Thurston County adds 272 COVID-19 cases as virus activity remains moderate
Thurston County reported 272 additional COVID-19 cases over the past week as virus activity remains moderate.
For the first time in months, however, no deaths due to COVID-19 were recorded by Thurston County in the last week, according to Public Health and Social Services. The last death of a county resident was March 31.
PHSS confirmed the cases between April 4-10, but they did not necessarily all occur that week. In all, PHSS has recorded 45,689 cases and 359 deaths from March 2020 to Sunday.
Of that total, PHSS considers 45,378 cases as recovered or recovering, meaning 311 confirmed cases remained active as of Monday.
From March 28 to April 3, PHSS reported a slight drop in disease activity with 170 cases and one death. The county’s weekly case count has fallen from a peak of 3,899 cases the week of Jan. 17-23. However, recent case counts have been fluctuating week to week.
As of Friday, the state Department of Health still considers disease activity to be “moderate” in Thurston County.
The county’s case rate per 100,000 people reached 71.8 from March 17-30 — a comparable to late September 2020.
The record high case rate was 3,070.4 per 100,000 people from Jan. 2-15.
Health Officer Dimyana Abdelmalek called the county’s most recent case rate “low” during a Tuesday morning Board of County Commissioners meeting.
PHSS will be monitoring disease activity carefully, she said, especially in the aftermath of spring break. She said the more transmissible Omicron BA.2 subvariant now dominates the state.
The subvariant accounts for at least 75.9% of recorded cases from March 20-26, per DOH data.
Though the state eased its indoor mask mandate on March 12, masks are still required in health care settings, prisons, shelters and public transportation.
Outbreaks and hospitalizations
PHSS reports it was investigating eight ongoing outbreaks at congregate care settings as of Monday. So far, there have been 189 such outbreaks — two more than reported last week.
At school settings, the county reported just one closure involving two cases the week of March 28 to April 3 in the Tenino School District. No other outbreaks have been reported since Feb. 21, per the data.
PHSS confirmed three hospitalizations over the past week. Since the start of the pandemic, the data show 2,251 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 an April 5 weekly report. However, it’s possible some had an unknown underlying condition.
Among the 359 who died by April 5, the report says 100% had a known underlying condition.
Hospitalizations started falling in mid-January and have recently reached levels comparable to last summer. There were about 2.7 hospitalizations per 100,000 people from March 24-30 in Thurston County, according to the latest state data.
The current record high rate was 37.8 which was recorded from Jan. 9-15.
As of Friday, a weekly average of 88.8% of Intensive Care Unit beds were occupied in the West region, which includes Thurston County and some of its neighbors. The data show just 6.9% of ICU beds were occupied by COVID-19 patients.
Hospitals in the region were 90.3% full over a seven-day period, according to the data, while COVID-19 patients accounted for just 3.4%.
Vaccinations and tests
Just 65.3% of all Thurston residents were fully vaccinated as of April 6, and 72% had at least initiated vaccinations, state data shows.
Meanwhile, the data show 76.2% of Thurston County residents 5 and older have initiated vaccinations and 69% had been fully vaccinated.
As of April 11, 81.5% of the state population 5 and older had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 74% 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 58.6% of those 12 and older had received a booster dose of a COVID-19 vaccine as of April 6. Across the state, about 58.4% 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 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.
About 2.9% of confirmed molecular and antigen tests returned a positive result in Thurston County from March 23-29, according to DOH data. This mirrors the state’s overall rate.
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 had confirmed 185,980 total COVID-19 cases with 1,314 deaths as of April 5. Pierce County has a population of about 927,000.
Grays Harbor County has seen a total of 16,172 cases with 195 deaths as of Thursday, according to state data. Grays Harbor County has a population of about 75,000.
Lewis County has had a total of 17,509 confirmed and probable cases with 246 deaths as of Thursday per state data. Lewis County has a population of almost 83,000.
Mason County has reported 11,371 confirmed cases with 139 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 12,512 deaths from the beginning of the pandemic to Thursday.
In the U.S., about 80.4 million COVID-19 cases had been reported as of Tuesday with over 986,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data. The U.S. population is about 330 million.
Globally, more than 500 million people had contracted the virus and over 6.1 million people had died of COVID-19 as of Tuesday, the data show.
