Thurston County confirmed one death due to COVID-19 and 170 additional cases over the past week.
A woman in her 40s died, according to Public Health and Social Services (PHSS).
PHSS confirmed the cases and deaths between March 28 to April 3, but they did not necessarily all occur that week. In all, PHSS has recorded 45,417 cases and 359 deaths in Thurston County from March 2020 to Sunday.
Of that total, PHSS considers 45,117 cases as recovered or recovering, meaning about 300 confirmed cases remained active as of Monday afternoon.
From March 21-27, PHSS reported a slight uptick in disease activity with 210 cases and seven deaths. The county’s weekly case count peaked at 3,899 cases the week of Jan. 17-23 and has generally decreased since.
As of Sunday, the state still considers disease activity to be “moderate” in Thurston County.
The county’s case rate per 100,000 people fell to 69.8 from March 13-26 — a rate not seen since late September 2020.
The record high case rate was 3,068 from Jan. 2-15, according to the latest data.
Outbreaks and Hospitalizations
The county reported it was investigating nine ongoing outbreaks at congregate care settings as of Monday. So far, there have been 187 such outbreaks.
The county has not reported an outbreak in a school setting since Feb. 21.
PHSS confirmed four hospitalizations over the past week. Since the start of the pandemic, the data show 2,202 Thurston County residents with COVID-19 have been hospitalized at some point in their illness.
About 75% of county residents who were hospitalized had a known underlying condition, according to a March 22 weekly report. However, it’s possible some had an unknown underlying condition.
Among the 358 who died as of March 27, the report says 100% had a known underlying condition.
Hospitalizations started falling in mid-January and recently reached levels comparable to last summer. There were about 2.4 hospitalizations per 100,000 people from March 20-26, according to the latest state data.
The current record high rate was 37.8, which was recorded from Jan. 9-15.
As of Sunday, about 84.7% of Intensive Care Unit beds were occupied over a seven-day period in the West region, which includes Thurston County and some of its neighbors. The data show just 5.2% of ICU beds were occupied by COVID-19 patients in the region.
Hospitals in the region were 90.2% full over a seven-day period, according to the data, while COVID-19 patients accounted for just 3.4%.
Vaccinations and Tests
Just 65.2% of all Thurston residents were fully vaccinated as of Saturday, and 72% had at least initiated vaccinations, per state data.
Meanwhile, the data show 76.1% of Thurston County residents 5 and older have initiated vaccinations and 69% had been fully vaccinated.
As of March 28, 81.3% of the state population 5 and older had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 73.8% had been fully vaccinated.
In Thurston County, the state reports 58.6% of residents 12 and older had received a booster dose of a COVID-19 vaccine as of Saturday. Across the state, about 58.3% of that population have gotten a booster.
Thurston County PHSS continues to offer free vaccination events, including for booster shots, every week. Events are listed on their coronavirus vaccine information website.
Eligible residents can also find appointments at local providers such as pharmacies by visiting the state’s Vaccine Locator website.
Those who have 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.
About 2.8% of molecular and antigen tests recorded returned a positive result in Thurston County from March 19-25, according to DOH data. This mirrors the state’s overall rate.
People can get PCR tested at pharmacies such as Rite Aid and Walgreens. Over-the- counter COVID-19 antigen tests are also available at pharmacies and on-order from the state Department of Health and federal government.
In the Region
Pierce County had confirmed 185,655 total COVID-19 cases with 1,311 deaths as of March 22. Pierce County has a population of about 927,000.
Lewis County has had a total of 17,487 confirmed and probable cases with 246 deaths as of Sunday per state data. Lewis County has a population of almost 83,000.
Grays Harbor County has seen a total of 16,159 cases with 195 deaths as of Sunday, according to state data. Grays Harbor County has a population of about 75,000.
Mason County has reported 11,343 confirmed cases with 139 deaths as of Monday. Mason County has a population of about 69,000.
In the State, Nation and World
The state of Washington has confirmed over 1.4 million COVID-19 cases and 12,458 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic to Sunday.
In the U.S., about 80.1 million COVID-19 cases had been reported as of Monday with nearly 983,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data. The U.S. population is about 330 million.
Globally, about 492 million people had contracted the virus and over 6.1 million people had died of COVID-19 as of Monday, the data show.
