Coronavirus In Pierce County: Week In Review

TACOMA — Friday marked the start of what is likely to be a difficulty period for Pierce County as the entire county rolled back into Phase 2 of the Healthy Washington plan.

The move means the county has had to reimpose a number of restrictions, namely cutting maximum capacity to 25 percent at restaurants, bars, retailers, religious services and more.

Now, county leaders are looking to the future, focusing on helping businesses and residents as they weather the rollback, and on improving the county's metrics so that it can re-enter Phase 3 as soon as possible.

Related: Pierce County Rolls Back Into Phase 2: What To Know

Unfortunately, the county is not off to the best start. In order to enter Phase 3, it will need to meet one of the two following metrics in time for the state's next evaluation on May 3:

• Fewer than 200 new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents in the past two weeks.
• Fewer than 5 hospitalizations per 100,000 residents over the past week.

At the time of the Washington State Department of Health's review Monday, the county had a reported case rate of 250.3 and a hospitalization rate of 6.8.

While the DOH's current hospitalization rate is not readily publicly available, the case rate is, and it has only gotten worse in the days since the review, sitting at 281.6 as of April 15, according to the DOH's COVID-19 Risk Assessment Dashboard.

The Tacoma- Pierce County Health Department also reported more COVID-19 cases and deaths this week than it did the week prior.

Still, health officials remain hopeful the county can turn the situation around ahead of next month's review— especially considering the progress that has been made with the vaccine rollout. Though the county has struggled to vaccinate at rates similar to other large counties like King and Snohomish, there has been a slow but steady improvement in the number of vaccines administered daily.

The state has also agreed to up the county's vaccine allotment by 5,000 doses per week until it can catch up with the statewide average — though county leaders like Executive Bruce Dammeier did request more, up to 15,000 doses per week.

As of the county's latest update Saturday, there have been 439,713 COVID-19 vaccine doses administered to Pierce County residents, including 40,169 in the week ending the 10th.

Another way health leaders are trying to boost immunity is by addressing vaccine hesitancy. In a recent post to the Tacoma - Pierce County Health Department's blog, the department's Kenny Via explains why Board of Health member Dave Morell chose to get his shot:

"Dave Morell wants to see his grandkids again. He wants to travel freely around the state and country. And he wants all of Pierce County’s struggling businesses to get back to 100% capacity," writes Via.

“I have no regrets,” Morell said. “I’m glad I did it. I’m glad it’s done. Now I can move on with my life hopefully and enjoy some of the things that have been lacking in the last year.”

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.