New COVID-19 cases in Washington state set record for second day in a row Thursday
The Washington state Department of Health reported 15,157 new COVID-19 cases Thursday, breaking the record set just the day before. Meanwhile, the total number of deaths caused by the coronavirus in the state was just short of breaking the 10,000 mark.
“It will get worse,” state Secretary of Health Dr. Umair Shah said Thursday at his department’s briefing.
As of Thursday, statewide totals from the illness caused by the coronavirus are 913,980 cases and 9,974 deaths. The case total includes 108,521 infections listed as probable. DOH said total case counts could include up to 600 duplicates.
Washington’s population is estimated at about 7.7 million, according to the latest U.S. Census figures.
Hospitalization
From Dec. 25-31, 16.7 percent of staffed intensive care unit (ICU) beds in Washington were occupied by COVID-19 patients. Preliminary data through Wednesday showed that percentage is increasing.
Case rates
For the past seven days, Washington has had a strong upward trending case rate of 746 per 100,000 people.
The national rate for the same period was 1,236 per 100,000, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Vaccine
According to DOH, 62.8 percent of the total state population has been fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
On the national level, 62.4 percent of the population has been fully vaccinated, according to CDC statistics.
U.S. and world numbers
There have been more than 58.4 million confirmed coronavirus cases and 833,777 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 5.47 million people have died from the disease worldwide. Global cases exceed 299 million.
Testing
On Sept. 15, DOH stopped updating testing statistics on its website because it was having difficulty processing an increase in data. On Jan. 3, the agency said the halt in updating will continue through February 2022.
This story was originally published January 6, 2022 at 5:14 PM.
