Coronavirus updates: Pierce County improving while U.S. reaches 6.3 million cases and 191,000 dead
Pierce County reports 40 deaths and one new death Thursday
Updated at 2:45 p.m.
Pierce County reported 40 new COVID-19 cases Thursday and one additional death.
County totals are now 7,065 cases and 157 deaths since the first case in the coronavirus pandemic was recorded March 6.
The Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department has reported 518 cases in the past 14 days. The 14-day case rate per 100,000 people is 57.4. 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 37.0.
There are an estimated 1,237 still-active cases in the county, according to the health department.
The 20-39 age group continues to have the highest number of COVID-19 cases at 40.3 percent in the past two weeks, according to data released Wednesday.
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.
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: 176 (no change)
▪ Central Pierce County: 430 (425)
▪ East Pierce County: 238 (237)
▪ Edgewood/Fife/Milton: 295 (292)
▪ Frederickson: 263 (261)
▪ Gig Harbor area: 192 (191)
▪ Graham: 239 (236)
▪ JBLM: No longer reported
▪ Key Peninsula: 56 (no change)
▪ Lake Tapps/Sumner area: 226 (222)
▪ Lakewood: 652 (650)
▪ Parkland: 384 (380)
▪ Puyallup: 422 (417)
▪ South Hill: 369 (no change)
▪ South Pierce County: 170 (no change)
▪ Southwest Pierce County: 73 (72)
▪ Spanaway: 330 (328)
▪ Tacoma: 2,189 (2,167)
▪ University Place: 283 (281)
▪ Unknown: 78 (77)
WHO scientist calls vaccine trial halt a ‘wake-up call’
Updated at 11:30 a.m.
The chief scientist of the World Health Organization says the agency is not worried by the pause in clinical trials for a coronavirus vaccine.
The drug, being developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca, had its testing halted when one subject experienced neurological symptoms consistent with a rare spinal disorder.
Dr. Soumya Swaminathan called temporary pause “a wake-up call” and that “there are ups and downs in research.”
Swaminathan said results of the vaccine have been “quite promising” so far with the drug creating an immune response in test subjects.
It’s unknown if the participant’s medical crisis was caused by the vaccine or had some other cause, scientists say. Transverse myelitis has been caused by vaccines in the past, although it’s considered rare. The disease can also be triggered by viral infections.
Washington state reports 464 new cases, 25 deaths
Updated at 12:15 p.m.
Washington’s state Department of health reported 464 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 along with 25 deaths on Wednesday. The data also includes Tuesday when the department’s website was not functioning.
Statewide totals from the illness caused by the coronavirus are at 78,009 cases and 1,978 deaths, up from 77,545 cases and 1,953 deaths on Monday.
More than 1.5 million people have been tested in the state. As of Aug. 24, the previous 7-day average for positive cases was 3.4 %.
On Aug. 21, the most recent date with confirmed data, 27 people were hospitalized in the state with COVID-19.
India sets new case record, second to U.S. in total numbers
Updated at noon
India now has the second highest caseload of COVID-19 in the world, behind the U.S.
The country set a new record Wednesday with 95,735 new coronavirus infections. The total number of infected is more than 4.4 million, according to the country’s Health Ministry.
The U.S. had more than 6.3 million cases on Thursday. Brazil comes in third with 4.1 cases.
The Health Ministry also reported 1,172 deaths in the past 24 hours. Total dead are at 75,062. Deaths in the U.S. stood at 191,360, according to Johns Hopkins University.
This story was originally published September 10, 2020 at 12:24 PM.
