COVID-19 activity trends down in Thurston County. Here’s the latest risk level
Thurston County’s COVID-19 disease activity is trending down, lowering community risk.
The county’s Public Health and Social Services department reported 332 additional COVID cases and no deaths for the week of Aug. 15-21. Weekly case counts have been declining since mid-July.
In all, PHSS has confirmed 56,280 cases and 422 deaths since the start of the pandemic in March 2020 to Monday. However, case numbers are undercounted due to the prevalence of at-home tests that are often not officially recorded.
Thurston County’s disease activity remained “high” between Aug. 8-15, according to the Washington state Department of Health. However, the county’s case rate per 100,000 people has fallen from 259.1 between July 5-11 to 110.7 between Aug. 9-15, according to the state.
The state’s threshold for “high” activity is a case rate of 100 per 100,000 people.
However, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ranks Thurston County’s COVID-19 Community Level as “low” based on data from Aug. 10-17, down from a previous “medium” rating.
The CDC determines community levels by weighing new hospital admission and inpatient bed data after considering cases per 100,000 in the past seven days. Thurston County shared the “low” rating with all of its immediate neighbors.
With a “low” rating, the CDC recommends people wear masks if they experience symptoms, test positive or have been exposed to someone with COVID-19. People should also wear masks on public transportation.
Hospitalizations
CDC hospitalization data showed fewer people have been hospitalized with confirmed COVID-19 over the past week.
Around 4.7% of in-patient beds were being used by COVID patients over a seven-day period ending on Monday, the data show. The previous week the percentage was 6.6%.
There were about 7.7 hospital admissions per 100,000 Thurston County residents over the same period, the data show. The previous week, the CDC reported the same rate.
Over a seven-day period ending Tuesday, state DOH data indicates about 80.2% of Intensive Care Unit beds were occupied in the West region, which includes Thurston County and some of its neighbors. The data show 5.9% of ICU beds were occupied by COVID-19 patients.
Hospitals in the region were 92.5% full over the seven-day period, while COVID-19 patients accounted for 7.4%.
PHSS recorded 29 hospitalizations in Thurston County from Aug. 15-21. In all, county data show 2,745 COVID patients have been hospitalized at some point in their illness.
About 75% of county residents who were hospitalized had a known underlying condition, according to the Tuesday weekly report. But it’s possible some had an unknown underlying condition.
Outbreaks
PHSS has been investigating 29 ongoing outbreaks at congregate care settings. In all, there have been 265 such outbreaks – the same amount reported the previous week.
The ongoing outbreaks include seven adult family homes, 12 assisted living facilities, a congregate housing setting, an enhanced services facility, five nursing facilities and three supported living facilities.
Vaccines and testing
About 67% of all Thurston County residents had completed their primary series of vaccinations as of Monday. The state also reports 58.3% of county residents 5 and older have received a booster dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
Thurston County PHSS continues to offer free vaccination events, including for booster shots, every week. Upcoming events are listed on their coronavirus vaccine information website.
Anyone who tests at home can report their results to Washington’s COVID-19 hotline at 800-525-0127. Thurston County residents also can call PHSS at 360-867-2610.
Over-the-counter COVID-19 antigen tests are available at pharmacies and on-order for Washington residents from Say Yes! COVID Test and the federal government.
In the region
Pierce County has confirmed 216,633 total COVID-19 cases with 1,494 deaths as of Tuesday. Pierce County has a population of about 927,000. The CDC indicates Pierce County has a low COVID-19 community level.
Lewis County has had a total of 19,663 confirmed cases with 277 deaths as of Tuesday. Lewis County has a population of almost 83,000. The CDC indicates Lewis County has a low COVID-19 community level.
Grays Harbor County has seen a total of 18,980 cases with 213 deaths as of Tuesday, according to state data. Grays Harbor County has a population of about 75,000. The CDC indicates Grays Harbor County has a low COVID-19 community level.
Mason County has reported 13,454 confirmed cases with 155 deaths as of Tuesday. Mason County has a population of about 69,000. The CDC indicates Mason County has a low COVID-19 community level.
In the nation, state and world
The state of Washington has confirmed over 1.7 million COVID-19 cases and at least 13,843 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic to Tuesday.
In the U.S., about 93.9 million COVID-19 cases had been reported as of Thursday with over 1 million deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data. The U.S. population is about 330 million.
Globally, more than 599 million people had contracted the virus and over 6.4 million people had died of COVID-19 as of Thursday, the data show.
