Pierce County deaths tied to coronavirus now at four; total cases jump by more than 30
Pierce County saw a jump in confirmed cases of the coronavirus Thursday, with more than 30 new cases and two more deaths, both out of Lakewood, according to the health department’s updated list.
There are now 186 positive cases with four deaths out of 3,515 tested in the county by the University of Washington virology lab and State Public Health Labs since the outbreak started.
The two new deaths were of a woman in her 70s with underlying health conditions and a man in his 70s with underlying health conditions. Both were from Lakewood.
The health department told The News Tribune on Thursday that a case that was part of Wednesday’s total of 155 was incorrectly assigned to Pierce County, making Thursday’s total increase in cases 32.
In a tweet correcting Thursday’s totals, the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department wrote: “Our new case count today is 32 and our total is 186. Our numbers are likely to change from time to time as we learn more about each individual case.”
Statewide totals as of early Thursday afternoon listed 2,580 positive cases of the coronavirus, which causes COVID-19 respiratory disease, out of 34,292 tested, and 132 deaths. The state noted that its reporting site had experienced a slowdown “because of a 10-fold increase in the number of lab reports received.”
On Thursday, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee noted that the state’s “stay-at-home” order most likely would need to be extended given the state’s “modest reduction” in the rate of change.
“We have a long ways to go,” he said, noting the statewide “change in rate of increase does not show what’s going on in parts of the state.”
“While we’ve lowered the curve in Central Puget Sound,” he said, other areas were still struggling with a surge. Inslee warned against a “false sense of security.”
He noted that the data the state was using to project what the situation would look days ahead included hospital admissions and patients with coronavirus-like infections, traffic data to estimate amount of social contact as well as internet and cellular data to see general population movement geographically.
On Thursday, the county health department revised its method of reporting, this time adding more locations and removing some of the more general locations. The redistribution also reduced the numbers in some location from Wednesday’s totals. The department on its website also added a map to show the cases by location.
Thursday’s local case numbers are listed below with Pierce County location and Wednesday’s totals in parentheses. Those without a number in parentheses are either new location listings or they reflect a new, redistributed total.
▪ Bonney Lake: 5 (no change)
▪ Central Pierce County: 7
▪ East Pierce County: 7 (6)
▪ Edgewood/Fife/Milton: 12
▪ Frederickson: 6
▪ Gig Harbor area: 13 (no change)
▪ Graham: 5
▪ JBLM: 3
▪ Key Peninsula: 1
▪ Lake Tapps/Sumner area: 6
▪ Lakewood: 10 (9)
▪ Parkland: 13
▪ Puyallup: 14
▪ South Hill 6
▪ South Pierce County: 4
▪ Southwest Pierce County 3
▪ Spanaway 5
▪ Tacoma: 60
▪ University Place: 6
This story was originally published March 26, 2020 at 3:03 PM with the headline "Pierce County deaths tied to coronavirus now at four; total cases jump by more than 30."
