Pierce County sees eight new COVID-19 cases; free testing at Tacoma Dome in June
Pierce County reported eight new COVID-19 cases on Monday and no additional deaths.
The county total is now 1,955 cases and 73 confirmed COVID-19 deaths, according to the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department.
Four additional deaths also have involved patients with COVID-19 but are not counted among the deaths where the disease has been determined the likely cause, as the health department explained last week.
Case and death data can change as new information emerges to correct duplicates, false positives or to assign a case to another county.
The health department estimates that the number of still-active confirmed cases is 433.
Safe Start and free testing
On Monday, the Pierce County Council followed the Tacoma-Pierce County Board of Health’s vote by also approving the county’s application to move to Phase 2 in the state’s Safe Start plan.
The Board of Health unanimously approved the application on Sunday.
The application, once completed and eventually signed by County Executive Bruce Dammeier, then goes to the state’s Secretary of Health John Wiesman for review to determine whether to approve.
Until that approval, the county remains in Phase 1.
Part of the conditions for approval in the Safe Start plan includes reaching a certain level of testing in the county — 50 times as many tests per day as the total of confirmed new cases per day, with rapid turnaround for results.
Kroger, parent company of Fred Meyer and QFC, on Monday announced it was extending its drive-thru testing in Tacoma into the month of June.
The testing, available to patients who qualify via online registration, is available Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays at the Tacoma Dome from 10 a.m to 4 p.m.
You must register online before going. Registration is at thelittleclinic.com/drivethru-testing.
The tests are provided at no cost to patients and no insurance is needed. According to a promotion sent to The News Tribune, test results are available in 48 hours.
The Kroger testing initiative was first launched at the Dome in May. The Dome also served as a testing site in March.
Tiffany Sanders, QFC corporate affairs manager, told The News Tribune on Monday: “We have tested close to 2,000 so far. Our pharmacists are personally calling every patient within 48 hours with results, even on weekends.”
There have been 26,829 coronavirus tests run on Pierce County residents with 7.2 percent of them positive as of May 30, 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.
Monday’s geographical case totals are listed below with previous day’s totals in parentheses:
▪ Bonney Lake: 48 (no change)
▪ Central Pierce County: 142 (no change)
▪ East Pierce County: 55 (54)
▪ Edgewood/Fife/Milton: 93 (no change)
▪ Frederickson: 65 (no change)
▪ Gig Harbor area: 55 (54)
▪ Graham: 57 (no change)
▪ JBLM: No longer reported
▪ Key Peninsula: 7 (no change)
▪ Lake Tapps/Sumner area: 49 (48)
▪ Lakewood: 206 (205)
▪ Parkland: 110 (no change)
▪ Puyallup: 141 (140)
▪ South Hill: 105 (no change)
▪ South Pierce County: 37 (no change)
▪ Southwest Pierce County: 21 (no change)
▪ Spanaway: 66 (no change)
▪ Tacoma: 625 (623)
▪ University Place: 64 (63)
▪ Unknown: 9 (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 June 1, 2020 at 2:50 PM.
