Here are the latest COVID-19 case numbers confirmed Friday in Washington state
COVID-19 case numbers continued their upward climb Friday as the Washington state Department of Health reported 1,589 new cases and six deaths.
Pierce County reported 192 cases Friday and two new deaths. The county has 518 deaths likely caused by COVID-19, according to the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department.
Statewide totals from the illness caused by the coronavirus are 374,794 cases and 5,322 deaths. Those numbers are up from 373,205 cases and 5,316 deaths Thursday. The case total includes 25,077 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 21, the date with the most recent complete data, 32 people with confirmed cases of COVID-19 were admitted to Washington state hospitals.
Preliminary reports indicate average daily hospital admissions were steadily increasing at 40 in late March.
Out of the state’s total staffed intensive care unit beds (1,271) approximately 76.2% (969) were occupied by patients Thursday. Of those staffed ICU beds, 9% (115) held suspected and confirmed COVID-19 patients.
Case rates
For the past seven days, Washington has had a decreasing case rate of 97.8 per 100,000 people. Twenty states were lower.
The national rate for the same period was 135 per 100,000, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Michigan has the highest rate in the United States at 506. Arkansas is the lowest at 36.3.
Vaccine
According to the CDC, 4.25 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, 233 million doses have been distributed and 178 million shots of the approved vaccines have been given, according to CDC statistics.
As of Friday, 26.4% of the adult U.S. population has been fully vaccinated.
Testing
On March 21, the most recent date with confirmed testing data, 6,922 specimens were collected statewide, with 4.7% testing positive.
The average positive test rate for the seven days prior was a stable 3.7%. 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, with the state’s highest population, continues to have the highest numbers in Washington, with 93,760 cases and 1,482 deaths. Pierce County, second in population, is second in cases, with 44,289. Pierce County has the second-highest number of deaths, at 621, 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 31 million confirmed coronavirus cases and 560,996 deaths from the virus in the United States as of Friday, according to Johns Hopkins University. The United States has the highest total number of reported cases and deaths of any nation.
More than 2.91 million people have died from the disease worldwide. Global cases exceed 134 million.
This story was originally published April 9, 2021 at 6:09 PM.
