Coronavirus In Pierce County: Week In Review

PIERCE COUNTY, WA — It's a mix of good and bad pandemic-related news this week for Pierce County residents.

First, the bad. Daily COVID-19 case counts appear to be on the rise again in the county, mirroring a new trend of growing coronavirus transmissions statewide. Though the growth is slight — and likely too early to tell if case counts will continue to grow into a larger problem — it's disappointing news following nearly two months of consistent improvement.

As of Friday, the county's case rate is 130.3 new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents over the past two weeks. To put that in perspective, the peak of the second wave in late summer was about 145 and the peak of the third wave hit 545. Each new wave of infections has been larger than the last, which has health officials especially concerned about the potential for a fourth wave.

"What has happened after this third wave is we're starting to see the slowdown in the decrease of the number of cases, but the baseline is even higher than the first, second, or third," said Dr. Scott Lindquist, state epidemiologist for communicable diseases.

The good news then is that health officials across the state are hopeful that the vaccine rollout will prevent any potential future wave from being nearly as deadly as the last three.

"Obviously it's a race against time with vaccines," Secretary of Health Dr. Umair Shah said. "Regardless of how quickly vaccines get into the state, and we get them into the arms of Washingtonians, we've gotta continue to remember that we're not out of this pandemic."

Fortunately, vaccine availability continues to grow. On Wednesday, Washington entered Phase 1B2 of the state's COVID-19 vaccine distribution plan, making roughly 740,000 more residents eligible for the vaccine, largely high-risk workers employed in congregate settings and residents 16 or older who are either pregnant or have a disability that puts them at higher risk.

And even more people will be eligible for the vaccine soon. Thursday, Gov. Jay Inslee announced that the next tier of vaccinations would begin March 31 — previously it had been set for mid-April — and has been expanded to make two million more Washingtonians eligible. Including the estimated three million who can already get their doses, that means roughly 64 percent of all Washingtonians will be eligible for vaccination by the end of this month.

In Pierce County alone, more than 266,100 COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered. Health providers across the county administered 31,727 doses in the week ending Wednesday.

Health officials say continuing the vaccine rollout will be critical for saving lives in the event of a fourth wave of new infections, but they've already started pulling their weight: federal data shows that pandemic-related deaths in Washington plummeted 17 percent in the last week alone, a trend that is expected to continue as more of the highest risk residents become inoculated.

This week the county was also recognized for effective use of pandemic relief funding. A study by the National Academy of Public Administrators seeking to find counties from across the country who were "paying special attention to programs focusing on inclusive economic recovery and on assisting vulnerable and underserved populations," and picked Pierce County as one of six counties worthy of recognition.

Researchers said Pierce County was able to overcome many pandemic challenges by setting a strong standard for CARES Act spending, while also remaining flexible enough to meet new challenges as they arose. Pierce County received roughly $158 million from the CARES Act.

Total coronavirus cases, hospitalizations and deaths in Pierce County:

Editors note: Patch is updating these totals on a weekly, rather than daily, basis. Readers should keep in mind that the increases below represent infections and deaths over a seven-day period.

The above numbers are provided by the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department, and some numbers differ from the totals provided separately by the Washington State Department of Health.