Pierce County sees nine new COVID-19 cases, one new death
Pierce County on Friday reported nine new cases of COVID-19 and one additional death.
The county’s totals now are 2,018 cases and 79 deaths.
The new death involved a South Hill man in his 100s with underlying health conditions, the second day in a row COVID-19 claimed the life of a centenarian.
Five additional deaths have involved patients with COVID-19 but are not included in the official death toll, which only includes deaths where the disease has been determined the likely cause.
“Starting this week, we no longer report those unconfirmed deaths,” the health department noted in its blog Friday.
On Friday, the county’s application to move into Phase 2 was approved by the state, giving more flexibility for retailers, restaurants and other businesses to reopen and operate under the guidelines of Washington’s Safe Start program.
Friday’s lower total comes after two days of new-case totals of 20-plus each day.
A couple of factors could have contributed to the recent rise, according to information provided Thursday by Stacy Page, the health department’s COVID-19 communications manager.
They include a lag in reporting from previous days when the case count was lower and an uptick in cases due to increased gatherings and less social distancing around Memorial Day weekend.
The holiday weekend is still well within the time frame of the incubation period for COVID-19.
Case and death data can change as new information emerges to correct duplicates, false positives or to assign a case to another county.
As part of Phase 2, Pierce County needs to see fewer than 25 new cases per 100,000 residents over a 14-day period.
According to Friday’s report, Pierce County had 20.4 new cases per 100,000 residents over the last 14 days.
There have been 29,285 coronavirus tests run on Pierce County residents with 6.8 percent of them positive, 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.
The health department estimates the number of still-active confirmed cases in Pierce County is 395.
Friday’s geographical case totals are listed below with previous day’s totals in parentheses:
▪ Bonney Lake: 48 (no change)
▪ Central Pierce County: 146 (145)
▪ East Pierce County: 58 (no change)
▪ Edgewood/Fife/Milton: 93 (no change)
▪ Frederickson: 66 (65)
▪ Gig Harbor area: 55 (54)
▪ Graham: 64 (62)
▪ JBLM: No longer reported
▪ Key Peninsula: 7 (no change)
▪ Lake Tapps/Sumner area: 50 (no change)
▪ Lakewood: 209 (208)
▪ Parkland: 120 (118)
▪ Puyallup: 143 (no change)
▪ South Hill: 105 (no change)
▪ South Pierce County: 38 (no change)
▪ Southwest Pierce County: 21 (no change)
▪ Spanaway: 66 (no change)
▪ Tacoma: 649 (648)
▪ University Place: 69 (66)
▪ Unknown: 11 (10)
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.
