Thurston County COVID-19 cases rise by 3 to 92 over the weekend; state recalls test kits
Confirmed cases of COVID-19 rose to 92 in Thurston County over the weekend. No new cases were announced on Sunday, but there were three more on Saturday, according to county public health officials.
The three cases on Saturday were a woman in her 70s, a woman in her 60s and a man in his 20s, according to Thurston County Public Health and Social Services.
The county finished with 12 cases for the week of April 13, the fewest number of cases since the week of March 16, the county data show. That week the county reported six cases. From there, it rose to 26 cases, followed by 31, 13 and 12 this week.
The county still has only one death tied to the disease. Hospitalizations have increased to 16 from 13.
Meanwhile, the state Department of Health announced Sunday that it’s recalling thousands of test kits due to possible contamination. The state was alerted to the problem by UW Medicine on Friday.
“As a result, last night DOH recalled approximately 12,000 kits sent to local health jurisdictions, tribal nations, and state agency partners across the state,” DOH officials said in a news release.
“Though the quality control issue has only been observed in a small number of tubes of viral transport media, we adhere to the highest quality standards for COVID-19 testing in Washington state,” Secretary of Health John Wiesman said in a statement. “We are working with our partners to have them discard the product and will work to replace them as quickly as we can.”
According to the news release, viral transport media is the fluid that preserves a specimen, taken via a nasal swab, while it is on its way to the lab. Some of the vials were an unusual color, which prompted UW Medicine to reach out to DOH to work together to investigate potential contamination. DOH officials believe there is no health risk to patients, as the fluid does not come in contact with patients during a COVID-19 test.
Around the region, state and nation
▪ As of Sunday, Pierce County had more than 1,100 confirmed cases with 29 deaths.
▪ Lewis County had 21 known cases with two deaths.
▪ Mason County had 22 cases.
▪ Grays Harbor County had 12 cases.
Washington state had 11,800 cases and 624 deaths, according to the state Department of Health.
The U.S. leads the world with nearly 776,000 cases as of Monday, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University. That is nearly 4 times as many cases as anywhere else in the world; Spain, with the second most cases, had just more than 200,000 as of Monday.
More than 39,000 cases in the United States have resulted in death. New York City alone accounts for more than 14,000 deaths.
Worldwide, more than 2.4 million cases have been reported, with nearly 168,000 resulting in deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins data.
This story was originally published April 19, 2020 at 2:51 PM.
