Pierce County reports 12 new COVID-19 cases
Pierce County reported 12 new COVID-19 cases Saturday. No additional deaths were reported.
The county’s totals are now at 1,928 cases and 73 deaths since the outbreak began. There have been 77 people with COVID-19 in the county who have died, with the 73 deaths likely caused by the virus, according to the health department.
Daily case totals can change as the county receives new information about cases, finds duplicate data or is assigned cases originally attributed to other counties.
The county’s data estimates 1,451 of the confirmed cases have recovered, while 477 are still assumed active.
There have been 25,634 tests conducted in the county with positive results at 7.4%, according to the state Department of Health.
That total does not include negative tests from long-term care facilities or the 83,000 tests not yet assigned to a county.
Saturday’s geographical case totals are listed below with Friday’s totals in parentheses:
▪ Bonney Lake: 48 (no change)
▪ Central Pierce County: 141 (140)
▪ East Pierce County: 53 (no change)
▪ Edgewood/Fife/Milton: 89 (88)
▪ Frederickson: 65 (no change)
▪ Gig Harbor area: 54 (53)
▪ Graham: 56 (55)
▪ JBLM: No longer reported
▪ Key Peninsula: 7 (no change)
▪ Lake Tapps/Sumner area: 48 (no change)
▪ Lakewood: 202 (199)
▪ Parkland: 108 (no change)
▪ Puyallup: 138 (no change)
▪ South Hill: 104 (no change)
▪ South Pierce County: 37 (no change)
▪ Southwest Pierce County: 21 (no change)
▪ Spanaway: 66 (65)
▪ Tacoma: 619 (617)
▪ University Place: 63 (62)
▪ Unknown: 9 (no change)
Daily reports include cases received by 11:59 p.m. the previous day.
Pierce County remains in Phase 1 of the state’s reopening plan, though it could receive approval to move forward as soon as next week.
Gov. Jay Inslee announced new criteria for applying for Phase 2 during a press conference Friday.
Counties previously needed fewer than 10 cases per 100,000 residents over a 14-day period to be eligible to apply, but following Inslee’s update Friday, counties now need fewer than 25 new cases per 100,000 residents.
Pierce County confirmed 17.1 new cases per 100,000 residents during the past 14 days — or 154 cases in 14 days for an average of 11 new cases per day.
County officials have already indicated intent to submit an application to the state Monday to move into Phase 2.
“We’ve been making what I hope is a very compelling case to the governor that the people of Pierce County are ready to responsibly and safely move to Phase 2,” Pierce County Executive Bruce Dammeier said during Friday’s COVID-19 Business Info Series call.
“We’ve got small businesses, we’ve got families that are hanging on by their fingernails, and I want to make sure we are getting to Phase 2 as quickly as possible.”
The county Board of Health has a meeting scheduled for Sunday to discuss the application, and the Pierce County Council has a special meeting planned for 10 a.m. Monday.
Both must approve the application before it can be sent to the state.
Other Phase 2 standards Pierce County must meet to move forward include the following:
▪ Hospitals need to have a flat or decreasing number of positive COVID-19 cases.
▪ The average number of tests performed per day during the past week should be 50 times the number of cases, or 2%.
▪ A limited number of outbreaks — zero for counties with populations of fewer than 75,000, one for counties with populations of 75,000-300,000, two for large counties with populations greater than 300,000, three for counties of 1 million or more. (An outbreak is considered two or more cases at a single location.)
▪ 90% of cases reached by phone or in person within 24 hours of receipt of positive lab test report.
▪ Less than 10% of capacity of licensed hospital beds are occupied by suspected and confirmed COVID-19 cases.
