COVID spread appears to be slowing as Thurston County adds 557 cases in last week
Thurston County confirmed 557 new COVID-19 cases but no additional deaths due to the virus the week of May 30 to June 5.
An additional 139 cases were added on Monday. In all, Thurston County Public Health and Social Services has recorded 49,975 cases and 379 deaths since March 2020.
Of that total, PHSS considers 48,911 cases as recovered or recovering, meaning 1,064 confirmed cases remained active as of Monday.
From May 23-29, PHSS reported 716 cases and 10 deaths. Weekly case counts have decreased the past two weeks after increasing for 10 consecutive weeks.
Health Officer Dimyana Abdelmalek acknowledged the most recent trends Tuesday when she spoke with the Board of County Commissioners.
“Our rate of increase in terms of COVID-19 cases is slowing,” Abdelmalek said. “So, we’re definitely continuing the overall trend upward but we’re continuing to watch. The wildcard there is also the number of over-the-counter tests, some of which may not be reported.”
As of Sunday, the state Department of Health considers disease activity to be “high” in Thurston County — the most severe rating.
The county’s case rate per 100,000 people reached 516.5 from May 15-28 according to the state. This is up from a recent low rate of 67.7 from March 16-29.
The record high case rate was 3,108.6 from Jan. 2-15.
However, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention described the county’s COVID-19 Community Level as “low” as of Tuesday. The CDC determines community levels by weighing new hospital admission and inpatient bed metrics after considering cases per 100,000 in the past seven days.
The level was previously increased from “low” to “medium” on May 19, indicating higher risk.
Outbreaks and hospitalizations
PHSS was investigating 24 ongoing outbreaks at congregate care settings as of Monday. So far, there have been 213 such outbreaks since the beginning of the pandemic – two more than the previous week.
At school settings, PHSS reported 30 closures involving 185 cases last month. North Thurston Public Schools had nine closures with 37 cases, and the Olympia School District had 14 closures with 89 cases, according to county data.
The Tumwater School District saw three closures involving 20 cases, and Yelm Community Schools had just one closure the week of May 16-22 with 26 cases.
Private schools experienced two closures involving 10 cases in May, according to PHSS.
PHSS confirmed 11 hospitalizations occurred over the past week. Since the start of the pandemic, the data show 2,378 Thurston County residents with COVID-19 have been hospitalized at some point in their illness.
State data indicate Thurston County’s hospitalization rate decreased in mid-May. Still, state officials warned on Monday that hospitals have been “remarkably” strained by community spread.
There were about 7.2 hospitalizations per 100,000 people from May 22-28 in Thurston County, according to the latest state data. This is down from a recent peak of 11 from May 9-15.
The current record high rate was 37.8 which was recorded from Jan. 9-15.
As of Monday, about 89.7% 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 7% of the ICU beds were occupied by COVID-19 patients.
Hospitals in the region were 92.6% full over a seven-day period, per the data, while COVID-19 patients accounted for 7.7%.
Vaccinations and tests
Just 66.1% of all Thurston residents completed their primary series of vaccinations as of Saturday, and 72.8% had initiated their primary series, according to state data.
Meanwhile, the data show 77% of Thurston County residents 5 and older have initiated vaccinations and 69.9% had completed their primary series.
As of May 9, 81.8% of the state population 5 and older had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 74.4% 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 59% of those 12 and older have received a booster dose of a COVID-19 vaccine as of Saturday. Across the state, about 58.7% of that population have gotten a booster as of May 25.
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 13.2% of confirmed molecular and antigen tests returned a positive result in Thurston County from May 21-27, according to DOH data. Over the same period, the state had an overall test positivity rate of 13.8%.
Is there an undercount?
The DOH says it does not separate antigen test data from molecular test data because negative antigen tests are often not reported.
However, testing results and, by extension, case counts are undercounted due to the availability of at-home testing. For its part, PHSS does not count such tests because they are considered suspect, according to county spokesperson Meredith Mathis.
PHSS looks at data for populations that are routinely screened to get a sense of wider trends, Mathis said. These populations include health care workers and people in congregate settings.
“Using hospitalization rates for confirmed and positive cases is another way to identify trends in community transmission even in the setting of a significant number of suspect cases,” Mathis said.
Data for hospitalizations and deaths are generally not under reported, Mathis said. PHSS has high confidence in that data, she added.
While point-of-care testing facilities are required to report a result to public health within 24 hours of the test, those who take at-home tests aren’t included in testing and case data if they do not self-report.
Anyone who tests at home can report their positive result to Washington’s COVID-19 hotline at 800–525–0127. Thurston County residents may also call PHSS at 360-867-2610.
Additionally, people who test positive can anonymously notify others they may have been exposed through state’s exposure notification system, WA Notify, on their Android or iPhone. WA Notify is completely private and doesn’t collect or share any personal information.
Self-reporting in this way can help public health contact tracers inform others of potential exposure. Those who use the WA Notify system also can receive notifications about potential exposure.
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 has confirmed 196,179 total COVID-19 cases with 1,349 deaths as of May 31. Pierce County has a population of about 927,000.
Grays Harbor County has seen a total of 17,542 cases with 200 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 18,201 confirmed cases with 256 deaths as of Sunday per state data. Lewis County has a population of almost 83,000.
Mason County has reported 12,104 confirmed cases with 143 deaths as of Tuesday. Mason County has a population of about 69,000.
In the nation, state and world
The state of Washington has confirmed over 1.6 million COVID-19 cases and 12,908 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic to Sunday.
In the U.S., about 84.9 million COVID-19 cases had been reported as of Tuesday with over 1 million deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data. The U.S. population is about 330 million.
Globally, more than 532.5 million people had contracted the virus and over 6.3 million people had died of COVID-19 as of Tuesday, the data show.
This story was originally published June 8, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
