8 more Thurston residents die of COVID amid ‘high’ virus activity
Thurston County confirmed eight new deaths due to COVID-19 and 490 additional cases over the past week amid increasing virus activity.
Five women died: one in her 60s, three in their 70s and one in her 80s, according to Public Health and Social Services. Two men also died: one in his 70s and one in his 80s.
PHSS confirmed the cases and deaths the week of April 25 to May 1, but they did not necessarily all occur then. In a Twitter post, PHSS indicated 15 cases are older than a week.
In all, PHSS has recorded 46,672 cases and 369 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020. Of that total, PHSS considers 46,037 cases as recovered or recovering, meaning 635 confirmed cases remained active as of Monday morning.
From April 18-24, PHSS reported 304 cases and two deaths. In March, weekly case counts fluctuated in the 100s and 200s.
As of Sunday, the state Department of Health considers disease activity to be “high” in Thurston County. Early last week, the DOH described activity as “substantial.”
The county’s case rate per 100,000 people reached 211.7 from April 10-23, according to the state. This is up from a recent low rate of 67 from March 16-29.
The record high case rate was 3,081 from Jan. 2-15, per the latest data.
On Tuesday, Health Officer Dimyana Abdelmalek acknowledged the rising case counts and reminded the public to get tested if they feel symptomatic.
“We are continuing to see an increase in COVID-19 cases as well as COVID-19 clusters and outbreaks in our community,” Abdelmalek said. “We are following our hospitalization data closely.”
Abdelmalek also recommended people consider masking in indoor public spaces if they are at risk of severe illness or near at-risk people.
Outbreaks and hospitalizations
PHSS was investigating 12 ongoing outbreaks at congregate care settings as of Sunday, said interim PHSS director Kurt Hardin on Tuesday. So far, there have been 193 such outbreaks — one more than the previous 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, according to the data.
More recent outbreak data was not immediately available due to technical issues that were affecting some Thurston County websites on Monday, according to the county.
PHSS confirmed eight new hospitalizations over the past week. Since the start of the pandemic, the data show 2,288 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 26 weekly report. However, it’s possible some had an unknown underlying condition.
Among the 361 who died by April 26, the report says 100% had a known underlying condition.
Hospitalizations started falling from record highs in mid-January but have recently started to rebound.
There were about 3.4 hospitalizations per 100,000 people from April 17-23 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, 92.5% of Intensive Care Unit beds had been occupied over the past week in the West region, which includes Thurston County and some of its neighbors. The data show 7% of ICU beds were occupied by COVID-19 patients.
Hospitals in the region were 92.6% full over a seven-day period, while COVID-19 patients accounted for 4.3%.
Vaccinations and tests
Just 65.7% of all Thurston residents had completed their primary series of vaccinations as of Saturday, and 72.4% had at least initiated their primary series, per state data.
This represented just a 0.1% increase for both metrics compared to the previous week.
Meanwhile, the data show 76.5% of Thurston County residents 5 and older have initiated vaccinations and 69.5% 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 been 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 have received a booster dose of a COVID-19 vaccine as of Saturday. This percentage remained unchanged compared to last week.
Across the state, about 58.6% of that population have gotten a booster — just 0.1% more than last week.
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.
About 8.3% of confirmed molecular and antigen tests returned a positive result in Thurston County from April 16-22, according to DOH data. Over the same period, the state had an overall test positivity rate of 8.5%.
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 187,930 total COVID-19 cases with 1,320 deaths as of April 26. Pierce County has a population of about 927,000.
Lewis County has had a total of 17,661 confirmed and probable cases with 249 deaths as of Thursday. Lewis County has a population of almost 83,000.
Grays Harbor County has seen a total of 16,429 cases with 197 deaths as of Thursday, according to state data. Grays Harbor County has a population of about 75,000.
Mason County has reported 11,529 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 1.5 million COVID-19 cases and 12,669 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic.
In the U.S., about 81.4 million COVID-19 cases had been reported as of Tuesday with over 994,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data. The U.S. population is about 330 million.
Globally, more than 514.4 million people had contracted the virus and over 6.2 million people had died of COVID-19 as of Tuesday, the data show.
