Coronavirus updates: Pierce County reports highest daily case total since April
This page includes coronavirus developments around Washington state for Saturday, June 27.
STATE REPORTS 549 NEW CASES, 6 DEATHS
Updated 7 p.m.
The Washington State Department of Health reported 549 new COVID-19 cases and six deaths Saturday.
Statewide totals have reached 31,404 cases and 1,310 deaths, up from 30,855 cases and 1,304 deaths Friday.
King County continues to report the state’s highest counts for cases (9,809) and deaths (610), while Yakima County has 6,828 cases and 152 deaths and Snohomish County has 3,431 cases and 168 deaths.
Pierce County reported 55 new cases Saturday, bringing its totals to 2,466 cases and 87 deaths.
Twenty of the state’s 39 counties have reported more than 100 cases, and 11 counties have reported at least 10 virus-related deaths.
Garfield, the state’s least populous county, remains the only county without a reported case. Six other counties are reporting fewer than 10 cases each.
There are 53 cases that have not been assigned to a county.
There were 23 people with confirmed cases of COVID-19 admitted to state hospitals on June 19, the most recent date with complete data. The total number of people who have been hospitalized in the state stood at 4,240 on Saturday.
There have been 525,802 tests conducted in the state with 6% coming back positive.
The test numbers reflect only polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests, which are given to patients while the virus is presumably still active in the body.
PIERCE COUNTY REPORTS 55 NEW CASES
Updated 3:45 p.m.
Pierce County reported 55 new COVID-19 cases Saturday. No deaths were reported.
The county’s totals are now at 2,466 cases and 87 deaths since the first confirmed case was reported in March.
There have been 40.6 new cases per 100,000 residents during the past 14 days, the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department website says. Pierce County has had 366 new cases during that period.
Saturday’s count continues a recent trend of an uptick in daily confirmed cases and is the highest one-day total the county has reported since April 17.
As of Saturday, the county reported an estimated 537 active cases.
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.
Saturday’s geographical case totals are listed below with Friday’s totals in parentheses:
▪ Bonney Lake: 51 (no change)
▪ Central Pierce County: 166 (161)
▪ East Pierce County: 62 (no change)
▪ Edgewood/Fife/Milton: 109 (108)
▪ Frederickson: 82 (80)
▪ Gig Harbor area: 65 (no change)
▪ Graham: 74 (no change)
▪ JBLM: No longer reported
▪ Key Peninsula: 11 (no change)
▪ Lake Tapps/Sumner area: 66 (no change)
▪ Lakewood: 258 (249)
▪ Parkland: 143 (138)
▪ Puyallup: 171 (167)
▪ South Hill: 128 (124)
▪ South Pierce County: 47 (no change)
▪ Southwest Pierce County: 28 (no change)
▪ Spanaway: 85 (82)
▪ Tacoma: 798 (778)
▪ University Place: 102 (100)
▪ Unknown: 20 (no change)
STATE ANNOUNCES PAUSE ON COUNTIES MOVING INTO PHASE 4
Updated 2 p.m.
Gov. Jay Inslee and state Secretary of Health John Wiesman released a joint statement Saturday announcing the state Department of Health is putting a hold on counties moving into Phase 4 of the governor’s reopening plan.
“Rising cases across the state and concerns about continued spread of the COVID virus have made Phase 4, which would essentially mean no restrictions, impossible at this time,” the release says.
There were eight counties that were eligible to move into Phase 4 before the pause.
“Phase 4 would mean a return to normal activity and we can’t do that now due to the continued rise in cases across the state,” Inslee said in the release. “We all want to get back to doing all the things we love in Washington during the summer, and fully open our economy, but we aren’t there yet. This is an evolving situation and we will continue to make decisions based on the data.”
Wiesman said the best thing residents can do to slow the spread of COVID-19 is to “wear facial coverings, continue to maintain physical distancing and good hygiene practices.”
”Now that testing supplies are available, it is critical to get a test if you have any symptoms suggestive of COVID-19 or have been in close contact with someone who has COVID-19,” he said in the release.
In a letter to local and tribal health leaders, Wiesman stated the “changes between Phase 3 and Phase 4, especially with regards to gathering size and occupancy rates, could further increase the spread of COVID-19 in our state, even in communities that have very low rates of disease. The progress we’ve made thus far is at risk, therefore we are making the prudent choice to slow down our phased approach to reopening.”
In the letter, Wiesman said he would work with Inslee’s office in the coming weeks to “assess the need for a modified approach for moving beyond Phase 3.”
“I will communicate that decision to you when we have more information,” he wrote. “Counties that are currently able to apply to move from Phase 1 or 2 are still able to apply when eligible.”
PIERCE COUNTY READY FOR MODIFIED PHASE 2, NOT PHASE 3, HEALTH DIRECTOR SAYS
Updated 11 a.m.
Pierce County health director Anthony Chen said Friday he would recommend to the Tacoma-Pierce County Board of Health that the county apply for an expanded version of Phase 2 of Gov. Jay Inslee’s reopening plan instead of Phase 3.
“We do not want to rush to open when we continue to see an increase in COVID-19,” Chen said Friday. “Proposing an expanded Phase 2 is the right choice for our health and the right choice for our society and economy.”
If approved by the state, the proposal for an expanded Phase 2 would allow gatherings of up to 25 people for social and recreational purposes, instead of the five Phase 2 allows.
Indoor gatherings of up to five people per week from separate households would also be allowed, and libraries and museums would be able to open with social distancing requirements.
The expanded phase would not allow recreational activities such as team sports or the opening of public swimming pools.
Business and religious service requirements would remain the same.
The Board of Health plans to discuss its options Wednesday.
Earlier in the week, Chen warned in a blog post on the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department website that the county’s grip on Phase 2 is “slipping” due to recent spikes in daily cases.
As of Friday, the county reported an average of 35.7 per 100,000 case rate during the past 14 days, including 322 new cases during that period.
“Right now, we are not in a position to apply for Phase 3,” Chen wrote. “We expected some increase in disease when we entered Phase 2. We are worried it has increased and is not leveling off. We strongly urge everyone to stay the course with precautions. The governor has not ordered a county to move backwards, but we do not want to become the first.”
LATEST STATEWIDE SITUATION REPORT SHOWS COVID-19 SPREAD INCREASING IN PUGET SOUND
Updated 10 a.m.
The Washington State Department of Health released its latest statewide situation report Friday, which shows an increase in the spread of COVID-19 across the state in June, including notably in the Puget Sound region.
“In King, Pierce and Snohomish counties, the percentage of the population with COVID-19 is increasing,” the department wrote in a release Friday. “The trend is more difficult to interpret for King County due to increases in testing, but the spread of COVID-19 appears to be increasing across the Puget Sound.”
The release also says the estimate for the percentage of the population actively infected in Yakima County “suggests recent efforts to control the virus are showing some initial signs of success, although the situation remains concerning.”
The department reiterated the importance of Gov. Jay Inslee’s mask mandate, which started Friday, as the state continues to grapple with the pandemic.
“The report findings underline the need for the new statewide order requiring face coverings, as well as other efforts to control the spread of COVID-19, including keeping physical distance, staying home when possible and limiting the size of your social circle,” the release says.
BACKLOG OF UNRESOLVED JOBLESS CLAIMS SHRINKING, BUT WAIT FOR PAYMENT COULD LINGER INTO JULY
Updated 9 a.m.
The state Employment Security Department turned a corner last week in resolving its backlog of unemployment claims, Commissioner Suzi LeVine told reporters Thursday.
LeVine said another 10,000 claims caught in the logjam that started May 15, when stricter identification protocols were put in place to weed out fraudulent claims, have been resolved.
The department also recently deployed the National Guard to help it sort through the unfulfilled claims and identify which are fraudulent and which are legitimate. Members of the Guard resolved 1,408 identification verifications in two days.
The flood of fraudulent claims during the COVID-19 pandemic has reached nearly 40 states, LeVine said.
LeVine estimated June 30 as the first target date to work through the claims that were held up on or around May 15. The department has broadened its Operation 100 Percent push to get claimants out of adjudication, to include “all those who have not been paid, since the crisis began” and those who the department is working with to resolve any issues with their claim.
Many who have not had their claims resolved could have resolution by July 6, while the department’s target to “resolve the remaining claims of that 81,000” who have been waiting since June 15 is no later than July 31.
“We really have seen big shift in our momentum,” LeVine said.
The goal is to eventually trim the average wait time for claims with issues down from about six-and-a-half weeks to four. The average wait for such cases before the pandemic was about three weeks, LeVine said.
UNEMPLOYMENT CLAIMS UP LAST WEEK STATEWIDE, IN PIERCE COUNTY
Updated 9 a.m.
The state Employment Security Department reported Thursday there were 29,612 initial regular unemployment claims filed statewide last week (up 2% from the previous week) and 718,615 total claims (up 3.3%).
Since March 7, when ESD state regional economist Jim Vleming estimates job losses resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic began, 1,191,821 people have filed for unemployment statewide.
Of those individuals, 875,979 have been paid.
In Pierce County, initial regular claims were up 3% from the previous week, from 3,582 to 3,702.
In neighboring King County, initial regular claims dropped slightly from 8,753 to 8,752.
STATE IDENTIFIES 88 ADDITIONAL COVID-19 HOSPITALIZATIONS
Updated 8 a.m.
The Washington State Department of Health said in a release Friday it has identified an additional 88 COVID-19 hospitalizations statewide that were previously unreported due to a data feed that was interrupted last week.
“This occurred outside of the Department of Health’s systems and impacted our laboratory reporting, as we reported out on Monday,” the release says. “It also impacted our hospital reporting which was not initially recognized. In addition, our syndromic surveillance database which contains our hospital reporting experienced a technical issue and was not able to run for two nights (Tuesday and Wednesday).
“This resulted in our inability to link the hospital data to the Washington Disease Reporting System (WDRS) to update our hospitalizations on the DOH COVID-19 webpage. When we were able to again link them, we identified 88 new cases that hadn’t previously been reported.”
Most of the cases occurred in the past week, the department said, but date back as far as March 29.
The counties impacted the most included King (21 hospitalizations), Yakima (16), Pierce (nine), Benton (eight), Franklin (six), Spokane (six) and Snohomish (five).
The release also says hospitalization data on the department’s dashboard will not be updated until Monday with the National Syndromic Surveillance Program (NSSP) undergoing maintenance this weekend.
“Our general approach to data collection and reporting is slow and methodical; the pace at which we move as part of the COVID-19 response has been much faster,” the release says. “This has created opportunities for learning and adjustment as we build new systems and ways of doing this crucial work. We acknowledge both the errors that are in our control and those that are not. We pledge to continue to learn from these experiences and improve our processes as we move through this unprecedented response.”
STATE REPORTS 488 NEW CASES, 4 DEATHS
Updated 8 a.m.
The Washington State Department of Health reported 488 new COVID-19 cases and four deaths Friday.
Statewide totals have reached 30,855 cases and 1,304 deaths, up from 30,367 cases and 1,300 deaths Thursday.
King County has 9,672 cases and 607 deaths, while Yakima County has 6,759 cases and 150 deaths and Snohomish County has 3,406 cases and 167 deaths.
Pierce County reported 23 new cases and two deaths Friday, bringing its totals to 2,411 cases and 87 deaths.
Benton (1,581), Franklin (1,491) and Spokane (1,144) counties are all also reporting more than 1,000 cases.
Twenty of the state’s 39 counties have reported more than 100 cases, and 11 counties have reported at least 10 virus-related deaths.
Garfield, the state’s least populous county, remains the only county without a reported case. Six other counties are reporting fewer than 10 cases each.
There are 49 cases that have not been assigned to a county.
There were 16 people with confirmed cases of COVID-19 admitted to state hospitals on June 18, the most recent date with complete data. The total number of people who have been hospitalized in the state stood at 4,194 on Friday.
The department reported Friday it had identified 88 additional hospitalizations statewide that were previously unreported due to a data feed interruption. Most of the hospitalizations occurred last week but date back to March 29.
The counties most impacted were King (21 hospitalizations), Yakima (16), Pierce (nine), Benton (eight), Franklin (six), Spokane (six) and Snohomish (five).
There have been 514,428 tests conducted in the state with 6% coming back positive.
The test numbers reflect only polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests, which are given to patients while the virus is presumably still active in the body.
This story was originally published June 27, 2020 at 8:00 AM.
