Pierce County sees more than 100 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday
Pierce County reported 107 new COVID-19 cases Wednesday and no additional deaths.
County totals are now at 9,975 confirmed cases and 191 deaths since the first case in the coronavirus pandemic was recorded March 6.
The Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department has reported 1,214 cases in the past 14 days. The 14-day case rate per 100,000 people is 134.6. Average cases per day over the past 14 days are 86.7.
With a six-day data lag required in the state’s Safe Start measurements, the county’s case rate per 100,000 is 114.
There are an estimated 2,048 still-active cases in the county.
On Wednesday, the state Department of Health said that virus transmission is on the rise throughout the state.
“Growth is particularly high in the 25 to 39 and 40 to 59 age groups and in the Puget Sound region, Snohomish, King and Pierce counties. This wide distribution suggests increases are due to broad community spread, not driven by a single type of activity or setting,” the department said in its Wednesday situation report.
It added, “Some of the increase in early October appears to be due to more testing. However, case counts increased during the week ending Oct. 15 despite decreases in testing.”
In Pierce County, 60 percent of cases have no link to other cases; the higher the percentage, the more community spread. The county saw a 4.5 percent positivity rate the week of Oct. 11, up from 4.1 percent the week of Oct. 4. The testing rate has remained steady for the month.
The 20-39 age group comprises the highest number of COVID-19 cases at 38.2 percent of total cases in the past two weeks, according to Wednesday’s update.
There were 10 outbreaks the week of Oct. 17, down from 15 the previous week. The recent outbreak at St. Joseph Medical Center in Tacoma was added to its list on Wednesday with 11 cases. To be on the list, a site must have 60 or more employees and 10 or more confirmed COVID-19 cases associated with an active outbreak.
The department defines an inpatient hospital outbreak as two or more cases in patients or health care staff. Patients must be admitted within a 7-day period for a non-COVID condition; the admission or work assignment must overlap or cases were within 6 feet of each other for at least 15 minutes at the facility.
Testing is available at various sites in the county. For more information on testing sites, go to www.tpchd.org/covidtest.
Geographic totals
Wednesday’s geographic case totals for Pierce County are listed below with previous day’s total in parentheses:
▪ Bonney Lake: 252 (250)
▪ Central Pierce County: 573 (570)
▪ East Pierce County: 367 (363)
▪ Edgewood/Fife/Milton: 458 (no change)
▪ Frederickson: 422 (420)
▪ Gig Harbor area: 260 (259)
▪ Graham: 327 (326)
▪ JBLM: No longer reported
▪ Key Peninsula: 77 (76)
▪ Lake Tapps/Sumner area: 375 (366)
▪ Lakewood: 887 (879)
▪ Parkland: 499 (495)
▪ Puyallup: 648 (641)
▪ South Hill: 564 (558)
▪ South Pierce County: 277 (274)
▪ Southwest Pierce County: 109 (108)
▪ Spanaway: 439 (435)
▪ Tacoma: 2,994 (2,958)
▪ University Place: 353 (350)
▪ Unknown: 94 (85)
