Thurston County has confirmed 10 deaths due to COVID-19 and a record 3,899 cases from Jan. 17-23.
Eight men died due to COVID-19: one in his 30s, one in his 40s, one in his 50s, three in their 70s and two in their 90s. Two women also died: one in her 70s and one in her 90s.
There have been 37,823 confirmed COVID cases and 269 deaths in the county since the beginning of the pandemic, according to Public Health and Social Services. PHSS considered 30,351 cases recovered or recovering on Monday — meaning 7,472 cases remained active.
From Jan. 10-16, the county reported 3,573 cases and one death. The previous record weekly case count was 3,709 from Jan. 3-9.
Thurston County's disease transmission rate rose to record heights over the past two weeks, continuing a trend that started in early December. The records come after the winter holidays when the more transmissible Omicron variant solidified its dominance.
State data show the county saw 2,714.8 cases per 100,000 people from Dec. 29 to Jan. 11. During the first two weeks of December, the county had a case rate of 284.9.
The previous record high case rate in the county was 523 from Aug. 19 to Sept. 1, the data show.
Outbreaks rise
The county reports it's responding to 56 ongoing outbreaks at congregate care settings, 15 more than the previous week. As of Monday, there have been 167 such outbreaks since the beginning of the pandemic.
In school settings, updated PHSS data indicates there were four closures involving 12 cases from Jan. 3-9 and 15 closures involving 63 cases from Jan. 10-16.
North Thurston Public Schools saw one closure involving three cases from Jan. 3-9 and eight closures involving 34 cases the next week.
From Jan. 3-9, Rainier School District had one closure involving three cases. There were two closures among private schools involving six cases.
Rochester School District saw one closure at a school setting due to five cases and one closure at an extracurricular setting due to seven cases from Jan. 10-16.
Over the same week, Tenino School District saw two closures in school settings resulting from six cases and two closures in extracurricular settings resulting from eight cases.
Meanwhile, Tumwater School District had one closure involving three cases.
PHSS did not report any outbreaks at school settings from Jan. 17-23 on Monday.
Over the 2021-2022 school year, PHSS has recorded 131 outbreaks and 777 cases in school settings.
Hospitalizations also rise
Hospitalizations have been rising since the mid-December. The county confirmed 13 hospitalizations over the past week.
There were 32.6 hospitalizations per 100,000 people between Jan. 5-11, according to state data. The county's previous record was 19.9 between Aug. 20-26 during the Delta variant wave.
Since the start of the pandemic, the data show 1,781 people with COVID-19 have been hospitalized at some point.
As of Sunday, about 88% of ICU beds were occupied over a seven-day period in the West region, which includes Thurston County and some of its neighbors. The data show 47.3% of ICU beds were occupied by COVID-19 patients.
Hospitals in the region were 90.8% full over a seven-day period as of Sunday, per the data, while COVID-19 patients accounted for 34.7%.
From February to December 2021, state data show 67.1% of recorded cases (12,261) in Thurston County were in unvaccinated individuals. Meanwhile, 28.4% of cases (5,188) were in fully vaccinated individuals, per state data.
Across the state, those who were unvaccinated accounted for 75.2% (3,710) of all 12 and older COVID-19 deaths from Feb. 1 to Dec. 21, 2021. Those partially vaccinated made up 5.2% (258) of deaths and those fully vaccinated made up 19.6 % (968) of deaths, the data show.
PHSS does not share the vaccination status of those who die or are hospitalized due to COVID-19 in Thurston County because they do not have access to that data, a county spokesperson previously said.
Vaccinations and tests
Data show 61.3% of all Thurston residents were fully vaccinated as of Saturday, and 67.5% had initiated vaccinations, per state data.
Meanwhile, the data show 78.6% of Thurston County residents 12 and older have initiated vaccinations and 71.3% had been fully vaccinated.
As of Jan. 18, 78.9% of the state population 5 and older had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 71.6% had been fully vaccinated. This percentage includes aggregate data from the Department of Defense and Veteran Affairs, both of which are not entirely reflected in the state's data dashboard.
The state reports 89,790 people (about 30%) in Thurston County have received a booster dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. Across the state, over 2.3 million people have gotten a booster.
Thurston County PHSS continues to offer free vaccination events, including for booster shots. 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.
There have been no updates to COVID-19 testing data since Sept. 15. The DOH does not expect to restart its reporting of testing data until about Feb. 28, but the release of this data has been repeatedly delayed.
In the region
Pierce County had confirmed 140,418 total COVID-19 cases with 1,016 deaths as of Jan. 18. Pierce County has a population of about 927,000.
Grays Harbor County has seen a total of 13,329 confirmed and probable cases, with 164 deaths as of Jan. 23, according to state data. Grays Harbor County has a population of about 75,000.
Lewis County has had a total of 14,690 confirmed and probable cases with 201 deaths as of Jan. 23, per state data. Lewis County has a population of almost 83,000.
Mason County has reported 8,331 confirmed cases with 102 deaths as of Jan. 24. Mason County has a population of about 69,000.
In the state, nation and world
The state of Washington had reported over 1.2 million COVID-19 cases and 10,206 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic.
In the U.S., about 71.6 million COVID-19 cases had been reported as of Monday with over 868,400 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data. The U.S. population is about 330 million.
Globally, more than 354.3 million people had contracted the virus and over 5.6 million people had died of COVID-19 as of Monday, the data show.
