Thurston County Adds One Death, 134 COVID-19 Cases Over Past Week

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Thurston County saw one death due to COVID-19 and 134 cases in the past week as vaccine uptake continues to be sluggish.

A woman in her 30s died on July 8, according to Thurston County Public Health and Social Services.

The county's case count last week bucked a downward trend that started mid-June. Last week, the county reported 107 cases and the week before that 143 cases.

Although the county added more cases this week, state data indicates disease activity has continued to decline since the end of April.

The county saw a case rate of 74.2 per 100,000 people over the two-week period from June 21 to July 4, according to state data published on Tuesday. This is down from the most recent peak case rate of 237.8 from April 19 to May 2.

About 3.9 percent of COVID-19 tests came back positive from June 28 to July 4, according to state data. This percentage has increased from the most recent low of 3.2 percent from June 21-27.

Overall, the test positivity rate has not dipped below the state's target of 2 percent since September but has generally decreased since the end of April when there was a high of 9.6 percent, the data show.

Since March 2020, the county has confirmed a total of 11,225 COVID-19 cases and 97 deaths. In all, 10,941 COVID patients are considered recovered or recovering and 681 people have been hospitalized at some point in their illness, the data show.

The county reported it's currently monitoring one ongoing outbreak at a congregate care setting. To date, there have been 62 such outbreaks, according to county data.

No local school district reported an outbreak in June, according to the county's data tables.

The county still has a ways to go before it can reach it's goal of at least initiating vaccinations in 70 percent of the 16 and older population.

About 52.2 percent of the county population had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine while 47.8 percent had been fully vaccinated as of Wednesday, according to the latest state data.

This means over half the county population has not been fully vaccinated about two weeks past June 30 when the state and the county hoped to reach the 70 percent goal.

Discounting children under 16, 62.2 percent of the population had received at least one dose and 57.2 percent had been fully vaccinated, the data show.



The state reported 69.6 percent of the 16 and older population has had at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine as of Friday.

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 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.

In the region

— Pierce County confirmed 51,564 total COVID-19 cases with 620 deaths as of Tuesday.

— Grays Harbor County had reported a total of 4,646 confirmed and probable cases with 77 deaths as of Monday.

— Lewis County Public Health & Social Services reported 5,396 confirmed and probable cases with 78 deaths as of Monday.

— Mason County reported 2,330 confirmed cases with 36 deaths as of Tuesday.

In the state, nation and world

The state of Washington had reported a total of 456,709 COVID-19 cases and 6,000 deaths as of Monday.

In the U.S., over 33.7 million cases had been reported as of Tuesday with more than 607,400 deaths.

Globally, over 187.1 million people had contracted the virus and more than 4 million people had died of COVID-19 as of Tuesday, the data show.