Thurston County reported one new death due to COVID-19 and 42 new confirmed cases on Tuesday as the health department warned of increased transmission.
The death of a woman in her 80s brought the county's death total to 81, according to Thurston County Public Health and Social Services data. So far, the county has reported 8,969 total cases with 539 hospitalizations. Of that total, 8,128 cases are considered recovered or recovering, the data show.
COVID-19 transmission in Thurston County has generally risen since March, prompting Health Officer Dimyana Abdelmalek to warn schools in a Monday letter that they may need to increase precautions against COVID-19.
"I am strongly urging parents, students, teachers, and community members in Thurston County to follow the guidance we know works to reduce disease transmission," Abdelmalek said in the letter. "We need to reduce COVID-19 transmission in Thurston County to ensure schools do not have to implement high transmission guidance."
The latest state data indicates the county saw a rate of 194.8 new cases per 100,000 people over the two-week period from April 13-26. This is about two and half times greater than the most recent low of 77 new cases per 100,000 over the two-week period from March 4-17.
Abdelmalek noted the county recorded a hospitalization rate of 8.9 COVID-19 patients per 100,000 over the past week. The most recent state data also indicates the county had a test positivity rate of 6.5% between April 10-16. It posted a rate of 7.2% as the latest data on Tuesday.
Thurston County could soon be classified as an area with high community transmission if it's case rate exceeds 200 and its test positivity rate surpasses 10%, Abdelmalek said in her letter.
If that happens, she said she would advise schools to group students into cohorts and enforce at least 3 feet of physical distancing. If schools cannot group students, then they should adhere to 6 feet of physical distancing, she added.
If recent trends for the case rate and hospitalization rate continue, Thurston County could backslide into Phase 2 of Gov. Jay Inslee's reopening plan. To remain in Phase 3, the county cannot exceed 200 cases per 100,000 over a two-week period.
About a dozen counties were at risk of backsliding or staying in Phase 2 of the three-phase plan on Tuesday. However, Gov. Jay Inslee paused the plan for two weeks, granting those counties a reprieve from tighter COVID-19 conditions.
Inslee announced the pause after reviewing data that indicated a fourth wave of disease activity may be flattening, the Olympian reported.
Currently, only Pierce, Cowlitz, Whitman and Ferry counties are in Phase 2, according to the state, but all counties will be reevaluated in two weeks.
Regarding outbreaks, the Thruston County reported four on-going congregate care outbreaks at an adult family home, a nursing home, a congregate housing setting and a supported living setting. In all, the county has recorded 55 such outbreaks.
On Tuesday, the county also revealed there have been three outbreaks at schools during the month of May so far, including two outbreaks in the Olympia School District and one outbreak in the Yelm Community Schools.
These are the first outbreaks in school settings that have been reported in months. Yelm reported an outbreak in August 2020 and there have been three total outbreaks among private schools, with two occurring in February and one in October 2020, according to county data.
In the region
In the state, nation and world
The state Department of Health has now reported a total of 408,607 COVID-19 cases and 5,528 deaths as of Tuesday.
In the U.S., 32.5 million cases had been reported as of Tuesday with more than 578,400 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data.
Globally, 153.9 million cases had been reported as of Tuesday with 3.22 million deaths.
