Thurston official recommends phase in of in-person learning; 74 COVID-19 cases announced
Thurston County’s health officer is recommending a cautious return to classroom learning for K-5 and middle school students, and if the county makes significant progress on COVID-19 transmission rates, she will recommend high school students return to class too, the county announced Thursday.
County Health Officer Dr. Dimyana Abdelmalek based her recommendation on the county’s moderate transmission rate for the virus, as well as the following:
▪ Thurston County Public Health and Social Services has the capacity to respond to cases that may occur in schools, identify those who are close contacts in need of quarantine, and investigate instances of COVID-19 transmission in the schools.
▪ Testing capacity in the county is adequate.
▪ The county’s current rate per 100,000 population of newly diagnosed confirmed and probable COVID-19 cases over the last two weeks is 293.6.
▪ The test positive rate is 7.8 percent.
▪ The county’s trend in cases has decreased over the past seven days.
“I am recommending schools use the Washington State Department of Health decision-making framework and cautiously phase in in-person learning for K-5 and middle school students,” Abdelmalek said in a statement. “Once Thurston County’s rates are below 200 cases per 100,000 population, I recommend phasing in high school students.”
Thursday’s case count data
The county announced 74 more cases on Thursday, giving the county 144 for the week and 5,973 to date.
Of that total, 5,018 people have recovered or are recovering from the virus, 326 have been hospitalized at some point during their illness, and 62 people have died, including a woman in her 30s whose death was announced Wednesday.
The state Department of Corrections announced Thursday that a fourth inmate had died from COVID-19 after contracting the virus at Stafford Creek Corrections Center in Aberdeen. It is the 10th inmate statewide to die from the disease, according to DOC.
Stafford Creek has had 353 COVID-19 cases in the last 30 days amid a current population of 1,830.
The Northwest Indian Treatment Center in McCleary also announced that COVID-19 has been detected there, producing 13 confirmed cases. The NWITC is closing as a result and will reopen when it has been determined that it is safe to do so, the organization said in a news release.
In the region
▪ Pierce County on Thursday announced 304 new cases and nine new deaths. The county has reported 30,864 cases and 374 deaths total.
▪ Grays Harbor County has 2,753 confirmed and probable cases as of Thursday with 28 deaths.
▪ Lewis County reported 43 new cases and three new deaths on Thursday for a total of 2,709 cases and 34 deaths.
▪ Mason County reported 15 additional cases on Wednesday for a total of 1,523 with 19 deaths.
▪ Pacific County reported a total of 669 cases with eight deaths Wednesday.
Around the state, nation and world
The state Department of Health has reported 296,087 confirmed and probable cases and 4,065 deaths as of Thursday.
In the U.S., 24.8 million cases had been reported as of Friday with nearly 413,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data.
Globally, more than 97.9 million cases had been reported and more than 2.1 million people had died as of Friday, the data show.
This story was originally published January 21, 2021 at 5:15 PM.
