Here are the latest COVID-19 case numbers confirmed Thursday in Washington state
The Washington state Department of Health reported 1,432 new COVID-19 cases and five deaths Thursday — the day all state residents 16 and older became eligible for the vaccine.
Pierce County reported 143 cases Thursday and one new death. The county has 522 deaths likely caused by COVID-19, according to the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department.
Statewide totals from the illness caused by the coronavirus are 381,725 and 5,362 deaths. Those numbers are up from 380,293 cases and 5,357 deaths Wednesday. The case total includes 26,338 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 April 3, the date with the most recent complete data, 40 people with confirmed cases of COVID-19 were admitted to Washington state hospitals.
Preliminary reports indicate average daily hospital admissions were steady at 48 in early April.
Out of the state’s total staffed intensive care unit beds (1,281) approximately 79.9% (1,023) were occupied by patients Wednesday. Of those staffed ICU beds, 10.9% (140) held suspected and confirmed COVID-19 patients.
Case rates
For the past seven days, Washington has had an increasing case rate of 107 per 100,000 people. Twenty-one states were lower.
The national rate for the same period was 146 per 100,000, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Michigan has the highest rate in the United States at 551. Arkansas is the lowest at 38.5
Vaccine
According to the CDC, 4.52 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in Washington.
On the national level, 255 million doses have been distributed and 198 million shots of the approved vaccines have been given, according to CDC statistics.
As of Tuesday, 30.3% of the adult U.S. population has been fully vaccinated.
Testing
On March 27, the most recent date with confirmed testing data, 11,904 specimens were collected statewide, with 5% testing positive.
The average positive test rate for the seven days prior was increasing at 4.6%. More than 6.2 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 95,782 cases and 1,491 deaths. Pierce County, second in population, is second in cases, with 45,354. Pierce County has the second-highest number of deaths, at 628, 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 31.4 million confirmed coronavirus cases and 565,254 deaths from the virus in the United States as of Thursday, according to Johns Hopkins University. The United States has the highest total number of reported cases and deaths of any nation.
More than 2.98 million people have died from the disease worldwide. Global cases exceed 138 million.
This story was originally published April 15, 2021 at 5:05 PM.
