Pierce County starts week maintaining low numbers of new COVID cases
Pierce County reported 21 new COVID-19 cases Monday and three new deaths.
The latest deaths involved:
▪ A South Pierce County woman in her 60s.
▪ A Lakewood man in his 60s.
▪ A Central Pierce County man in his 60s.
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 June 15 was 71.2 percent.
Over the weekend, 51 cases were confirmed Saturday and 36 cases Sunday.
The county’s totals are 50,700 cases and 595 deaths since the first confirmed coronavirus case was reported in March 2020.
Pierce County’s 14-day case rate per 100,000 was 108 as of June 17, down from 112.4 as of June 16, with an eight-day reporting delay, according to the state’s Roadmap to Recovery metric. That compares with the state’s rate of 96.1.
New hospitalizations per 100,000 over seven days were at 4.4, compared with the state’s rate of 4.2. The rate of new hospitalizations locally and statewide are following downward trends.
Test positivity was at 4.7 percent from the week of May 30-June 5, the most recent data on the health department’s website, and down from a peak of 12.2 mid-April, with the number of tests about the same as the previous week.
Pierce County, along with the rest of the state, moved into Phase 3 of the Healthy WA: Roadmap to Recovery reopening plan on May 18, which allows for 50 percent capacity for most indoor activities. The state plans to move to a full reopening (full capacity at all businesses) as of June 30, sooner if the rate of Washingtonians over age 16 initiating vaccinations hits 70 percent or more before that date.
Rollbacks are possible if statewide hospital ICU capacity reaches 90 percent at any time.
Testing is available at various places. Local libraries in Tacoma and Pierce County also have test kits available for curbside pickup. More information on testing is available on the health department’s website.
GEOGRAPHIC TOTALS
Monday’s cumulative geographic totals with Friday’s totals in parentheses:
▪ Bonney Lake: 1,495 (1,490)
▪ Central Pierce County: 2,277 (2,273)
▪ East Pierce County: 2,437 (2,435)
▪ Edgewood/Fife/Milton: 2,001 (1,999)
▪ Frederickson: 1,930 (1,919)
▪ Gig Harbor area: 1,559 (1,556)
▪ Graham: 1,730 (1,728)
▪ JBLM: No longer reported
▪ Key Peninsula: 455 (453)
▪ Lake Tapps/Sumner area: 1,960 (1,959)
▪ Lakewood: 4,033 (4,021)
▪ Parkland: 2,445 (2,443)
▪ Puyallup: 2,873 (2,862)
▪ South Hill: 2,988 (2,984)
▪ South Pierce County: 1,782 (1,778)
▪ Southwest Pierce County: 702 (no change)
▪ Spanaway: 2,419 (2,413)
▪ Tacoma: 13,428 (13,403)
▪ University Place: 1,565 (1,562)
▪ Unknown: 2,621 (2,612)
VACCINES
As of June 18:
▪ About 778,421 total doses have been given to Pierce County residents, according to TPCHD. More than 7.5 million doses have been administered statewide.
In the county, 48.83 percent of the total population has initiated vaccination, and 40.51 percent is fully vaccinated, compared with 54.1 percent percent in the state initiating vaccines and 48.1 percent fully vaccinated.
Among those 16 and older statewide, 65.2 percent have initiated vaccination and 58.5 percent are fully vaccinated. That does not include military or VA vaccines, which health officials say puts the state at 67.8 percent initiating vaccines toward the 70 percent goal on or before June 30.
You can view vaccine participation by census tract on the local health department’s website.
TPCHD includes vaccines administered to Pierce County residents at Joint-Base Lewis McChord in its total. It does not have access to Veterans Affairs vaccine totals, which are not entered into the Washington state Immunization Information System.
JBLM data is not included in any demographic information or on the health department’s vaccine map.
Go to tpchd.org/vaxtothefuture or the county’s FindYourCovidShot.com website for information on local places offering vaccines and for vaccine registration. Walk-up vaccine sites run by the county and most TPCHD events now no longer require an appointment, and all TPCHD events are for first or second doses. Anyone age 12 or older can receive the Pfizer vaccine. Those younger than 18 need parent or guardian approval. Locations of individual vaccine sites also can be found on the state’s vaccine finder: vaccinelocator.doh.wa.gov.
▪ The health department’s call center to help those seeking vaccines is 253-649-1412.
▪ Pierce County also has a call center to help those searching for vaccines. Residents who need assistance signing up for an event can contact the call center at 253-798-8900 or email pcvaccine@piercountywa.gov for help.
The News Tribune is now reporting Pierce County case numbers twice per week.
This story was originally published June 21, 2021 at 3:50 PM.
