Washington Coronavirus Updates: 676 New Cases, 11 More Deaths

SEATTLE — The Washington State Department of Health's latest update Thursday afternoon added 676 new laboratory-confirmed coronavirus cases, for a total of 96,185 confirmed cases of the virus since the pandemic began.

The bulk of Thursday's new cases were reported in King, Pierce, Snohomish and Spokane counties.

The report also added 11 more deaths for a total death toll of 2,232 Washingtonians killed by COVID-19. Deaths Thursday were reported in Clark, King, Kitsap, Mason, Pierce, Snohomish, Spokane, and Yakima counties.

According to the latest update of the state's risk assessment dashboard, Washington is only meeting two out of five key coronavirus safety metrics, both of which relate to the medical system's capacity to house coronavirus patients. Currently, just 61.9 percent of Washington's hospital beds are occupied by patients, and just 2.7 percent of those beds are occupied by coronavirus patients.

However, the state may be losing ground on other metrics. The number of patients diagnosed with the coronavirus per every 100,000 residents over the past two weeks has risen from around 75 just a few weeks ago, to nearly 93 as of Wednesday. The state's goal is to get that rate under 25. Similarly, too many people are testing positive for the virus: right now 3.4 percent of coronavirus tests come back positive, and while that is an improvement over the summer, when that number ranged closer to 5 or 6 percent, it's still above the goal of 2 percent or fewer.

Catch up on the latest developments:

Local man becomes third American confirmed reinfected with coronavirus

A Seattle-area nursing home resident has just become the third-ever person in the United States to test positive for the coronavirus twice. As The Seattle Times reports, the man first tested positive in early March and spent over a month in the hospital with severe COVID-19 symptoms.

After making a full recovery and leaving the hospital, now he's been infected again, months later. Doctors say the man is carrying a different strain of the virus than he did in March, confirming this second infection is not a relapse, but a brand-new infection.

While the man's case is significant, as it could help researchers learn more about immunity and how reinfection occurs, it also appears to be fairly rare. Thus far only around 20 people worldwide have been confirmed infected with the coronavirus twice.

Read more about the case and its implications from The Seattle Times.

Coronavirus cases on the rise across America

Washington may have cleared the Labor Day hurdle: despite a distinct rise in overall case counts following the holiday, case counts appear once again to be at a plateau, and some counties may even be seeing downward trends once again after the short rise.

That is not generally true across America, however, as the U.S. as a whole is seeing coronavirus cases rising at the fastest pace since the second large surge in cases back in June. There have been more than 366,400 new coronavirus cases in the United States in the last week, roughly 50,000 more than reported the week before.

Experts say, that could be because it's getting colder and more people are heading indoors where the virus spreads more easily, but if that is the cause, it could be a harbinger of bad times to come.

"We're going to have a huge increase as we head into the colder months, and this could be potentially the worst part of the epidemic in the U.S., both in terms of new cases and even deaths," said Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine in Texas.

The increase has public health experts warning the United States could be on track for a third surge in coronavirus cases. Hospitalization rates are already on the rise and 36 states are reporting increases in daily cases.

While that all is concerning, transmission rates would have to stay on track for some time to beat July: new infections in the United States surpassed 50,000 this week, according to data analyzed by The Washington Post, a too-large number of cases but significantly less than the late July peak of 66,000 daily cases.

Read more: U.S. Coronavirus Cases Rising At Fastest Pace Since June

Total coronavirus cases, hospitalizations and deaths by county:

County

Confirmed Cases

Hospitalizations

Deaths

Adams

899 (+2)

54

10

Asotin

167 (+8)

17 (+1)

6

Benton

4,903 (+12)

409 (+4)

132

Chelan

1,932

79

16

Clallam

246

8

1

Clark

3,877 (+24)

318 (+8)

74 (+1)

Columbia

14

3

1

Cowlitz

744 (+8)

47 (+3)

7

Douglas

1,216 (+1)

60

9

Ferry

30

1

0

Franklin

4,589 (+19)

326 (+3)

67

Garfield

13

0

0

Grant

3,201 (+21)

164 (+1)

23

Grays Harbor

614 (+7)

43 (+3)

11

Island

351 (+4)

39

12

Jefferson

80

12

0

King

24,610 (+144)

2,511 (+8)

791 (+1)

Kitsap

1,386 (+8)

108

19 (+1)

Kittitas

642 (+2)

25

22

Klickitat

202

12

3

Lewis

643 (+7)

47 (+2)

8

Lincoln

63

3

1

Mason

490 (+12)

27

9 (+1)

Okanogan

1,090 (+2)

54

10

Pacific

107 (+1)

8

3

Pend Oreille

123 (+4)

8

0

Pierce

8,995 (+78)

919 (+11)

217 (+3)

San Juan

30

2

0

Skagit

1,184 (+2)

100

23

Skamania

66

5

1

Snohomish

7,758 (+95)

853 (+6)

219 (+1)

Spokane

8,284 (+134)

563 (+12)

183 (+2)

Stevens

227 (+4)

20

4

Thurston

1,345 (+20)

119 (+2)

21

Wahkiakum

9 (+1)

0

0

Walla Walla

970 (+11)

56

6

Whatcom

1,489 (+8)

104 (+1)

49

Whitman

1,587 (+30)

14 (+2)

3

Yakima

11,657 (+29)

810 (+5)

267 (+1)

Unassigned

352 (-22)

8

4

Total

96,185 (+676)

7,956 (+73)

2,232 (+11)

The above numbers are provided by the state Department of Health, and some numbers differ from the totals provided separately by county health agencies.

This article originally appeared on the Gig Harbor Patch