New COVID-19 cases in Pierce County below 70 again Monday
Pierce County reported 67 new COVID-19 cases Monday, with 10 additional deaths.
The deaths involved:
▪ An Edgewood/Fife/Milton woman in her 70s.
▪ A Tacoma man in his 60s.
▪ An East Pierce County man in his 70s.
▪ A Tacoma man in his 60s.
▪ A Tacoma woman in her 90s.
▪ A Tacoma man in his 60s.
▪ A Lakewood man in his 80s.
▪ A Lakewood man in his 50s.
▪ A Parkland man in his 60s.
▪ A Tacoma woman in her 90s.
The Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department no longer assigns underlying condition status to individual deaths it reports and instead counts underlying conditions as part of a percentage of the total number of deaths, which as of March 9 was 74 percent.
The deaths are not from one day, but over months, according to a health department update Monday:
“Nine of these deaths occurred between November 2020 and February 2021. We updated our dashboards to align information with local, state and death certificate data.”
On March 11, the county reported 65 cases; March 12 it was 68.
The county’s totals are now 37,558 cases and 491 deaths since the first confirmed coronavirus case was reported in March 2020.
The 14-day case rate per 100,000 is 145, with six-day data lag, down from 237.7 Feb. 16. That data point offers the most reliable look at COVID-19 disease burden in Pierce County, according to health officials. Case numbers for the most part have been declining in Pierce County for a few weeks.
An estimated 3,400 cases remain active in the county, down from 7,200 estimated Feb. 1.
Testing is available at various places. More information on testing is available on the health department’s website.
Vaccination information and data is available on the website. The state and county are currently in Tier 1 of Phase 1B.
GEOGRAPHIC TOTALS
Monday’s cumulative geographic totals with Friday’s totals in parentheses:
▪ Bonney Lake: 1,010 (1,008)
▪ Central Pierce County: 1,720 (1,717)
▪ East Pierce County: 1,652 (1,633)
▪ Edgewood/Fife/Milton: 1,532 (1,528)
▪ Frederickson: 1,359 (1,355)
▪ Gig Harbor area: 1,182 (1,171)
▪ Graham: 1,251 (1,243)
▪ JBLM: No longer reported
▪ Key Peninsula: 345 (343)
▪ Lake Tapps/Sumner area: 1,354 (1,340)
▪ Lakewood: 3,090 (3,076)
▪ Parkland: 1,875 (1,867)
▪ Puyallup: 2,171 (2,162)
▪ South Hill: 2,119 (2,109)
▪ South Pierce County: 1,211 (1,200)
▪ Southwest Pierce County: 540 (539)
▪ Spanaway: 1,766 (1,756)
▪ Tacoma: 10,507 (10,453)
▪ University Place: 1,217 (1,214)
▪ Unknown: 1,657 (1,644)
VACCINES
As of March 15:
▪ About 232,994 total doses given and reported in Pierce County, according to state Department of Health’s data dashboard.
More than 2 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been given throughout the state, and 80.63% of all doses received in the state had been administered. The current seven-day average is 44,610 vaccines a day, compared with the goal of achieving 45,000 vaccines given per day. About 19.07 percent of the state population has initiated vaccination, with 10.98 percent fully vaccinated.
PHASE 3
On March 11, Gov. Jay Inslee announced that all counties in the state would move to Phase 3 in the state’s reopening plan starting March 22. Counties will be re-evaluated individually every three weeks with the next metrics released April 12.
Pierce County must meet two metrics to remain in Phase 3:
▪ Fewer than 200 new cases per 100,000 over two weeks
▪ Fewer than five new hospitalizations per 100,000 over one week.
Additionally, if the statewide intensive care unit capacity reaches greater than 90 percent, all counties will revert to Phase 1.
In the new plan, the county will no longer be a part of the 3-county Puget Sound Region with King and Snohomish counties.
