9 new COVID-19 cases, 4 new outbreaks reported in Thurston County Tuesday
Thurston County added nine new cases of COVID-19 to its total Tuesday and reported four new outbreaks in congregate care settings.
The latest cases were identified in a girl 9 or younger, a man and woman in their 20s, a man in his 30s, two women and a man in their 40s, a woman in her 50s, and a man in his 60s, county data show.
At a county commission work session Tuesday, Health Officer Dr. Dimyana Abdelmalek shared some takeaways about cases that have been part of the dramatic uptick in recent days: The week ending Sunday saw the biggest one-week tally of new cases here since the pandemic started.
Some of the recent spike may be due to delayed presentation from the Labor Day holiday, she said. She also noted that some people have waited 3-7 days to be tested after symptoms began.
“What we’re asking all of Thurston County residents to do is to stay home when you’re sick, get tested early if you have COVID symptoms, and stay home after the test until you get that confirmation,” Abdelmalek said. People also should stay home if they’ve been identified as a close contact of someone who has tested positive and the Public Health department has instructed them to stay home.
As she did last week, Dr. Abdelmalek attributed some recent cases to residents who had traveled out of state and said she’s seeing spread within households and groups of family members and friends.
In total, the county has reported 1,353 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 17 deaths since the first case was discovered here in March. As of Tuesday, 101 residents had been hospitalized at some point during their illness and 1,027 were considered “recovered” or “recovering.”
People the Public Health department considers “recovered” can still have ongoing health problems as a result of the illness.
Four new outbreaks
The county reported four new outbreaks in congregate care settings Tuesday, for a total of five ongoing outbreaks and 14 outbreak investigations to date.
All told, there are currently outbreaks at two adult family homes, two assisted living facilities, and one nursing facility, according to spokesperson Magen Johnson.
All are considered long-term care facilities, Johnson said. The state Department of Health defines an outbreak as one resident or healthcare worker with a positive COVID-19 test, or two or more residents or healthcare workers with new respiratory symptoms consistent with COVID-19 within 72 hours of one another.
Because of the number of cases and the time it takes to compile the data, Johnson said the county will only release case counts for the ongoing outbreaks once per week, in its weekly data report.
The most recent data report, released Tuesday before the latest four outbreaks were reported, includes numbers for one of the adult family homes, where five residents and 15 staff members have tested positive. One death is associated with the outbreak.
In response to a question from Commissioner Gary Edwards Tuesday, Abdelmalek said there had been no school-related outbreaks in Thurston County as of Tuesday morning.
In the region
▪ Pierce County added 47 cases on Tuesday and no new deaths, giving the county a total of 8,222 cases and 177 deaths.
▪ Lewis County reported three new cases, for a total of 613 and five deaths.
▪ Grays Harbor County announced Monday that one more person had died of COVID-19, but there were no new cases. It has reported 554 cases and 11 deaths since the pandemic began.
▪ Mason County reported four new COVID-19 cases Tuesday. Its total is now 480 cases and eight deaths. It did not confirm any additional cases related to a long-term care facility outbreak at Fir Lane Health and Rehabilitation.
Across the state, nation and world
The state Department of Health reported 90,663 cases total with 2,165 deaths.
In the U.S., nearly 7.5 million cases had been reported and nearly 211,000 people had died as a result as of Tuesday, according to a tally from Johns Hopkins University.
Globally, nearly 35.7 million cases have been reported and more than 1 million people have died, the data show.
This story was originally published October 6, 2020 at 5:21 PM.
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