Coronavirus updates: State passes 89k cases
Updated at 3:20 p.m.
The Washington State Department of Health on Sunday reported 455 new confirmed cases of COVID-19. The department is no longer reporting deaths on weekends.
Pierce County reported 50 new cases and one new death on Saturday. Pierce County had a total of 177 deaths likely caused by COVID-19 as of Sunday, according to the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department.
Statewide totals from the illness caused by the coronavirus are at 89,874 cases and 2,142 deaths, up from 89,419 cases on Saturday.
King County continues to have the highest numbers in Washington, with 23,022 cases and 767 deaths. Yakima County is second, with 11,494 cases and 262 deaths. Pierce is third with cases at 8,294.
All counties in Washington have cases.
Pierce County reports 50 new cases
Updated at 2:40 a.m.
Pierce County reported 50 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday and no additional deaths.
County totals are now at 8,147 cases and 177 deaths since the first case in the coronavirus pandemic was recorded March 6.
The Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department has reported 730 cases in the past 14 days. The 14-day case rate per 100,000 people is 80.9. The goal for counties in Phase 2 is 25 or fewer per 100,000.
With a six-day data lag required in the state’s Safe Start measurements, the county’s case rate per 100,000 is at 68.3.
Average cases per day over the past 14 days is 52.1.
There are an estimated 1,179 still-active cases in the county, according to the health department.
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.
Sunday’s geographical case totals for Pierce County are listed below with previous day’s totals in parentheses:
▪ Bonney Lake: 212 (208)
▪ Central Pierce County: 474 (473)
▪ East Pierce County: 281 (278)
▪ Edgewood/Fife/Milton: 352 (no change)
▪ Frederickson: 325 (321)
▪ Gig Harbor area: 226 (no change)
▪ Graham: 280 (279)
▪ JBLM: No longer reported
▪ Key Peninsula: 63 (no change)
▪ Lake Tapps/Sumner area: 271 (269)
▪ Lakewood: 725 (721)
▪ Parkland: 434 (430)
▪ Puyallup: 478 (476)
▪ South Hill: 433 (431)
▪ South Pierce County: 224 (218)
▪ Southwest Pierce County: 84 (83)
▪ Spanaway: 366 (363)
▪ Tacoma: 2,514 (2,502)
▪ University Place: 319 (318)
▪ Unknown: 87 (86)
State passes 89k cases on Saturday
Updated at 10 a.m.
The Washington State Department of Health on Saturday reported 609 new confirmed cases of COVID-19. The department is no longer reporting deaths on weekends.
Pierce County reported 66 new cases and one new death on Saturday. Pierce County had a total of 177 deaths likely caused by COVID-19 as of Saturday, according to the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department.
Statewide totals from the illness caused by the coronavirus are at 89,419 cases and 2,142 deaths, up from 88,810 cases on Friday.
King County continues to have the highest numbers in Washington, with 22,916 cases and 767 deaths. Yakima County is second, with 11,489 cases and 262 deaths. Pierce is third with cases at 8,247.
All counties in Washington have cases.
‘Remember what works.’ Rising COVID cases have Pierce, King counties wary of next wave
Updated at 10 a.m.
As Pierce County heads into the fall season of the pandemic, local health officials are warning that without a concerted effort, new cases could quickly spiral out of control.
The root causes remain a lack of masking, not maintaining social distancing and not following safety measures, with initial infections then spreading to others.
“We came together as a community to drive new cases down after the highs in early August. But we lost all that progress since Labor Day,” Cindan Gizzi of the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department wrote in a department blog about rising COVID-19 case numbers late Thursday.
“Confirmed cases are up over the past two weeks, when the average rate of cases went up almost every day. ...The last time our numbers were this high was the end of August.”
The number of new cases already has some school districts walking back plans to return to in-person instruction, including Tacoma and Puyallup.
On Friday, Clover Park announced its own delay in returning to in-person hybrid learning.
Gizzi noted that the rise could bring more restrictions, not only to in-person learning, but congregate care facilities.
Care facilities recently gained the ability to relax some restrictions for visits.
“Outbreaks in congregational care settings continue as they have since early in the pandemic but are at a higher level,” Gizzi wrote. “This is especially concerning, as our older residents can have more severe outcomes from COVID-19 disease, including death.”
On Friday, the health department reported the county has risen to more than 8,000 cumulative COVID-19 cases, while the state on the same day reported it was approaching 90,000 cumulative cases.
King County urges greater vigilance as UW Greek cases climb
Updated at 10 a.m.
After two COVID-19 clusters in Washington’s most populous county this week, a public health official said Friday people need to remain vigilant.
KING-TV reports King County is averaging 119 cases a day in the past week which is up 40% from the previous week, according to Dr. Jeff Duchin, head of Public Health – Seattle & King County.
University of Washington officials said Saturday that 22 additional COVID-19 cases have been confirmed among nearly a dozen sorority and fraternity organizations in Seattle for a total of 139 cases.
An outbreak also was reported this week at the Salish Lodge and Spa in Snoqualmie, where at least 25 people have tested positive.
Since March, there have been 22,560 cases, 2,378 hospitalizations and 758 deaths in King County.
As numbers trend up again, it’s important to keep wearing masks and practice social distancing because the possibility of even an average flu season compounding with coronavirus is potentially a huge threat to the healthcare system, Duchin said.
This story was originally published October 4, 2020 at 10:27 AM.
