at a school setting due to five cases and one closure at an extracurricular setting due to seven cases. The following week, they had just one closure involving four cases.
Tumwater School District saw one closure and seven cases from Jan. 17-23. The week prior, the district had one closure involving three cases.
From Jan. 10-16, Tenino School District had two closures in school settings resulting from six cases and two closures in extracurricular settings resulting from eight cases.
Lastly, private schools in Thurston County saw one closure involving eight cases from Jan. 17-23 and two closures involving six cases the week prior.
Hospitalizations
The county confirmed 14 new hospitalizations over the past week. Since the start of the pandemic, the data show 1,781 people with COVID-19 have been hospitalized at some point.
There were 36.8 hospitalizations per 100,000 people between Jan. 12-18, according to state data. That is down from a record high of 38.8 from Jan. 9-15.
Hospitalizations increased significantly starting in early December amid the Omicron wave. The county’s previous record was 19.9 between Aug. 20-26 during the Delta variant wave.
As of Sunday, about 88.8% of ICU beds over a seven-day period were occupied in the West region, which includes Thurston County and some of its neighbors. The data show 40.4% of ICU beds were occupied by COVID-19 patients in the region as well.
Hospitals in the region were 92% full over a seven-day period as of Sunday, per the data, while COVID-19 patients accounted for 29.5%.
From February to December 2021, state data show 67.1% of recorded cases (12,254) in Thurston County were in unvaccinated individuals. Meanwhile, 28.4% of cases (5,191) were in fully vaccinated individuals, per state data.
Across the state, those who were unvaccinated accounted for 75.1% (3,800) of all 12 and older COVID-19 deaths from Feb. 1 to Dec. 28, 2021. Those partially vaccinated made up 5.2% (262) of deaths and those fully vaccinated made up 19.7% (995) of deaths, the data show.
PHSS does not share the vaccination status of those who die or are hospitalized due to COVID-19 in Thurston County because they do not have access to that data, a county spokesperson previously said.
Vaccinations and tests
State data show 63.7% of all Thurston residents were fully vaccinated as of Saturday, and 70.7% had initiated vaccinations.
Meanwhile, the data show 74.7% of Thurston County residents 5 and older have initiated vaccinations and 67.4% had been fully vaccinated.
As of Jan. 24, 79.3% of the state population 5 and older had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 71.8% 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.
The state reports 92,570 people (about 31%) in Thurston County have received a booster dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. Across the state, over 2.4 million people have gotten a booster.
Thurston County PHSS continues to offer free vaccination events, including for booster shots, every week. Events are listed on their coronavirus vaccine information website.
Eligible residents can also find appointments at local providers such as pharmacies by visiting the state’s Vaccine Locator website.
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.
In the region
▪ Pierce County had confirmed 140,418 total COVID-19 cases with 1,016 deaths as of Jan. 25. Pierce County has a population of about 927,000.
▪ Grays Harbor County has seen a total of 14,677 confirmed and probable cases, with 166 deaths as of Jan. 30, according to state data. Grays Harbor County has a population of about 75,000.
▪ Lewis County has had a total of 15,857 confirmed and probable cases with 204 deaths as of Jan. 30, per state data. Lewis County has a population of almost 83,000.
▪ Mason County has reported 9,316 confirmed cases with 106 deaths as of Jan. 31. Mason County has a population of about 69,000.
In the state, nation and world
The state of Washington has reported over 1.3 million COVID-19 cases and 10,206 deaths from the beginning of the pandemic to Sunday.
In the U.S., about 74.9 million COVID-19 cases had been reported as of Monday with over 886,600 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data. The U.S. population is about 330 million.
Globally, more than 377.8 million people had contracted the virus and over 5.6 million people had died of COVID-19 as of Monday, the data show.
