Pierce County COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations trending upward
Pierce County reported 1,791 new COVID-19 cases for the past week and seven new deaths.
The Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department has moved away from daily case and death reporting to a weekly reporting format each Tuesday.
The latest deaths include:
▪ An Edgewood/Fife/Milton area man in his 70s.
▪ An East Pierce County man in his 60s.
▪ A South Pierce County woman in her 70s.
▪ An Edgewood/Fife/Milton-area woman in her 80s.
▪ A Lakewood man in his 70s.
▪ A Parkland man in his 30s.
▪ A Tacoma woman in her 80s.
As of Dec. 21, 68.4 percent of the people who died of COVID in the county had underlying health conditions, according to the health department’s dashboard.
The county’s totals are 101,193 cases and 962 deaths since the first confirmed coronavirus case was reported in March 2020.
Pierce County’s 14-day case rate per 100,000 was 320.6 for Nov. 28-Dec. 11, 10.3 percent higher than the last 2-week period.
The 7-day rate of hospitalizations per 100,000 is at 7 for Dec. 5-11, 29.6 percent higher than the previously reported 7-day period.
“Since Dec. 15, we’ve seen more than 250 positive COVID-19 cases each day, matching trends we saw in mid-October,” TPCHD said in its Tuesday update.
From February to November, 43,617 of Pierce County’s cases involved unvaccinated people, according to the state Department of Health in its vaccine data report issued Dec. 15.
That compares with 9,425 cases involving those vaccinated during the same period, according to the state DOH.
More information on testing is available on the health department’s website.
GEOGRAPHIC TOTALS
Tuesday’s cumulative geographic totals, with Dec. 14 totals in parentheses (totals now include both positive antigen and positive PCR tests):
▪ Bonney Lake: 3,645 (3,574)
▪ Central Pierce County: 4,857 (4,740)
▪ East Pierce County: 5,900 (5,792)
▪ Edgewood/Fife/Milton: 3,912 (3,848)
▪ Frederickson: 4,101 (4,014)
▪ Gig Harbor area: 3,723 (3,657)
▪ Graham: 4,183 (4,088)
▪ Key Peninsula: 1,251 (1,243)
▪ Lake Tapps/Sumner area: 3,979 (3,907)
▪ Lakewood: 7,432 (7,349)
▪ Parkland: 4,416 (4,337)
▪ Puyallup: 5,935 (5,814)
▪ South Hill: 6,350 (6,183)
▪ South Pierce County: 4,503 (4,435)
▪ Southwest Pierce County: 1,413 (1,401)
▪ Spanaway: 4,676 (4,595)
▪ Tacoma: 25,665 (25,222)
▪ University Place: 2,952 (2,891)
▪ Unknown: 2,300 (2,161)
VACCINES
Pierce County’s vaccination rate is at 65 percent fully vaccinated for those 12 and older, compared with the state’s rate of 75.6 percent for the same age category, according to the state DOH.
Among Pierce County’s total population, the county is 54.4 percent fully vaccinated, compared with King County at 73.2 percent and the state rate of 62.4 percent.
Percentage of those in each age range who have received at least one dose of vaccine in Pierce County as posted Dec. 15:
▪ 5-11: 14.7 percent
▪ 12-17: 56.4 percent
▪ 18-19: 69.1 percent
▪ 20-34: 65.6 percent
▪ 35-49: 73 percent
▪ 50-64: 75.2 percent
▪ 65-79: 81 percent
▪ 80 and older: 89.3 percent
You can view vaccine participation by census tract on the local health department’s website.
Go to tpchd.org/vaxtothefuture or the county’s FindYourCovidShot.com website for information on 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 5 or older is eligible for the Pfizer vaccine, and anyone 16 or older is eligible for a booster six months after completing a two-dose mRNA vaccine series (Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna) or two months after receiving the single shot Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 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.
OUTBREAKS
In an update Dec. 16, the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department reported that 53 businesses saw outbreaks totaling 278 cases last week, a less-than 10 percent increase over the previous week.
Schools saw a more dramatic rise, with 12 outbreaks and a total of 65 related cases, up from seven outbreaks the previous week.
In the past 28 days, long-term care facilities in the county have seen 16 outbreaks accounting for 78 cases, according to TPCHD’s data on its website. They account for the largest percentage of COVID-19 cases among business or facility outbreaks at 28 percent, with schools second at 23 percent.
Omicron is now the dominant variant nationwide, accounting for 73 percent of new infections last week on a national scale, federal health officials announced Monday. It is not yet the dominant variant in Washington state, officials said Tuesday, with 400 cases reported.
This story was originally published December 21, 2021 at 4:20 PM.
