The rate of COVID-19 activity in Clark County fell to the lowest level on record despite an uptick in new cases and deaths in data reported Thursday by Clark County Public Health.
Disease activity fell to 53.3 new cases per 100,000 population over 14 days, down from a rate of 67.5 last week and below the lowest recorded level of 63.1 on Aug. 31. Clark County began reporting COVID-19 activity rates on July 13, 2020. Data from earlier in the pandemic wasn’t available.
The new low case rate came as Public Health reported 151 new cases and six deaths since the last update July 8.
The six fatalities were two men in their 50s, a man and a woman in their 60s and two women ages 80 or older, all with underlying conditions, according to Public Health data. Two suspect deaths were removed from the county’s total this week, so the total deaths to date rose to 292.
The new cases include 140 that were confirmed with molecular PCR testing, for a total of 24,680 to date, and 11 probable cases diagnosed using antigen testing, for a total of 1,575 to date.
There has been an average of about 22 new cases a day, up from an average of about 20 last week and 13 the week before.
The number of active cases, counting confirmed and probable cases still in isolation, rose to 161, up six from last week.
New hospital admissions rose slightly, with 2.2 new admissions per 100,000 over seven days, from from a rate of 1.8 last week.
Public Health reported that 2.6 percent of the county’s licensed hospital beds were occupied by people with or suspected of having COVID-19, down from 3.6 percent last week. Total ICU bed occupancy rose to 83.3 percent as of Thursday, up from 77.3 percent last week, and total occupancy was mostly steady at 76.4 percent of all licensed beds, down from 76.6 percent last week.
The Washington Department of Health announced Wednesday that the state had achieved its goal of having 70 percent of Washington residents age 16 and older receive at least the first dose of vaccine as of Monday.
In Clark County, 61.7 percent of county residents age 16 or older had one dose and 56.1 percent were fully vaccinated, according to Department of Health data as of Monday. It reported that 60 percent of those age 12 or older had one dose and 54.4 percent were fully vaccinated. Among all residents, 51.1 percent had at least one dose and 46.3 percent were fully vaccinated.
