Cars are seen lined up around the parking lot at the Providence Hawks Prairie drive-up COVID-19 testing location last November in Lacey.
Confirmed cases of COVID-19 rose by 44 on Monday, according to Thurston County Public Health and Social Services, bringing the total case count to 6,185.
Over the weekend, cases topped the 6,000 mark. The county's population is just under 300,000, according to the Thurston Regional Planning Council — meaning more than 2 percent of residents have contracted the virus since the county began tracking it in March.
Of the total cases, the county considers 5,018 people to be recovered or recovering, while 331 have been hospitalized at some point during their illness (including five in the past week), and 62 have died.
The county is reporting that 8.6% of tests have come back positive over the past week.
The number of outbreaks remains stable at six, the county is reporting.
Progress on vaccines
Gov. Jay Inslee's office reported Monday afternoon that COVID-19 vaccine distribution had hit 500,000 total doses administered.
It also announced progress toward the state's goal of administering 45,000 vaccine doses a day. As of Monday, the state's current seven-day rolling average was 23,960 doses administered per day. On Monday, 40,000 doses were administered in a 24-hour period.
Inslee and Secretary of Health Dr. Umair A. Shah issued the vaccination goal Jan. 18. On Thursday, the state reported the previous week's average at 16,000 doses a day.
"We have taken action, we expanded our distribution and infrastructure and it is working," Inslee said Monday. "We still have a long way to go, but if Washingtonians have proven anything throughout this pandemic, it is that we are up to the task."
In the region
— Pierce County on Monday announced 198 new cases and three new deaths, including a man in his 70s from Tacoma, a man in his 50s from Central Pierce County, and a woman in her 100s from South Pierce County. Over the weekend, the county also confirmed its first variant of the disease. The county has reported 31,724 cases and 382 deaths total.
— Grays Harbor County reported 2,856 confirmed and probable cases as of Sunday night with 31 deaths.
— Lewis County reported 14 new cases on Monday for a total of 2,778 cases and 34 deaths.
— Mason County reported 29 additional cases on Monday for a total of 1,561 with 19 deaths.
— Pacific County reported a total of 641 cases with eight deaths as of Sunday.
Around the state, nation and world
The state Department of Health has reported 302,141 confirmed and probable cases and 4,148 deaths as of Saturday.
In the U.S., 25.2 million cases had been reported as of Monday with nearly 420,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data.
Globally, 99.6 million cases had been reported and more than 2.1 million people had died as of Monday, the data show.
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