Here are the latest COVID-19 case numbers confirmed Tuesday in Washington state
The Washington state Department of Health reported 653 new cases of COVID-19 and 14 deaths Tuesday.
Pierce County reported 89 cases Tuesday and one new death. The county has 516 deaths likely caused by COVID-19, according to the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department.
Statewide totals from the illness caused by the coronavirus are 370,652 cases and 5,299 deaths. Those numbers are up from 369,999 cases and 5,285 deaths Monday. The case total includes 24,232 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 18, the date with the most recent complete data, 42 people with confirmed cases of COVID-19 were admitted to Washington state hospitals.
Preliminary reports indicate average daily hospital admissions were slightly increasing at 37 in late-March.
Out of the state’s total staffed intensive care unit beds (1,243) approximately 72.4% (900) were occupied by patients Monday. Of those staffed ICU beds, 7.8% (97) held suspected and confirmed COVID-19 patients.
Case rates
For the past seven days, Washington has had an increasing case rate of 100 per 100,000 people. Twenty-two states were lower.
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 471. Arkansas is the lowest at 36.1.
Vaccine
According to the CDC, 4.04 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in Washington.
Washington state is in phase 1B tiers 3 and 4 of vaccinations. On April 15, all Washington residents age 16 and older will become eligible for the vaccine.
On the national level, 219 million doses have been distributed and 168 million shots of the approved vaccines have been given, according to CDC statistics.
As of Tuesday, 24.4% of the adult U.S. population has been fully vaccinated.
Testing
On March 18, the most recent date with confirmed testing data, 17,564 specimens were collected statewide, with 3.9% testing positive.
The average positive test rate for the seven days prior was an upward trending 3.5%. More than 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 92,570 cases and 1,475 deaths. Pierce County is second in cases, with 43,647. Pierce County has the second-highest number of deaths, at 616, 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 30.8 million confirmed coronavirus cases and 556,428 deaths from the virus in the United States as of Tuesday, according to Johns Hopkins University. The United States has the highest total number of reported cases and deaths of any nation.
More than 2.87 million people have died from the disease worldwide. Global cases exceed 132 million.
