Largest COVID-19 case total since pandemic began reported Saturday in Pierce County
Pierce County reported 81 new confirmed COVID-19 cases on Saturday and no new deaths.
The Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department said it was the “largest one-day total” since the pandemic began. The previous high was 77 cases on April 1.
Confirmed cases are spreading rapidly among younger people, and Pierce County has the highest percentage of positive cases among people in their 20s compared to other Washington counties, the department reported.
“About one-third of the cases are among 20-29 year olds,” the department said on its blog. “The Institute for Disease Modeling reported this week that Pierce County’s COVID-19 cases from the first two weeks of June were disproportionately among young adults in their 20s.”
Tacoma alone registered 23 new total cases in 24 hours and has seen 1,012 cumulative cases since the start of the pandemic.
The health department reported increasing case totals might be the result of Fourth of July parties and other recent social gatherings or a recent backlog of delayed tests being processed at labs, among other reasons.
“We know the increase is not because of new long-term facility outbreaks,” the department said.
There have now been 3,138 cases and 97 deaths recorded since the county’s first case was reported March 6 in the pandemic, according to the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department.
Daily totals for cases and deaths can change as the county receives new information about cases, finds duplicate data or is assigned cases originally attributed to other counties.
The county has reported 673 cases in the past 14 days, according to the health department. The 14-day case rate per 100,000 population is 74.6. The county has averaged 48.1 cases per day over the past 14 days.
The county reported an estimated 1,024 still-active cases as of Saturday.
Testing is available at various sites in the county. For more information on local testing sites, go to www.tpchd.org/covidtest.
On Wednesday, the health department released updated testing data, showing an average of 796 daily tests run the week of June 21, its latest data set, compared with 561 the previous week and 519 at the end of May-early June.
However, positive rates have grown more than level of testing, the department explained on its blog Wednesday.
Saturday’s geographical case totals are listed below with previous day’s totals in parentheses:
▪ Bonney Lake: (62) 64
▪ Central Pierce County: (199) 202
▪ East Pierce County: (79) 81
▪ Edgewood/Fife/Milton: (131) 136
▪ Frederickson: (102) 111
▪ Gig Harbor area: (83) 86
▪ Graham: (84) 88
▪ JBLM: No longer reported
▪ Key Peninsula: (17) (no change)
▪ Lake Tapps/Sumner area: (94) 101
▪ Lakewood: (311) 321
▪ Parkland: (172) 174
▪ Puyallup: (209) 210
▪ South Hill: (152) 153
▪ South Pierce County: (58) 60
▪ Southwest Pierce County: (37) (no change)
▪ Spanaway: (105) 106
▪ Tacoma: (989) 1,012
▪ University Place: (144) 148
▪ Unknown: (29) 31
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 July 11, 2020 at 3:53 PM.