2 more Thurston residents die of COVID amid ‘substantial’ COVID activity
Thurston County reported two deaths due to COVID-19 and 304 additional cases over the past week as virus activity increased.
A man in his 40s and a woman in her 80s died, according to Public Health and Social Services. The last time PHSS had reported a death was on March 31.
PHSS confirmed the cases and deaths the week of April 18-24, but they did not necessarily all occur then. In all, PHSS has recorded 46,182 cases and 361 deaths since the pandemic began. Of that total, PHSS considers 45,689 cases as recovered or recovering, meaning 493 confirmed cases remained active as of Monday.
The latest weekly case count is the highest PHSS has reported since the week of Feb. 21-27 when there were 625 cases. Since then, case counts have fluctuated in the 100s and 200s.
From April 11-17, PHSS reported 189 cases and no deaths.
As of Sunday, the state Department of Health considers disease activity to be “substantial” in Thurston County, up from “moderate” last week.
The county’s case rate per 100,000 people reached 133.0 from April 3-16, according to the state. This is up from a recent low rate of 67 from March 16-29.
The record high case rate was 3,075.6 from Jan. 2-15, per the latest data.
Outbreaks and hospitalizations
PHSS reports it was investigating nine ongoing outbreaks at congregate care settings as of Monday. Since the beginning of the pandemic, there have been 192 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 as of April 19, per the data.
PHSS confirmed six hospitalizations over the past week. Since the start of the pandemic, the data show 2,264 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 19 weekly report. However, it’s possible some had an unknown underlying condition.
Among the 360 who died by April 19, the report says 100% had a known underlying condition.
Hospitalizations started falling in mid-January and have recently reached levels lower than recorded last summer.
There were about 3.4 hospitalizations per 100,000 people from April 10-16 in Thurston County, according to the latest state data. This is up from a recent low of 0.3 from April 1-7.
The current record high rate was 37.8 which was recorded from Jan. 9-15.
As of Sunday, about 88.6% 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 just 1% of ICU beds were occupied by COVID-19 patients in the region.
Hospitals in the region were 91.5% full over a seven-day period, according to the data, while COVID-19 patients accounted for just 3.1%.
Vaccinations and tests
Just 65.6% of all Thurston residents completed their primary series of vaccinations as of Saturday, and 72.3% had at least initiated their primary series, state data shows.
This represented just a 0.1% increase for both metrics compared to the previous week.
Meanwhile, the data show 76.4% of Thurston County residents 5 and older have initiated vaccinations and 69.4% had completed their primary series.
As of April 19, 81.6% of the state population 5 and older had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 74.2% had completed their primary series. 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 58.8% of those 12 and older had received a booster dose of a COVID-19 vaccine as of Saturday. Across the state, about 58.5% of that population 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.
About 6.2% of confirmed molecular and antigen tests returned a positive result in Thurston County from April 9-15, according to DOH data. Over the same period, the state had an overall test positivity rate of 6.6%.
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 187,680 total COVID-19 cases with 1,319 deaths as of April 19. Pierce County has a population of about 927,000.
Lewis County has had a total of 17,595 confirmed and probable cases with 248 deaths as of Thursday per state data. Lewis County has a population of almost 83,000.
Grays Harbor County has seen a total of 16,293 cases with 195 deaths as of Thursday, according to state data. Grays Harbor County has a population of about 75,000.
Mason County has reported 11,456 confirmed cases with 141 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 12,621 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic to Thursday.
In the U.S., about 81 million COVID-19 cases had been reported as of Tuesday with over 991,500 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data. The U.S. population is about 330 million.
Globally, more than 509 million people had contracted the virus and over 6.2 million people had died of COVID-19 as of Tuesday, the data show.
