13 more Thurston residents die of COVID-19 amid declining but still high virus cases
Thurston County confirmed 13 more Thurston County residents have died of COVID-19 amid 1,548 new cases recorded over the past week.
Eleven women died: one in her 40s, one in her 50s, five in their 70s and three in their 80s. Two men also died: one in his 50s and one in his 70s.
Public Health and Social Services confirmed the cases and deaths between Jan. 31 to Feb. 6, but they did not necessarily all occur that week. In all, PHSS has recorded 42,178 cases and 293 deaths from March 2020 to Monday.
The county considered 38,975 cases recovered or recovering on Monday — meaning 3,203 cases remained active. From Jan. 24-30, the county reported 2,807 cases. The record weekly case count was 3,899 from Jan. 17-23.
Disease activity in Thurston County has been declining since mid-January. However, transmission rates remain substantially higher than during any previous wave of the virus.
State data show the county case rate per 100,000 people fell to 2,424 from Jan. 12-25. The record high rate was 3,035 from Jan. 2-15 – far higher than the previous record of 529 from Aug. 19-31.
Outbreaks
The county reports it’s responding to 50 ongoing outbreaks at congregate care settings. As of Monday, there have been 173 such outbreaks since the pandemic began – three more than the previous week.
At school settings, data indicate there were 24 closures involving 112 cases from Jan. 24-30 and 24 closures involving 128 cases from Jan. 17-23.
The most cases were found in the North Thurston Public Schools. From Jan. 24-30, there were 11 closures and 48 cases in school settings and one closure involving 10 cases in an extracurricular setting.
The previous week, the same district saw 20 closures involving 103 cases at school settings.
Olympia School District had five closures with 21 cases in school settings and one closure with six cases in an extracurricular setting from Jan. 24-30. Meanwhile, Tumwater School District saw one closure and five cases.
That same week, Rochester School District saw one closure at a school setting due to eight cases, Tenino School District had one closure due to three cases, and Yelm Community School had two closures due to seven cases.
Lastly, private schools in Thurston County saw one closure involving four cases from Jan. 24-30.
Hospitalizations
The county confirmed 13 new hospitalizations over the past week. Since the start of the pandemic, the data show 1,794 people with COVID-19 have been hospitalized at some point.
There were a record 45 hospitalizations per 100,000 people between Jan. 19-25, according to state data.
Hospitalizations increased significantly starting in early December during the onset of the Omicron wave. During the previous Delta variant wave, the county’s record was 19.9 between Aug. 20-26.
As of Sunday, about 86% 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. The data show 35.9% of ICU beds were occupied by COVID-19 patients.
Hospitals in the region were 92.4% full over a seven-day period as of Sunday, per the data, while COVID-19 patients accounted for 25.8%.
From February to December in 2021, state data show 67% of recorded cases (12,247) in Thurston County were in unvaccinated individuals. Meanwhile, 28.5% of cases (5,200) were in fully vaccinated individuals, per state data.
Across the state, those who were unvaccinated accounted for 74.5% (3,953) of all confirmed 12 and older COVID-19 deaths from Feb. 1, 2021, to Jan. 4. Those partially vaccinated made up 5.1% (272) of deaths and those fully vaccinated made up 20.4% (1,081) 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
About 64% of all Thurston residents were fully vaccinated as of Saturday, and 71% had initiated vaccinations, per state data.
Meanwhile, the data show 75% of Thurston County residents 5 and older have initiated vaccinations and 67.7% had been fully vaccinated.
As of Feb. 7, 80.2% of the state population 5 and older had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 72.5% had been fully vaccinated.
These percentages include 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 94,744 people (about 32%) in Thurston County have received a booster dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. Across the state, over 2.5 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.
People can get PCR tested at pharmacies such as Rite Aid and Walgreens, but availability may be limited due to demand.
Over-the- counter COVID-19 antigen tests are also available at pharmacies and on-order from the state Department of Health and federal government.
In the region
Pierce County had confirmed 165,148 total COVID-19 cases with 1,126 deaths as of Feb. 1. Pierce County has a population of about 927,000.
Grays Harbor County has seen a total of 15,298 confirmed and probable cases, with 168 deaths as of Feb. 6, according to state data. Grays Harbor County has a population of about 75,000.
Lewis County has had a total of 16,486 confirmed and probable cases with 206 deaths as of Jan. 30, per state data. Lewis County has a population of almost 83,000.
Mason County has reported 10,211 confirmed cases with 118 deaths as of Feb. 7. Mason County has a population of about 69,000.
In the state, nation and world
The state of Washington has confirmed over 1.3 million COVID-19 cases and 10,728 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic to Sunday.
In the U.S., about 76.8 million COVID-19 cases had been reported as of Monday with over 905,100 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data. The U.S. population is about 330 million.
Globally, more than 396.9 million people had contracted the virus and over 5.7 million people had died of COVID-19 as of Monday, the data show.
This story was originally published February 8, 2022 at 11:42 AM.
