Six more Thurston County residents killed by COVID-19 as cases continue to fall
Thurston County confirmed six deaths due to COVID-19 and 139 additional cases over the past week while virus activity continues to drop.
Four men died due to the virus: one in his 70s, two in their 80s and one in his 90s. Two women also died: one in her 70s and one in her 80s.
Public Health and Social Services confirmed the cases and deaths between March 14-20, but they did not necessarily all occur that week. In all, PHSS has recorded 45,037 cases and 351 deaths from March 2020 to Sunday.
Of that total, PHSS considers 44,883 cases as recovered or recovering, meaning about 154 confirmed cases remained active as of Monday afternoon.
From March 7-13, PHSS counted 177 cases and eight deaths. The county’s weekly case count peaked at 3,899 cases the week of Jan. 17-23 and has been smaller each week since then.
The county’s case rate per 100,000 people dropped to 105.8 from Feb. 27 to March 12, a rate not seen since early July.
The record high case rate was 3,046 from Jan. 2-15, according to the latest data — far higher than the previous peak of 527.5 from Aug. 18-31.
The state eased its indoor mask mandate on March 12, but masks are still required in health care settings, prisons, shelters and public transportation.
Outbreaks and hospitalizations
Thurston County reports it was investigating 12 ongoing outbreaks at congregate care settings as of Monday. So far, there have been 186 such outbreaks, which is one more than the previous week.
At school settings, the county has reported no outbreaks since Feb. 21.
PHSS confirmed just two hospitalizations over the past week. Since the start of the pandemic, the data show 2,169 Thurston County residents with COVID-19 have been hospitalized at some point in their illness.
About 75% of county residents who were hospitalized had a known underlying condition, according to a March 15 weekly report. However, it’s possible some had an unknown underlying condition.
Among the 345 who had died of COVID-19 as of March 13, the report says 100% had a known underlying condition.
There were about 3.4 hospitalizations per 100,000 people from March 6-12, according to the latest state data. The record high was 37.8 per 100,000 from Jan. 9-15.
Over a seven-day period ending Sunday, about 87.9% of Intensive Care Unit beds were occupied in the West region, which includes Thurston County and some of its neighbors. The data show 4.6% of ICU beds were occupied by COVID-19 patients in the region as well.
Hospitals in the region were 89.6% full over the seven-day period, while COVID-19 patients accounted for just 3.5%.
Vaccinations and tests
Just 65% of all Thurston residents were fully vaccinated as of Saturday, and 71.8% had initiated vaccinations, per state data.
Of those 5 and older in Thurston County, 75.9% had initiated vaccinations and 73.8% had been fully vaccinated.
As of March 7, 81% of the state population 5 and older had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 73.4% 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 58.4% of those 12 and older had received a booster dose of a COVID-19 vaccine as of Saturday. Across the state, about 58.1% of that population had 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 also can 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.
People can get PCR tested at pharmacies such as Rite Aid and Walgreens. 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 confirmed 183,484 total COVID-19 cases with 1,293 deaths as of March 15. Pierce County has a population of about 927,000.
- Grays Harbor County has seen a total of 16,122 cases with 195 deaths as of Sunday, according to state data. Grays Harbor County has a population of about 75,000.
- Lewis County has had a total of 17,396 confirmed and probable cases with 239 deaths as of Sunday. Lewis County has a population of almost 83,000.
- Mason County had reported 11,234 confirmed cases with 137 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 12,240 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic to Sunday.
In the U.S., about 79.7 million COVID-19 cases had been reported as of Monday with over 972,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data. The U.S. population is about 330 million.
Globally, more than 471.6 million people had contracted the virus and over 6 million people had died of COVID-19 as of Monday, the data show.
This story was originally published March 22, 2022 at 2:07 PM.
