Three new diagnoses in Thurston County, brings total to 229

Three new cases of COVID-19 were announced by Thurston County on Wednesday, bringing the county’s total to 229.

The three newfound cases are all in young men, two in there 20’s and one in his 30’s, according to Thurston County Public Health and Social Services.

Young people are being infected at higher rates, recently. Thurston County health officials told the Olympian yesterday this due to young people gathering in small groups without wearing masks or keeping 6-feet of space between one another. They do not link the rise in cases to any event or events.

People who are considered “recovered” or “recovering” went up to 212 today, while the amount who have been hospitalized remained at 32, the same amount since the beginning of the week.

Four people have died from COVID-19 in Thurston County. That number changed after the county retracted one death from their count because the 90-year-old woman’s death certificate did not list COVID-19 as the cause or a contributor to her death.

Thurston County announced Wednesday that it had been approved for Phase Three of Washington’s Safe Start Plan.

A CLOSER LOOK

Thurston County’s weekly COVID-19 report shows that the ZIP codes with the highest number of cases are: 98503 with 32 cases; 98513 with 35 cases; and 98512 with 37 cases.

More Black and Hispanic Thurston County residents are getting infected with COVID-19, while white residents are slowly being infected less. Black people make up 3 percent of Thurston County’s population but 10 percent of it’s cases, that’s up from 9 percent from last week, but down from 12 percent from week 12.

Hispanic people (who are counted in the “Ethnicity” category rather than the “Race” category) make up 9 percent of the county but 19 percent of the counties cases.

The rise in cases amongst the two communities is not tied to any event or trend according to County Spokesperson Meghan Porter, rather it is just how the disease is spreading in the county.

White residents have decrease to 81 percent of county cases while making up 82 percent of the county.

IN THE REGION

• Pierce County confirmed 45 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday and no new deaths. Their total is 2,357 cases and 84 deaths.
• Lewis County has announced no new cases since last Saturday, maintaining 52 cases total with three death.
• Mason County has 43 cases and one death. The county has yet to update it’s website with new data, which is why the website is still reporting only 42 cases.
• Grays Harbor County has 24 cases, a number that has not changed since June 19.

AROUND THE STATE, NATION AND WORLD

• Washington State is reporting 29,896 cases of COVID-19 and 1,293 deaths, according to the Washington Sate Department of Health.
• The U.S. now has over 2.37 million cases and has had 121,870 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
• Globally, more that 9.3 million people have been diagnosed with the respiratory disease and 479,818 people have died from it.

This story was originally published June 24, 2020 at 4:21 PM.