Thurston County confirms 14 COVID-19 deaths as case counts continue to decline
Thurston County confirmed 14 deaths due to COVID-19 and 990 additional cases over the past week as disease activity continued to decline.
Eight men died: one in his 50s, one in his 60s, four in their 70s and two in their 80s. Six women also died: one in her 60s, two in their 70s, two in their 80s and one in her 90s.
Public Health and Social Services confirmed the cases and deaths between Feb. 7-13, but they did not necessarily all occur that week. In all, PHSS has recorded 43,168 cases and 307 deaths from March 2020 to Monday.
PHSS considered 41,203 cases recovered or recovering on Monday — meaning 1,965 cases remained active. From Jan. 31 to Feb. 6, the county reported 1548 cases and 13 deaths.
The county’s weekly case count reached a record 3,899 cases the week of Jan. 17-23. Since then, disease activity in Thurston County has declined significantly. Yet even with this progress, transmission rates remain remarkably higher than previous waves.
State data show the county case rate per 100,000 people fell to 1,635.4 from Jan. 19 to Feb. 2 as of Sunday. The record high rate was 3,038 from Jan. 2-15 — far higher than the previous record of 529 from Aug. 19-31.
Outbreaks
Regarding outbreaks, the county reports its responding to 49 ongoing outbreaks at congregate care settings. As of Monday, there have been 179 such outbreaks — six more than the previous week.
At school settings, PHSS data indicates there were at least 18 closures involving 79 cases as of Feb. 8. While still high, the number of cases at school settings have declined from 133 the week of Jan. 17-23 and 112 the week of Jan. 24-30.
The most cases were found in North Thurston Public Schools, the county’s largest school district. That week, there were 10 closures due to 49 cases in school settings and one closure due to four cases in an extracurricular setting.
Olympia School District had four closures with 15 cases in school settings from Jan. 31 to Feb. 6. Meanwhile, Tumwater School District saw one closures with three cases.
Lastly, Yelm Community School had two closures involving eight cases. The county didn’t report closures at other school districts or private schools that week.
Data for the week of Feb. 7-13 had not yet been updated as of Monday.
Hospitalizations
The county confirmed 14 hospitalizations over the past week. Since the start of the pandemic, the data show 1,952 people with COVID-19 have been hospitalized at some point.
There were about 28.2 hospitalizations per 100,000 people between Jan. 26 to Feb. 1, according to the latest state data. This rate fell from a record high of 41.6 from Jan. 9-15.
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.
About 83.1% 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 24.6% of ICU beds were occupied by COVID-19 patients in the region as well.
Hospitals in the region were 93.7% full over a seven-day period as of Sunday, per the data, while COVID-19 patients accounted for 23.2%.
From February to December in 2021, state data show 67.1% of recorded cases (12,271) in Thurston County were in unvaccinated individuals. Meanwhile, 28.4% of cases (5,197) were in fully vaccinated individuals, per state data.
Across the state, those who were unvaccinated accounted for 73% (4,104) of all confirmed 12 and older COVID-19 deaths from Feb. 1, 2021, to Jan. 4.
Those partially vaccinated made up 5.1% (286) of deaths and those fully vaccinated made up 21.9% (1,232) 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
Just 64.3% of all Thurston residents were fully vaccinated as of Saturday, and 71.2% had initiated vaccinations, per state data.
Meanwhile, the data show 75.3% of Thurston County residents 5 and older have initiated vaccinations and 67.9% had been fully vaccinated.
As of Feb. 7, 80.2% of the state population five 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 96,294 people (about 33%) 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.
The DOH does not expect to restart its reporting of testing data until about Feb. 28 due to an “unexpected delay,” according to its data dashboard. The release of this data has been repeatedly delayed.
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 170,753 total COVID-19 cases with 1,156 deaths as of Feb. 8. Pierce County has a population of about 927,000.
Grays Harbor County has seen a total of 15,686 confirmed and probable cases, with 177 deaths as of Feb. 13, according to state data. Grays Harbor County has a population of about 75,000.
Lewis County has had a total of 16,981 confirmed and probable cases with 210 deaths as of Feb. 13, per state data. Lewis County has a population of almost 83,000.
Mason County has reported 10,711 confirmed cases with 124 deaths as of Feb. 14. Mason County has a population of about 69,000.
IN THE STATE, NATION AND WORLD
The state of Washington has confirmed over 1.4 million COVID-19 cases and 11,054 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic to Sunday.
In the U.S., about 77.9 million COVID-19 cases had been reported as of Monday with over 922,200 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data. The U.S. population is about 330 million.
Globally, more than 413.1 million people had contracted the virus and over 5.8 million people had died of COVID-19 as of Monday, the data show.
