Pierce County hits single-day high of 121 COVID-19 cases, the third record this week

Pierce County reported 121 new COVID-19 cases and one new death Saturday, according to the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department’s website.

That’s the highest number of new cases reported in one day since the start of the pandemic.

The county has reported 3,674 cases and 102 deaths since the first case in the pandemic was recorded March 6.

The county estimates 1,406 still-active cases.

It was the third record-setting day this week, the Tacoma-Pierce Health Department said in a series of tweets.

Thirty of the cases were attributed to laboratory processing delays, and 16 are from the Life Care Center nursing home in South Hill, the health department said.

More than half the cases — 53.3% — are linked to other cases, meaning they could be the result of community spread. The health department wrote in the tweets that this could be related to Fourth of July gatherings.

The death was a woman in her 70s with underlying health conditions, according to the tweets.

The county has reported 929 cases in the past 14 days, an average of 66.4 cases per day. The 14-day case rate per 100,000 people is 103.

Daily totals for cases and deaths can change as the county receives new information, finds duplicate data or is assigned cases originally attributed to other counties.

Testing is available at various sites in the county. This week, Rite Aid launched drive-thru testing at some of its stores in Washington, including 7041 Pacific Ave. in Tacoma, and 5700 100th Street SW, Suite 100 in Lakewood. More information is available at www.riteaid.com/pharmacy/services/covid-19-testing.

For more information on other local testing sites, go to www.tpchd.org/covidtest.

Saturday’s geographical case totals are listed below with previous day’s totals in parentheses:

▪ Bonney Lake: 94 (88)

▪ Central Pierce County: 235 (224)

▪ East Pierce County: 99 (95)

▪ Edgewood/Fife/Milton: 151 (150)

▪ Frederickson: 131 (128)

▪ Gig Harbor area: 100 (95)

▪ Graham: 105 (101)

▪ JBLM: No longer reported

▪ Key Peninsula: 18 (no change)

▪ Lake Tapps/Sumner area: 121 (119)

▪ Lakewood: 372 (356)

▪ Parkland: 207 (no change)

▪ Puyallup: 251 (225)

▪ South Hill: 186 (177)

▪ South Pierce County: 76 (72)

▪ Southwest Pierce County: 44 (41)

▪ Spanaway: 131 (124)

▪ Tacoma: 1,160 (1,132)

▪ University Place: 167 (162)

▪ Unknown: 26 (32)

This story was originally published July 18, 2020 at 3:23 PM with the headline "Pierce County hits single-day high of 121 COVID-19 cases, the third record this week."