Thurston County added 74 more COVID-19 cases Thanksgiving day, giving the county 256 cases so far for this week.
About 7.5% of tests have returned positive over the last week, according to data released Thursday by Thurston County Public Health and Social Services, much higher than the state goal of less than 2%. Daily case counts have accelerated across the state in recent weeks, prompting officials to encourage residents to refrain from gatherings with people outside their households.
In all, the county has seen 3,077 total cases and 46 deaths. Of that total, 1,921 patients have recovered or are recovering; 202 have been hospitalized at some point during their illness. The county is also reporting 12 ongoing COVID-19 outbreaks at congregate care settings, according to the data, bringing the total number of such outbreaks to 25 so far.
The state has found the virus has been spreading rapidly throughout the state, according to a Wednesday situational report. The reproductive number has been about 1.48 in Western Washington and 1.51 in Eastern Washington as of Nov. 8, the report read. Both rates are well above one, the goal that would indicate transmission is declining.
In the region
— Pierce County on Thursday announced 89 new cases and three new deaths. The three deaths included a woman in her 80s from the Lake Tapps/Sumner area with underlying health conditions, a woman in her 90s from Lakewood with underlying health conditions and another woman in her 80s from Puyallup. It is unknown if the Puyallup woman had underlying conditions. The county has now reported 15,460 cases and 231 deaths in total. The numbers released Thursday are likely an undercount resulting from staffing and processing slowdowns, a news release read.
— Lewis County did not report new numbers Thursday but it did report 22 new cases and two new deaths Wednesday for a total of 1,134 cases and 16 deaths.
— Grays Harbor County also did not report new numbers Thursday. However it did add 18 new cases Tuesday night, giving the county 966 total cases and 17 deaths.
— Mason County reported nine additional cases on Wednesday for a total of 776 with 11 deaths.
Around the state, nation and world
The state Department of Health did not report updated numbers Thursday due to the holiday. However, the state did report 2,887 new cases and 14 new deaths Wednesday for a total of 153,906 cases and 2,704 deaths.
In the U.S., nearly 12.9 million cases had been reported with over 263,000 deaths as of Thursday, according to Johns Hopkins University data.
Globally, 60.8 million cases had been reported and about 1.43 million people had died as of Thursday, the data shows.
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