Thurston County adds 6 deaths as COVID-19 activity continues downward trend
Thurston County confirmed six deaths due to COVID-19 and 625 additional cases over the past week.
Four women died due to COVID-19: two in their 80s and two in their 90s. Two men also died: one in his 70s and one in his 90s.
Public Health and Social Services confirmed the cases and deaths between Feb. 21-27, but they did not necessarily all occur that week. In all, PHSS has recorded 44,467 cases and 320 deaths from March 2020 to Monday.
Of that total, PHSS considers 43,345 cases as recovered or recovering, meaning about 1,122 confirmed cases remained active as of Monday.
From Feb. 7-13, PHSS reported 674 cases and seven deaths. The county’s weekly case count peaked at 3,899 cases the week of Jan. 17-23 during the height of the Omicron wave.
With disease activity declining, the state lifted its outdoor mask mandate on Feb. 18 and plans to ease its indoor mask mandates by March 12. Gov. Jay Inslee announced the new deadline on Monday after previously setting a March 21 date.
The move comes after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention eased its mask guidelines based on new metrics. Under the new guidelines, about 70% of the U.S. lived in areas with low or medium COVID-19 community levels as of Feb. 24, including Thurston County.
Though progress has been made, state data from earlier this month indicates rates of infection remained higher than during previous waves.
The county’s case rate per 100,000 people fell to 640.5 from Feb. 2-15 as of Tuesday. The record high rate was 3,026.5 from Jan. 2-15, according to the latest data. This was far higher than the previous record of 527 from Aug. 18-31.
Outbreaks
Regarding outbreaks, the county reports it was investigating 32 ongoing outbreaks at congregate care settings as of Monday. So far, there have been 185 such outbreaks – one more than the previous week.
As of Feb. 22, these outbreaks have resulted in 685 cases and nine deaths, according to the latest weekly report. Six deaths occurred at an assisted living facility, two at a nursing facility and one at a supportive living facility.
At school settings, the county reported nine closures involving 38 case the week of Feb. 7-13 and three closures involving 15 cases the week of Feb. 14-20.
No closures or cases were reported the week of Feb. 21-27 as of Tuesday.
From Feb. 7-13, North Thurston Public Schools, the county’s largest school district with about 15,000 students, had eight closures involving 33 cases. The following week, the district had two closures involving 12 cases.
Meanwhile, the data indicates Olympia School District, which has about 10,000 students, had one closure due to three cases the week of Feb. 14-20.
A private school also experienced a closure that resulted from five cases the week of Feb. 7-13, per the data.
Hospitalizations
PHSS confirmed 10 hospitalizations over the past week. Since the start of the pandemic, the data show 2,122 Thurston County residents with COVID-19 have been hospitalized at some point.
About 75% of county residents who were hospitalized had a known underlying condition, according to the Feb. 22 weekly report. However, it’s possible some had an unknown underlying condition.
Among the 314 who have died, the report says 100% had a known underlying condition.
There were about 10.7 hospitalizations per 100,000 people from Feb. 9-15, according to the latest state data. This rate fell from a record high of 37.8 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 89.4% 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 Monday. The data show 11.3% of ICU beds were occupied by COVID-19 patients in the region as well.
Hospitals in the region were 91.9% full over a seven-day period as of Monday, per the data, while COVID-19 patients accounted for 11.5%.
From February 2021 to January, state data show 57.3% of recorded cases (17,481) in Thurston County were in unvaccinated individuals. Meanwhile, 38.2% of cases (11,664) were in fully vaccinated individuals, per state data.
Across the state, those who were unvaccinated accounted for 70.5% (4,438) of all confirmed 12 and older COVID-19 deaths from Feb. 1, 2021, to Jan. 22.
Those partially vaccinated made up 5.1% (321) of deaths and those fully vaccinated made up 24.4% (1,532) 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 64.6% of all Thurston residents were fully vaccinated as of Feb. 26, and 71.5% had initiated vaccinations, per state data.
Meanwhile, the data show 75.6% of Thurston County residents 5 and older have initiated vaccinations and 68.4% had been fully vaccinated.
As of Feb. 28, 80.9% of the state population five and older had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 73.2% had been fully vaccinated.
The state 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.
In Thurston County, the state reports 98,615 people (about 33%) have received a booster dose of a COVID-19 vaccine as of Feb. 26. Across the state, over 2.6 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 March 31 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 181,785 total COVID-19 cases with 1,256 deaths as of Feb. 22. Pierce County has a population of about 927,000.
Grays Harbor County has seen a total of 15,937 cases with 186 deaths as of Feb. 27, according to state data. Grays Harbor County has a population of about 75,000.
Lewis County has had a total of 17,160 confirmed and probable cases with 223 deaths as of Feb. 27, per state data. Lewis County has a population of almost 83,000.
Mason County has reported 11,069 confirmed cases with 125 deaths as of Monday. 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 at least 11,649 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic to Sunday.
In the U.S., about 79 million COVID-19 cases had been reported as of Tuesday with over 951,800 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data. The U.S. population is about 330 million.
Globally, more than 437.9 million people had contracted the virus and over 5.9 million people had died of COVID-19 as of Tuesday, the data show.
This story was originally published March 1, 2022 at 5:30 AM.
