Pierce County sees COVID-19 cases jump again. Three more deaths also reported
Pierce County on Thursday reported 62 new COVID-19 cases and three new deaths.
The new deaths involved a University Place man in his 80s, a Tacoma man in his 90s and a South Pierce County man in his 70s, all with underlying health conditions.
The county recently has seen its daily new-case totals fluctuate, hitting a low of 19 on Aug. 23. Thursday’s new-case total was the highest since that date.
On Wednesday, 31 new cases were reported with two new deaths.
According to local health officials, the 20-39 age group has the highest number of COVID-19 cases at 42.6 percent in the past two weeks.
County totals are now at 6,808 cases and 155 deaths since the first case in the coronavirus pandemic was recorded March 6.
The Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department has reported 604 cases in the past 14 days. The 14-day case rate per 100,000 people is 67. The goal for counties in Phase 2 is 25 or fewer per 100,000.
The average cases per day over the past 14 days is 43.1.
There are an estimated 1,450 still-active cases in the county, according to the health department.
On Thursday, the health department explained recent adjustments to county totals.
“We have removed 44 from our case count recently because of clarified DOH guidance regarding antigen testing not currently qualifying as COVID-19 confirmed. The largest number removed was 24 on Aug. 28,” the department reported. “Today we updated the race and ethnicity table to reflect a decrease of 102 to 87 in American Indian/Native Alaskan (cases) because of this adjustment.”
It added, “We still see that COVID-19 has a disproportionate affect on this population.”
While the department offers a table on its COVID-19 tracker of cases by race, the data do not offer a complete picture as race/ethnicity data are not required of patients. The numbers reflect 77.1 percent of cases for which that data are available.
Other cumulative totals of cases and number of deaths by race/ethnicity as of Thursday: (deaths are second number listed)
▪ Asian: 296; 4
▪ Black or African-American: 695; 9
▪ Hispanic: 1,199; 10
▪ Multiple race: 117; 0
▪ Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander: 246; 6
▪ White: 2,686; 83
The health department has created a dashboard to show how the county is doing in terms of returning students to in-person classes. The dashboard is at TPCHD.org/covidinfoschools.
On Wednesday, health department representatives raised the possibility that the county could see some students return to in-person classroom instruction this month if the overall average trend in new cases continues to lower.
“We anticipate schools will be able to partially reopen in September starting with elementary schools,” health department deputy director Nancy Sutton said at a Board of Health meeting Wednesday.
The challenge now is for residents to avoid spreading COVID-19 at events over the Labor Day weekend, as was seen with outbreaks resulting from July 4 social gatherings.
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. For more information on testing sites, go to www.tpchd.org/covidtest.
Thursday’s geographical case totals are listed below with previous day’s totals in parentheses:
▪ Bonney Lake: 173 (171)
▪ Central Pierce County: 406 (405)
▪ East Pierce County: 215 (209)
▪ Edgewood/Fife/Milton: 283 (278)
▪ Frederickson: 254 (no change)
▪ Gig Harbor area: 183 (182)
▪ Graham: 230 (227)
▪ JBLM: No longer reported
▪ Key Peninsula: 52 (51)
▪ Lake Tapps/Sumner area: 218 (217)
▪ Lakewood: 630 (624)
▪ Parkland: 370 (no change)
▪ Puyallup: 405 (396)
▪ South Hill: 361 (360)
▪ South Pierce County: 162 (161)
▪ Southwest Pierce County: 70 (69)
▪ Spanaway: 318 (317)
▪ Tacoma: 2,124 (2,104)
▪ University Place: 272 (no change)
▪ Unknown: 82 (no change)
