Pierce County reports 11 new COVID-19 cases, no new deaths amid new metrics for Phase 2
Pierce County on Friday reported 11 new COVID-19 cases with no new deaths.
The county’s totals now stand at 1,917 cases and 73 deaths, according to the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department.
The health department’s website notes daily case and death totals can change as the county receives new information about cases, finds duplicate data or is assigned cases originally attributed to other counties.
New metrics on measuring the county’s progress moving toward Phase 2 came Friday. In a note in Friday’s update, the health department wrote that a county could become eligible to apply for Phase 2 starting June 1 if it meets new criteria, including:
▪ Fewer than 25 new cases per 100,000 residents over a 14-day period.
▪ Flat or decreasing trends in hospitalizations for COVID-19.
▪ Adequate testing.
▪ Sufficient hospital capacity.
▪ Robust case and contact tracing system.
▪ Low number of outbreaks among vulnerable populations.
“We have been planning for this day. We believe we will be able to meet all the criteria and plan to apply rapidly,” the health department said on its website Friday.
Before Friday’s anticipated revisions, a county was limited to fewer than 10 new cases per 100,000 residents over a 14-day period to apply to move to Phase 2.
The health department on Friday noted that “Pierce County had 18.3 new cases per 100,000 residents over the last 14 days. That’s 165 new cases in the last 14 days, an average of 11.8 new cases each day.”
The health department estimates that the number of still-active confirmed cases at 466, with 1,451 estimated as assumed recovered.
There have been 25,239 coronavirus tests run on Pierce County residents with 7.5 percent of them positive as of May 27, according to state department of health data. That total does not include negative tests from long-term care facilities or tests not yet assigned to a county, according to the county health department.
Friday’s geographical case totals are listed below with previous day’s totals in parentheses:
▪ Bonney Lake: 48 (47)
▪ Central Pierce County: 140 (no change)
▪ East Pierce County: 53 (no change)
▪ Edgewood/Fife/Milton: 88 (no change)
▪ Frederickson: 65 (no change)
▪ Gig Harbor area: 53 (no change)
▪ Graham: 55 (no change)
▪ JBLM: No longer reported
▪ Key Peninsula: 7 (no change)
▪ Lake Tapps/Sumner area: 48 (no change)
▪ Lakewood: 199 (197)
▪ Parkland: 108 (107)
▪ Puyallup: 138 (no change)
▪ South Hill: 104 (103)
▪ South Pierce County: 37 (no change)
▪ Southwest Pierce County: 21 (no change)
▪ Spanaway: 65 (no change)
▪ Tacoma: 617 (613)
▪ University Place: 62 (no change)
▪ Unknown: 9 (8)
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 May 29, 2020 at 3:00 PM.
