Coronavirus updates: Pierce County COVID-19 cases trending down
The Washington State Department of Health on Friday reported 390 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 13 deaths.
Pierce County reported 65 new cases and one new death on Friday. Pierce County had a total of 139 deaths likely caused by COVID-19 as of Friday, according to the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department.
Statewide totals from the illness caused by the coronavirus are at 69,779 cases and 1,850 deaths, up from 69,389 cases and 1,837 deaths on Thursday.
Thirty people with confirmed COVID-19 cases were admitted to Washington state hospitals on Aug. 12, the most recent date with complete data. Late March had two days with 88 people admitted, the highest numbers to date during the pandemic.
The total number of tests conducted is temporarily unavailable, according to the DOH.
The test numbers reflect only polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests, whichare given to patients while the virus is presumably still active in the body.
King County continues to have the highest numbers in Washington, with 18,334 cases and 710 deaths. Yakima County is second, with 10,758 cases and 233 deaths. Pierce is third with cases at 6,383.
All counties in Washington have cases. Garfield and Wahkiakum have case counts of fewer than 10.
On Friday, Washington had a 921-per-100,000-people case rate. The national rate is 1,694, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Louisiana has the highest rate in the United States at 3,022. Vermont is lowest at 245.
There had been over 5.6 million confirmed coronavirus cases and 175,219 deaths from the virus in the United States as of Friday evening, according to Johns Hopkins University. More than 796,300 people have died from the disease worldwide.
Pierce County COVID-19 cases trending down but not among septuagenarians
The Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department is “cautiously optimistic” about the dropping daily COVID-19 case counts, communicable disease director Nigel Turner told the Board of Health recently.
The 14-day case rate per 100,000 people was 97.5 on Friday. Two weeks ago, that number was 138.6.
There are tumbling numbers in other metrics, like a lower positivity rate in testing.
Positive test rates have been slowly decreasing since July 25 when Pierce County reached it’s all-time weekly high will 7.7 percent of COVID-19 tests coming back positive. The most recent data from TPCHD shows Aug. 2-8 with a positivity rate of 5.5 percent.
“This is probably an overestimate as we don’t get all the negative tests reported through to us,” Turner said in a Wednesday meeting of the Board of Health.
There also have been improvements in turn-around times at laboratories, Turner told the board. Since the second week of July, Pierce County has averaged more than 1,200 COVID-19 tests a day, a health department blog post said.
Median time from receiving a test to the health department being notified in Pierce County is two days. This is a drop from early July when the average time was three days, according to data provided by TPCHD spokesperson Dale Phelps.
Turner said he still is concerned about an increase in cases in the 70 to 79 age group. He pointed out that age group tends to have a worse outcome when diagnosed with the coronavirus.
Earlier this week, 70-79 year-olds made up 5.6 percent of reported COVID-19 cases, according to TPCHD. That age group makes up 6.5 percent of Pierce County’s population.
“The number of cases in that age group increased by about 6-10 fold since earlier in the summer,” the health department reported in early August.
“The overall number of hospitalizations – which is something we monitor carefully – has increased slightly but remains below the target level of 10 percent,” Turner told the board.
Neighborhood Clinic serves Tacoma’s neediest. COVID has caused demand to ‘skyrocket’
The Neighboorhood Clinic has been around 37 years. Now that we’re in the middle of a pandemic, it’s an even bigger challenge for the nonprofit to fill its vital role in our community.
Not that you sense fatigue, worry or desperation from those powering the clinic to life.
“The pandemic has really just illuminated the need for this kind of resource,” said Elena Fulton, a 23-year-old who first volunteered at the Neighborhood Clinic while she was an undergrad at the University of Puget Sound.
Fulton is one of more than 100 local doctors, nurses, clinical support staff, interpreters and social workers who volunteer at the Neighborhood Clinic, which was first launched in 1983 by Father William “Bix” Bichsel, the well-known St. Leo’s priest, and Gloria Hall-Kidd, a parish nurse.
Operated out of a side door of the old brick building that was once home to St. Leo’s school on South Yakima Avenue, the Neighborhood Clinic has long had a mission of serving Tacoma’s neediest.
Some arrive at the clinic on the edge of Hilltop with health insurance, but more than 90% do not.
Some patients speak English, but in 2019, more than 30 other languages were represented.
Some of the people who receive medical care here have homes, but roughly a third are homeless.
Breaking down potential barriers to health care for these populations has always been the Neighborhood Clinic’s goal.
The clinic’s patients depend on it, said Benita Ki, the clinics executive director.
But with COVID-19, that need is even more pronounced.
“Before COVID, we would have — on any given night — a line out the doors, waiting for (the clinic) to open,” Ki said.
“We’re starting to see our numbers skyrocket.”
It’s a troubling but unsurprising trend, given the way we know the coronavirus pandemic is impacting the community.
Inslee: The idea of fans at any Seahawks games must wait behind getting kids in schools
Is it possible the Seahawks will have fans at any home game this season?
That issue is going to have to wait behind a far more pressing and important matter: getting our state’s kids back in their schools.
Wednesday, the Seahawks announced they will play at least their first three games at CenturyLink Field in Seattle in the 2020 NFL season without fans because of the coronavirus pandemic. The team has said throughout the pandemic they are taking their lead from state and local public-health guidance.
Thursday, The News Tribune’s Alexis Krell asked Gov. Jay Inslee what the chances are the Seahawks host fans for any of their eight regular-season home games through the end of December.
Does Washington’s governor foresee any change in restrictions in the state and specifically King County related to the COVID-19 virus by October, when the Seahawks’ third home game is, against Minnesota?
“Well, it’s not something that we’ve discussed recently,” Inslee said during a virtual news conference Thursday, talking through a mask in Olympia.
The governor then asked John Wiesman, the state secretary of health, to add to his answer.
“I think our priority really is getting our (COVID-19 transmission) rates down to that 25 per (100,000 people in the state) that we’ve said, so we can get kids back in school,” Wiesman said. “I really think that’s our main priority as we are looking at this.
“And as we are able to achieve that, then we may be able to look at other things that are also reasonable.”
Matt Driscoll, Josephine Peterson and Gregg Bell contributed to this report.
