Thurston County adds 571 COVID cases as disease activity remains ‘high’
Thurston County recorded 571 COVID-19 cases over the past week amid increasing virus activity. However, no additional county residents have died of COVID since April 28.
Public Health and Social Services confirmed the cases the week of May 2-8, but they did not necessarily all occur then.
An additional 159 COVID cases were added to Thurston County’s running count on Monday. In all, PHSS has recorded 47,284 cases and 369 deaths from March 2020 to Sunday. Of that total, PHSS considers 46,037 cases as recovered or recovering, meaning 1,247 confirmed cases remained active as of Monday morning.
From April 25 to May 1 PHSS reported 490 cases and eight deaths. Weekly case counts have been steadily increasing since mid-April.
The state Department of Health now considers disease activity to be “high” in Thurston County. Two weeks ago, the DOH described activity as “substantial.”
The county’s case rate per 100,000 people reached 286.9 from April 17-30, according to the state. This is up from a recent low rate of 67.4 from March 16-29.
The record high case rate was 3,082 from Jan. 2-15.
Outbreaks and hospitalizations
PHSS has been investigating nine ongoing outbreaks at congregate care settings as of Sunday. There have been 194 such outbreaks since the start of the pandemic — one more than the previous week.
At school settings, PHSS reported three closures from April 11-24. Once closure involved five cases at a private school the week of April 11-17.
From April 18-24, North Thurston Public Schools saw two closures involving 14 cases at a school setting and one closure involving five cases at an extracurricular setting. However, three of the five cases overlapped with an ongoing outbreak.
PHSS confirmed nine hospitalizations over the past week. Since the start of the pandemic, the data show 2,297 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 369 who have died of COVID, the report says 100% had a known underlying condition.
Hospitalizations started falling from record highs in mid-January only to start rebounding in early April.
There were about 5.2 hospitalizations per 100,000 people from April 24-30 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.
Over a seven-day period ending Sunday, about 90% of Intensive Care Unit beds were occupied in the West region, which includes Thurston County and some of its neighbors. The data show 9.8% of the ICU beds were occupied by COVID-19 patients.
Hospitals in the region were 86.5% full over a seven-day period, while COVID-19 patients accounted for 4.3%.
Vaccinations and tests
Just 65.8% of all Thurston residents completed their primary series of vaccinations, and 72.5% had at least initiated their primary series, per state data. This represented just a 0.1% increase compared to the previous week.
Meanwhile, the data show 76.6% of Thurston County residents 5 and older have initiated vaccinations and 69.6% had completed their primary series.
As of May 4, 81.8% of the state population 5 and older had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 74.3% 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 58.9% of those 12 and older have received a booster dose of a COVID-19 vaccine as of Saturday.
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 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 10.1% of confirmed molecular and antigen tests returned a positive result in Thurston County from April 23-29, according to DOH data. Over the same period, the state had an overall test positivity rate of 9.9%.
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 189,063 total COVID-19 cases with 1,324 deaths as of May 3. Pierce County has a population of about 927,000.
Lewis County has had a total of 17,732 confirmed cases with 250 deaths as of Sunday per state data. Lewis County has a population of almost 83,000.
Grays Harbor County has seen a total of 16,546 cases with 198 deaths as of Sunday, according to state data. Grays Harbor County has a population of about 75,000.
Mason County has reported 11,597 confirmed cases with 141 deaths as of May 5. Mason County has a population of about 69,000.
In the state, nation and world
The state of Washington has confirmed over 1.51 million COVID-19 cases and 12,707 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic to Thursday.
In the U.S., about 81.9 million COVID-19 cases had been reported as of Tuesday with over 997,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data. The U.S. population is about 330 million.
Globally, more than 517.6 million people had contracted the virus and over 6.2 million people had died of COVID-19 as of Tuesday, the data show.
