Pierce County cases of COVID-19 up to 1,022 with 24 total deaths; new data added to report
Pierce County on Wednesday added 23 new COVID-19 and one new death to its case totals.
The county now has 1,022 total cases and 24 total deaths, according to the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department.
The new death involved a woman in her 90s with underlying health conditions from the Edgewood/Fife/Milton area.
The total comes after a reassignment of cases among counties.
On Wednesday, the health department announced it would start to include more demographic and hospitalization information on its site, updating those numbers each Wednesday moving forward. It announced the changes on its blog.
Wednesday’s total showed the percentage of cases by race, but offered several caveats to the data:
“Patients aren’t required to report race/ethnicity, so this data is not a complete picture. We don’t know what testing rates are for each group. Differing testing rates could greatly affect the rate of confirmed cases. Three groups — black or African American, Hispanic and Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander — appear to be affected at higher rates.”
The breakdown was a follows, with the percentage of confirmed cases among the county’s case total followed by each group’s percentage of Pierce County population:
▪ Asian: 8.9 percent, 7 percent
▪ Black or African-American: 11.2 percent, 7 percent
▪ Hispanic: 14.7 percent, 11 percent
▪ Multiple race: 1.1 percent, 7 percent
▪ Native American/Alaska Native: 1.5 percent, 1 percent
▪ Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander: 4.6 percent, 2 percent
▪ White: 58 percent, 66 percent
For the hospitalization data, it showed that cases of COVID-19 hospitalization in Pierce County for the week of April 5 were down to 27, from a peak so far of 64 the week of March 29.
Daily case totals can change as the county receives new information about cases, finds duplicate data or is assigned cases that were originally attributed to other counties.
The county is still not reporting testing totals, citing delays in state data reporting. The health department has released a statement on delays in data posting.
Wednesday’s geographical totals are listed below with Tuesday’s numbers in parentheses:
▪ Bonney Lake: 28 (27)
▪ Central Pierce County: 60 (59)
▪ East Pierce County: 32 (no change)
▪ Edgewood/Fife/Milton: 55 (54)
▪ Frederickson: 35 (no change)
▪ Gig Harbor area: 48 (47)
▪ Graham: 35 (no change)
▪ JBLM: No longer reported
▪ Key Peninsula: 6 (no change)
▪ Lake Tapps/Sumner area: 23 (no change)
▪ Lakewood: 80 (77)
▪ Parkland: 51 (48)
▪ Puyallup: 49 (no change)
▪ South Hill: 62 (60)
▪ South Pierce County: 20 (19)
▪ Southwest Pierce County: 8 (no change)
▪ Spanaway: 32 (no change)
▪ Tacoma: 360 (351)
▪ University Place: 36 (no change)
▪ Unknown: 2 (no change
Daily reports include cases received by 11:59 p.m. the previous day.
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 15, 2020 at 2:43 PM.
