Clark County reported five new deaths from COVID-19 on Tuesday as a decline in new cases pushed down the county’s official COVID-19 activity rate.
The deaths reported Tuesday were a woman in her 40s and two men in their 70s, unknown if they had underlying conditions; a woman in her 70s with underlying conditions; and a man age 80 or older with underlying conditions, according to Clark County Public Health.
The deaths bring the number of people killed by COVID-19 to 175 to date, according to Public Health data. Nine deaths have been reported since Friday. Clark County has averaged about six deaths per week for the previous three weeks.
Public Health reported 82 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday pushing down the average cases this week to about 97 new cases per day. There have been 16,584 COVID-19 cases reported since early March.
The COVID-19 activity level, which measures the number of new cases per 100,000 population over 14 days, fell to 401.23 this week, down from 473.69 the week before, according to Public Health data. The rate would need to fall below 350 new cases per 100,000 before the county could move out of the “high” into the “moderate” range for school reopening guidance.
There were 690 active COVID-19 cases as of Tuesday, counting people who were still in their isolation period, down from 709 the day before, according to Public Health data.
Hospitalizations remain relatively flat, with 53 people hospitalized with COVID-19 in Clark County, down from 55 on Monday, and 13 people hospitalized awaiting test results, up from five on Monday, according to Public Health data.
Data on COVID-19 testing that showed the spike in infections starting around the beginning of the year, with a 14.28 percent positivity rate from Dec. 27 through Jan. 2, indicated positivity rates were beginning to fall, to 12.47 percent, the week of Jan. 3-9, according to Public Health data.
Clark County COVID-19 testing
| Date range |
Positive tests |
Total tests |
Percent positive |
| To date* |
14,612 |
253,956 |
5.75% |
| Nov. 29-Dec. 5 |
1,072 |
10,428 |
10.28% |
| Dec. 6-12 |
974 |
10,785 |
9.03% |
| Dec. 13-19 |
842 |
9,692 |
8.69% |
| Dec. 20-26 |
679 |
7,346 |
9.24% |
| Dec. 27-Jan. 2 |
1,126 |
8,524 |
13.21% |
| Jan. 3-9 |
1,171 |
9,390 |
12.47% |
Updated Jan. 26.
The rate calculated by Public Health may differ from the rate calculated by the Washington State Department of Health, due to delays in data reporting.
Public Health data is the most up to date and will be used by Public Health and Clark County school districts when making decisions about schools.
