Thurston County ends week with 23 COVID-19 cases after 6 more announced Sunday

Six more confirmed cases of COVID-19 were identified Sunday by Thurston County health officials

By Rolf Boone The Olympian • June 2, 2020 8:30 am

By Rolf Boone

The Olympian

Six more confirmed cases of COVID-19 were identified Sunday by Thurston County health officials, and two of those cases were tied to a long-term health care facility in Tumwater.

That location was recently identified as Olympics West Retirement Inn.

Public Health Director Schelli Slaughter said Sunday that three more on staff at Olympics West tested positive; however, two of the three live in Thurston County, while the third lives in Mason County and will be included in that county’s count.

The county started with one case on Monday, then added three more on Wednesday, one on Friday, then 12 on Saturday, the highest one-day total since March 10. The weekly total of 23 also was the highest since 31 cases were reported the week of March 30.

Thurston County health officials have tested 139 residents and 62 staff at Olympics West, and now 19 people have tested positive, Slaughter said.

The spread of the virus in Tumwater, and potentially at Infinite Care Adult Family Home in Lacey, are linked by an Olympics West staff person who tested positive earlier in the week and works at both facilities, the county announced earlier in the week.

The county still hasn’t received the test results for Infinite Care, Slaughter said.

The six cases on Sunday were a woman in her 60s, two women in their 50s, two men in their 50s and a female in her 10s, according to the county health data. The overall total for the county is now 154 cases with one death. Of the total, 130 people have either recovered or are recovering.

Also in the region:Pierce County added 19 cases on Sunday, increasing its overall total to 1,947 with 73 deaths.

Lewis County has 36 cases and three deaths.

Mason County also has 36 cases and one death.

Washington state is home to more than 21,000 cases and 1,100 deaths, according to the state Department of Health.

Across the U.S., more than 1.7 million people have tested positive for the virus and 104,000 have died, Johns Hopkins University data show. Globally, there have been 6 million cases and 371,000 deaths.