Pierce County COVID-19 cases trending lower; two new deaths reported
Pierce County reported 165 new COVID-19 cases Wednesday and two new deaths.
The latest deaths involved a Central Pierce County man in his 70s and a Puyallup woman in her 70s, both with underlying health conditions.
The county’s totals are at 21,641 cases and 263 deaths since the first confirmed case was reported in March.
On Wednesday, officials with the state Department of Health reported that the third surge in Washington state was starting to slow down in number of cases, but deaths still are on the rise.
Local officials said similar patterns were tracking in the county, and an anticipated Thanksgiving surge has yet to be seen.
“Our record levels of testing before Thanksgiving helped catch many new cases. We’re monitoring our percent positive closely, and early signals are it’s decreasing and that cases may be leveling off,” the health department reported.
Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department has reported 4,712 cases in the past 14 days, and its 14-day case rate per 100,000 is now 522.4. Average cases per day in the past 14 days are at 336.6.
With a six-day data lag required in the state, the county’s case rate per 100,000 is 461.2.
The percent of positive cases as of Dec. 5 was 9.3 percent, down from 12.3 percent the previous week, with about 1,000 more tests being run each day by Dec. 5 than the week before, which was a holiday week.
There are an estimated 8,495 confirmed cases still active in the county.
Testing is available at various sites in the county. More information on testing sites is available on the health department’s website.
GEOGRAPHIC TOTALS
Wednesday’s geographic case totals for Pierce County are listed below with previous day’s totals in parentheses:
▪ Bonney Lake: 592 (587)
▪ Central Pierce County: 1,048 (1,042)
▪ East Pierce County: 856 (849)
▪ Edgewood/Fife/Milton: 941 (930)
▪ Frederickson: 851 (849)
▪ Gig Harbor area: 710 (no change)
▪ Graham: 728 (722)
▪ JBLM: No longer reported
▪ Key Peninsula: 208 (204)
▪ Lake Tapps/Sumner area: 765 (764)
▪ Lakewood: 1,774 (1,755)
▪ Parkland: 1,074 (1,067)
▪ Puyallup: 1,352 (1,346)
▪ South Hill: 1,266 (1,252)
▪ South Pierce County: 675 (667)
▪ Southwest Pierce County: 276 (272)
▪ Spanaway: 1,007 (1,000)
▪ Tacoma: 6,307 (6,267)
▪ University Place: 779 (774)
▪ Unknown: 432 (422)
This story was originally published December 16, 2020 at 3:17 PM.
