New COVID-19 deaths in Pierce County include a centenarian
Pierce County added 36 new cases to its coronavirus total and two more deaths, according to numbers posted Tuesday by the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department.
The county’s total confirmed cases of COVID-19 are at 795 with 16 deaths since the health department started posting numbers in the outbreak.
The county’s totals fluctuate day to day as the health department adds or subtracts cases based on new information, so new case totals do not always match what was reported the previous day, or as of Wednesday, even the same day.
Wednesday’s totals by city added up to 780 on the health department website, not the 795 reported in a news release.
Melissa Trapp-Petty, an epidemiology program manager in the health department, explained to The News Tribune that since it is providing an open data set each day, the department is constantly adding to it “so not all of the data has an answer” by the time the county’s update is posted.
The department also is working to add more details involving the demographics of COVID-19 cases.
The two new deaths reported Wednesday include a man in his 80s from Buckley and a woman in her 100s from Tacoma, both with underlying health conditions.
No new testing numbers were released by the county. Tests have been run on 8,870 Pierce County residents by private and public labs, according to the state Department of Heath. The state health department is still facing a delay in reporting coronavirus test numbers.
Daily reports include cases received by 11:59 p.m. the previous day. Tuesday geographical totals are listed below with Monday’s numbers in parentheses:
▪ Bonney Lake: 22 (no change)
▪ Central Pierce County: 47 (46)
▪ East Pierce County: 22 (21)
▪ Edgwood/Fife/Milton: 35 (no change)
▪ Frederickson: 21 (19)
▪ Gig Harbor area: 42 (41)
▪ Graham: 27 (26)
▪ JBLM: No longer reported
▪ Key Peninsula: 6 (no change)
▪ Lake Tapps/Sumner area: 20 (17)
▪ Lakewood: 66 (62)
▪ Parkland: 33 (no change)
▪ Puyallup: 36 (no change)
▪ South Hill: 46 (45)
▪ South Pierce County: 14 (no change)
▪ Southwest Pierce County: 7 (6)
▪ Spanaway: 25 (24)
▪ Tacoma: 287 (283)
▪ University Place: 24 (no change)
BEHIND THE STORY
MOREHow we are reporting coronavirus numbers
The News Tribune reports confirmed coronavirus cases as listed by the Washington Department of Health and the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department in their daily updates.
The state total includes all cases submitted by county health departments by 11:59 p.m. the previous day and is updated once a day by 6 p.m. on its website. Its numbers only include the cases the health departments have reported directly to the state. In some cases, county health departments have reported cases publicly but not to the state health department by the daily deadline, leading to different totals on occasion.
Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department updates its total by 2 p.m. each day on its website, and consists of all new confirmed cases reported by 11:59 p.m. the previous day.
This story was originally published April 8, 2020 at 5:07 PM.
