Thurston County adds 1 death and 155 cases last week as virus activity continues to drop
Thurston County confirmed 155 COVID-19 cases and one additional death in the past week.
A man in his 80s died on June 16, according to Thurston County Public Health and Social Services.
The county saw fewer cases last week than the week prior when the county reported 222 cases. State data indicates disease activity has been declining since around the end of April.
The county saw a case rate of 92.8 per 100,000 people over the two-week period from May 31 to June 13, according to state data published on Monday. This is down from the most recent peak of 237.5 cases per 100,000 from April 19 to May 2, the data show.
About 4.9 percent of COVID-19 tests returned positive results from June 7-13, according to state data. This percentage has increased from a low of 3.3 percent from May 31 to June 6, per the data.
Since March 2020, the county has confirmed a total of 10,841 cases and 95 deaths. In all, 10,324 cases are considered recovered or recovering and 655 people have been hospitalized at some point in their illness, the data show.
The county reported it’s monitoring five ongoing outbreaks at congregate care settings. To date, there have been 62 such outbreaks, per county data.
Continuing a sluggish trend, the county’s vaccination rate once again only progressed in single-digit percentage points this past week.
About 50.8 percent of the county population has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine while 45.6 percent had been fully vaccinated as of Saturday, according to state data.
This is just slightly higher than the percentages reported the week prior when about 50 percent of the county population had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine while 43.9 percent had been fully vaccinated, the Olympian previously reported.
Discounting children under 16, 60.7 percent of the population has received at least one dose and 54.9 percent were fully vaccinated this past week, the data show.
The week prior, 59.8 percent of that population had received at least one dose and 53.3 percent had been fully vaccinated, The Olympian previously reported.
Although masks are no longer required in many settings, health officer Dimyana Abdelmalek has asked all residents to continue masking in public indoor settings until 70 percent of the population is vaccinated.
Thurston County PHSS is continuing to offer free vaccination events every week. Events are listed on their coronavirus vaccine information website. Although no longer required, people are still encouraged to pre-register for these events through the state’s PrepMod website.
Residents also can find appointments at local providers such as pharmacies by visiting the state’s Vaccine Locator website. Many supermarket pharmacies are taking walk-ins for vaccines.
Those with difficulty scheduling appointments online can call the Department of Health vaccine hotline at 888-856-5816 or the Thurston County Public Health and Social Services line at 360-867-2610. Information for Spanish speakers is available at these numbers as well.
People interested in volunteering at PHSS vaccine events can sign up through the United Way of Thurston County website. Anyone with questions or concerns about volunteering can call 360-943-2773.
In the region
▪ Pierce County confirmed 50,700 total COVID-19 cases with 595 deaths as of Monday.
▪ Grays Harbor County had reported 4,558 confirmed and probable cases with 75 deaths as of Sunday.
▪ Lewis County Public Health & Social Services reported 5,252 confirmed and probable cases with 73 deaths as of Sunday.
▪ Mason County reported 2,276 confirmed cases with 34 deaths as of Monday.
In the state, nation and world
The state of Washington had reported a total of 447,724 COVID-19 cases and 5,838 deaths as of Monday.
In the U.S., over 33.5 million cases had been reported as of Monday with more than 602,000 deaths.
Globally, over 178.6 million people had contracted the virus and more than 3.87 million had died of COVID-19 as of Monday, the data show.
