Clark County reported nine more deaths from COVID-19 and 811 new cases, as cases accelerated and deaths declined over the last week.
The deaths include one woman in her 30s, one man in his 50s, one man in his 60s, one man and four women in their 70s and one woman age 80 or older, according to information released Thursday by Clark County Public Health.
The nine latest deaths are half the total reported last week, which was the most since mid-October, according to Public Health.
To date, 588 people have died from COVID-19 in Clark County. Deaths are added to the county’s total 10 to 12 days after they occur.
The decrease in deaths came as the number of new cases increased, with 747 cases confirmed by molecular testing, for 42,489 to date, and 64 diagnosed using antigen testing, for 5,017. Combined, the new cases work out to an average of about 116 new cases per day, up from about 94 new cases per day last week.
The number of active cases still in their isolation period increased to 886 this week, up from 702 last week, according to Public Health.
The COVID-19 activity rate, which measures new cases per 100,000 population over 14 days, decreased from 273.6 per 100,000 last week to 263.2 as of Thursday. Any rate higher than 200 is considered high by health officials.
The rate of new hospital admissions increased slightly this week, rising to 7.2 per 100,000 residents over seven days, up from 6.4 last week, according to Public Health data.
As of Tuesday, 92.5 percent of Clark County’s hospital beds and 91.3 percent of its ICU beds were occupied. Hospitals reported that 53 beds – accounting for 9.7 percent of total beds and 17.4 percent of ICU beds – were occupied by people with or suspected of having COVID-19.
The Washington Department of Health reported that as of Thursday, 67 percent of Clark County residents age 12 or older were fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
