Pierce County death toll now at 7 from COVID-19; total cases at 423
Pierce County reported 46 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday. The county now has a total of 423 cases and seven deaths, with 5,299 tested as of March 28.
The latest death involved a Puyallup women in her 80s with underlying health conditions, according to the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department.
The department in recent days also has been reassigning locations to some of the earlier reported deaths.
The department noted in an update Wednesday, “A death we classified as a Tacoma resident is now classified as a Lakewood death.
“We share information about COVID-19 tests, positive results and deaths in a timely manner. Even after we release the data, staff continue to refine and verify initial information as new information becomes available. Sometimes these updates result in case or death reclassification to other areas of the community, or another county.”
The county’s first death, originally listed as Puyallup, also has been reclassified as Central Pierce County, according to details provided Tuesday night to The News Tribune in response to questions about the reclassification.
Reporting for the total volume of tests and results for the state has been delayed because of an overload of the state disease reporting system, which normally only reports positive test results. In a pandemic, though, negative test results are also input, and that combined volume has overwhelmed the system, according to the state Department of Health.
The state on Tuesday estimated that reporting of totals would pick up again at some point this week. Totals from March 28 were still listed on the state website as of Wednesday afternoon.
The county health department, in its Wednesday update, noted that: “You will likely see a spike in our numbers when the system is back online.”
The health department has been putting together its own totals from positive test reports faxed directly from labs, according to its blog post Tuesday night.
Pierce County case number totals announced Wednesday by geographic location within the county are listed below with the last reported totals from Tuesday in parentheses. Numbers may be higher/lower because of continued redistribution of totals as case investigations continue.
▪ Bonney Lake: 12 (no change)
▪ Central Pierce County: 22 (19)
▪ East Pierce County: 9 (6)
▪ Edgewood/Fife/Milton: 20 (14)
▪ Frederickson: 13 (9)
▪ Gig Harbor area: 24 (27)
▪ Graham: 13 (12)
▪ JBLM: 6 (4)
▪ Key Peninsula: 3 (2)
▪ Lake Tapps/Sumner area: 13 (11)
▪ Lakewood: 33 (23)
▪ Parkland: 22 (13)
▪ Puyallup: 25 (24)
▪ South Hill: 22 (18)
▪ South Pierce County: 8 (no change)
▪ Southwest Pierce County: 6 (no change)
▪ Spanaway: 15 (18)
▪ Tacoma: 142 (139)
▪ University Place: 15 (12)
Daily reports include new cases received by 11:59 p.m. the previous day.
This story was originally published April 1, 2020 at 2:19 PM.
