Clark County recorded 44 new COVID-19 cases and no deaths on Friday, ending the week with the lowest number of deaths in seven days since late October, according to data from Clark County Public Health.
Public Health reported only one death in the seven days ending Friday, down from five last week and the lowest since only one death was reported in the seven days ending Oct. 23. The rate of deaths from COVID-19 surged earlier in the year and peaked in the week ending Feb. 5, with 20 deaths in the seven-day period. To date, there has been 229 deaths reported from COVID-19.
The new cases reported Friday brings the county’s total number of COVID-19 cases to 18,708. There were 241 cases reported in the seven days ending Friday, up from 205 the previous week but lower than the 275 cases in the week before that, according to Public Health data.
The total worked out to an average of about 34 cases per day. Daily case averages peaked at about 180 cases per day in the week ending Jan. 8.
The number of active cases rose to 234 on Friday, up from 217 on Thursday. Active cases track people with COVID-19 who are still in their isolation period, according to Public Health.
Hospitalizations were mostly steady, with 13 people hospitalized with COVID-19 on Friday, the same as Thursday, and six people hospitalized awaiting test results, down from nine on Thursday, according to Public Health data.
Public Health reported that 81.3 percent of the county’s licensed ICU beds were occupied as of Friday, keeping the county below what had been a metric for reopening decisions. The county also reported that 3.3 percent of all licensed hospital beds were occupied by people with or suspected of having COVID-19 on Friday, down from 3.8 percent on Thursday.
The Washington State Department of Health reported that, as of Monday, 83,199 vaccine doses had been administered in Clark County. The state reported that 70,311 Clark County residents — 14.39 percent of the county’s population — had received their first dose and 33,665 Clark County residents — 6.89 percent of the population — had received both doses.
