Pierce County COVID-19 cases at 377; state data struggles continue
Pierce County reported 26 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday. The county now has a total of 377 cases and six deaths, with 5,299 tested so far.
The testing number has not changed for a few days, but the county health department said in its update that testing is continuing, with a lag on reporting data.
Tuesday evening, the county health department noted on its blog that: “In Pierce County, we’re trying to bridge the (state) reporting gap by receiving positive test results faxed directly from some labs.”
Both the state and county’s health department’s website noted Monday that the state’s Disease Reporting System was experiencing technical difficulties because of a high volume of data. Tuesday morning, both sites still listed numbers from March 28.
On Tuesday, the state Department of Health issued an update on the numbers reporting that it was still seeking solutions in its reporting data.
The state disease reporting system “is now tracking negative results for COVID-19. This volume is overwhelming the tool,” the state DOH reported. “We have worked with the vendor supporting WDRS to increase capacity. We are also investigating additional solutions, which may include: a separate reporting tool for negative results (roughly 93% of the data at this time); automating deduplication work performed manually each day.”
The statement added, “One day last week, more than 2,000 duplicate results were removed to ensure accurate, reliable numbers.”
Totals for locations within the county were not posted on the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department’s website Monday, which is where it posts daily COVID-19 updates.
Pierce County case number totals announced Tuesday by geographic location within the county are listed below with the last reported totals from March 28 in parentheses. Numbers may be higher/lower because of continued redistribution of totals as case investigations continue.
▪ Bonney Lake: 12 (9)
▪ Central Pierce County: 19 (12)
▪ East Pierce County: 6 (12)
▪ Edgewood/Fife/Milton: 14 (no change)
▪ Frederickson: 9 (8)
▪ Gig Harbor area: 27 (30)
▪ Graham: 12 (14)
▪ JBLM: 4 (3)
▪ Key Peninsula: 2 (no change)
▪ Lake Tapps/Sumner area: 11 (9)
▪ Lakewood: 23 (15)
▪ Parkland: 13 (20)
▪ Puyallup: 24 (31)
▪ South Hill: 18 (16)
▪ South Pierce County: 8 (4)
▪ Southwest Pierce County: 6 (no change)
▪ Spanaway: 18 (10)
▪ Tacoma: 139 (114)
▪ University Place: 12 (10)
Daily reports include new cases received by 11:59 p.m. the previous day.
This story was originally published March 31, 2020 at 2:48 PM.
