Here are the latest COVID-19 case numbers confirmed Wednesday in Washington state
The Washington state Department of Health reported 1,500 new COVID-19 cases and 15 deaths Wednesday. The state, recently one of the lowest, now ranks 22nd in case rates. Daily hospital admissions of COVID-19 patients have been steadily increasing since early March.
Pierce County reported 233 cases Wednesday and one new death. The county has 528 deaths likely caused by COVID-19, according to the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department.
Statewide totals from the illness caused by the coronavirus are 390,214 and 5,422 deaths. Those numbers are up from 388,714 cases and 5,407 deaths Tuesday. The case total includes 27,938 infections listed as probable. DOH revises previous case and death counts daily.
Washington’s population is estimated at about 7.6 million, according to U.S. Census figures from July 2019.
Hospitalizations
As of April 9, the date with the most recent complete data, 51 people with confirmed cases of COVID-19 were admitted to Washington state hospitals.
Preliminary reports indicate average daily hospital admissions were increasing at 53 in mid-April, numbers not seen since early February.
Out of the state’s total staffed intensive care unit beds (1,269) approximately 79.9% (1,014) were occupied by patients Tuesday. Of those staffed ICU beds, 12.5% (158) held suspected and confirmed COVID-19 patients, down from Monday.
Case rates
For the past seven days, Washington has had an increasing case rate of 126 per 100,000 people. Twenty-eight states were lower.
The national rate for the same period was 135 per 100,000, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Michigan has the highest rate in the United States at 483. Hawaii is the lowest at 39.1.
Vaccine
According to the CDC, 5.14 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in Washington.
On the national level, 215 million shots of the approved vaccines have been given, according to CDC statistics.
As of Wednesday, 25.9% of Washington residents and 33.8% of the adult U.S. population have been fully vaccinated.
On April 15, all Washington residents age 16 and older became eligible for the vaccine.
Testing
On April 2, the most recent date with confirmed testing data, 17,978 specimens were collected statewide, with 5% testing positive.
The average positive test rate for the seven days prior was steady at 4.6%. More than 6.3 million tests have been conducted in Washington. The test numbers reflect only polymerase chain reaction tests, which are administered while the virus is presumably still active in the body.
County numbers
According to DOH data, King County, with the state’s highest population, continues to have the highest numbers in Washington, with 98,159 cases and 1,503 deaths. Pierce County, second in population, is second in cases, with 46,866. Pierce County has the second-highest number of deaths, at 636, according to DOH, which counts deaths differently than the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department.
All counties in Washington have at least 100 cases. Only 11 of the state’s 39 counties have case counts of fewer than 1,000.
U.S. and world numbers
There have been more than 31.8 million confirmed coronavirus cases and 569,361 deaths from the virus in the United States as of Wednesday, according to Johns Hopkins University. The United States has the highest total number of reported cases and deaths of any nation.
More than 3.05 million people have died from the disease worldwide. Global cases exceed 143 million.
This story was originally published April 21, 2021 at 5:22 PM with the headline "Here are the latest COVID-19 case numbers confirmed Wednesday in Washington state."
