Thurston County announces 25 new COVID-19 cases in its biggest one-day increase yet
Thurston County Public Health and Social Services on Friday announced 25 new cases of COVID-19 in residents — its biggest one-day increase since the pandemic began and more than twice its previous one-day high.
All of the most recently diagnosed residents are in their 60s or younger, and two-thirds of them are in their 30s or younger.
The new patients are:
Three boys and two girls under age 10;
Two boys and one girl between ages 10 and 19;
Two women and one man in their 20s;
Three women and three men in their 30s;
One man in his 40s;
Two men and a woman in their 50s; and
Three women and one man in their 60s.
The county is not pointing to a particular event, location, or gathering as the origin of the comparatively drastic jump in cases. Previously, the highest number of coronavirus cases the county had announced in one day was 12.
Magen Johnson, Thurston County Public Health’s COVID-19 spokesperson, said the county not sharing this information is a way “to encourage people to get tested” with confidence that how they contracted the virus won’t become public knowledge.
She pointed The Olympian instead to a line from new Health Officer Dr. Dimyana Abdelmalek’s letter to the community released Wednesday, calling it “very relevant” to Friday’s numbers:
“In recent days, traveling and private gatherings with family and friends are common ways people are contracting COVID-19,” the letter reads.
The department would make a public statement about the genesis of the cases if officials believed there was enough of a public health concern and they were not able to do contact tracing, Johnson said.
A total of 346 Thurston County residents had been diagnosed with COVID-19 as of Friday afternoon, county data show, with five deaths due to the disease. Of the 346, 37 have been hospitalized at some point in their illness and 231 are considered “recovered” or “recovering.”
County Public Health considers a person “recovered” if they are not hospitalized and have been released from Public Health-ordered isolation. They could still experience ongoing health problems as a result of the illness.
The county’s daily testing data is only available through Wednesday, when a total of 15,761 residents had been tested and 2% of their results had come back positive.
The week ending July 5 saw the county’s biggest increase in cases in one week, with 54 new diagnoses. This week is on track to meet or surpass that new record, with 48 cases tallied as of Friday afternoon.
In the region
- Pierce County reported 58 new cases of COVID-19 Friday and five new deaths. The county has had a total of 3,057 cases and 97 deaths since the beginning of the outbreak. The residents who died are a man in his 60s from Tacoma, a man in his 80s from Lakewood, a woman in her 70s from University Place, and two women in their 90s from University Place — all had underlying health conditions.
- Lewis County announced no new cases. Its case total remains at 95 with three deaths.
- Mason County announced one new case Friday in a man in his 40s, bringing its total to 60 confirmed cases with one death. The county’s Public Health department considers six cases active.
- Grays Harbor County has announced 43 cases of COVID-19 total since the pandemic began.
Around the state, nation and world
- Washington state’s Department of Health reported a total of 38,581 cases of COVID-19 and 1,409 deaths related to the disease as of Friday.
- In the U.S., about 3.2 million people have tested positive and more than 134,000 have died because of the disease, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
- Globally, more than 12.5 million diagnoses had been reported and more than 560,000 deaths had been attributed to the virus as of Friday.
This story was originally published July 10, 2020 at 6:26 PM.
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