WA state reports more than 700 new COVID-19 cases on Monday
The Washington state Department of Health reported 736 new cases of COVID-19 and seven new deaths Monday.
Pierce County reported 80 new cases Monday, 318 new cases from over the weekend, and no new deaths. The county has 515 deaths likely caused by COVID-19, according to the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department.
Statewide totals from the illness caused by the coronavirus are 370,017 cases and 5,285 deaths. Those numbers are up from 368,403 cases and 5,278 deaths Saturday. The case total includes 24,113 infections listed as probable. DOH revises previous case and death counts daily.
Washington’s population is estimated at about 7.6 million, according to U.S. Census figures from July 2019.
Hospitalizations
As of March 15, the date with the most recent complete data, 35 people with confirmed cases of COVID-19 were admitted to Washington state hospitals.
Preliminary reports indicate average daily hospital admissions were slightly increasing.
Out of the state’s total staffed intensive care unit beds (1,234) approximately 78% (962) were occupied by patients as of April 1. Of those staffed ICU beds, 9.5% (117) held suspected and confirmed COVID-19 patients. That number is trending down.
Case rates
For the past seven days, Washington has had an increasing case rate of 100 per 100,000 people.
The national rate for the same period was 133 per 100,000, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Michigan has the highest rate in the United States at 452.5. Arkansas is the lowest at 37.3.
Vaccine
According to the CDC, more than 4 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in Washington.
Washington state is in phase 1B tiers 3 and 4 of vaccinations.
On the national level, 207 million doses have been distributed and 167 million shots of the approved vaccines have been given, according to CDC statistics. More than 4 million were vaccinated nationwide Friday, a new single-day record, according to the CDC on Saturday.
As of Monday, 23.2% of the adult U.S. population has been fully vaccinated.
Testing
On March 15, the most recent date with confirmed testing data, 24,788 specimens were collected statewide, with 3.3% testing positive.
The average positive test rate for the seven days prior was 3.4%. Nearly 6 million tests have been conducted in Washington. The test numbers reflect only polymerase chain reaction tests, which are administered while the virus is presumably still active in the body.
County numbers
According to DOH data, King County continues to have the highest numbers in Washington, with 92,476 cases and 1,473 deaths. Pierce County is second in cases, with 43,535. Pierce County has the second-highest number of deaths, at 614, according to DOH, which counts deaths differently than the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department.
All counties in Washington have at least 100 cases. Only 11 of the state’s 39 counties have case counts of fewer than 1,000.
U.S. and world numbers
There have been more than 30.7 million confirmed coronavirus cases and 553,980 deaths from the virus in the United States as of Monday, according to Johns Hopkins University. The United States has the highest total number of reported cases and deaths of any nation.
More than 2.85 million people have died from the disease worldwide. Global cases exceed 131 million.
