First Pierce County COVID-19 patients released from hospital, health department says
Story has been updated.
Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department on Tuesday said that some of the county’s first diagnosed COVID-19 patients have been released from the hospital.
In a health department blog update posted Tuesday just before noon, Dr. Anthony Chen, director of Health at Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department and chief health strategist for Pierce County, wrote: “Several of our COVID-19 patients have already been discharged from the hospital. That includes Pierce County’s first case ... Several more are recovering well at home and never needed hospital care.”
That first patient, announced March 6, was a Puyallup man in his 50s with underlying health conditions. He was admitted to St. Anthony Hospital in Gig Harbor for treatment. Including that first diagnosis, 44 cases have been diagnosed in Pierce County as of Tuesday night, according to the health department.
While the department on Tuesday originally reported that seven new cases were reported in Pierce County on Tuesday, it tweeted a correction Tuesday evening: “During our investigation today, we learned one patient does not live in Pierce County. The correct number of new COVID-19 cases in Pierce County is 6, and our total is 44.”
The listing of a Lakewood man in his 30s was removed from the site’s March 16 list of patients.
The new cases include a Tacoma woman in her 30s, a Tacoma man in his 40s, two girls under the age of 20, one in Gig Harbor, the other in University Place; a Puyallup woman in her 50s and a Tacoma man in his 40s.
The health department posts daily updates on its COVID-19 page but so far has only released general information about each patient, limited to gender, age and place of residence.
On Monday, two cases were identified as Pierce County workers via an email sent to county employees.
“In most of our cases, patients experienced mild symptoms and are recovering.,” Chen wrote in his blog Tuesday. “Our hospitals are only caring for a few people with COVID-19 right now. For privacy reasons, we cannot tell you more about their health. But those patients receive excellent care and hospital staff watch them closely.”
Chen noted that testing for COVID-19 “is rapidly increasing in Washington and across the country. The State Public Health Laboratories and the University of Washington Virology Lab are already up and running. These two labs have already conducted more than 9,000 tests in Washington. UW set a goal of 5,000 tests every day. Commercial labs across the state began testing samples as well.”
More than 800 in Pierce County have been tested, according to the health department, which also reports a daily testing total for the county.
“Only 5 percent of all tests conducted in Pierce County have been positive for COVID-19.,” Chen wrote. “More are tested every day.”
While Pierce County numbers so far have remained relatively low compared with King and Snohomish counties in the coronavirus outbreak, Chen echoed what other local officials have been saying in the past few days.
“As testing increases, the number of reported cases will likely increase as well,” he wrote.
As of Tuesday, no deaths have been reported in Pierce County related to the virus.
Statewide, the confirmed number of cases rose to 1,012, with 52 deaths in the state since the start of the outbreak.
This story was originally published March 17, 2020 at 12:53 PM.
