Thurston County Public Health and Social Services reported new COVID-19 infections in Thurston County decreased to 230 during the week of April 19-25 bringing the running total for infections throughout the pandemic in the county to 8,609 as of press deadline on Tuesday, April 27.

The number is down from the previous week, which showed 277 new cases. By comparison, the highest number of new cases reported in a single week was 485 during the week of Dec. 7-13, 2020.

One new death was reported on April 19 — a man in his 60s. This brings Thurston County’s total deaths to 78. The percent of those infected with COVID-19 who have died stands at 1 percent for the county, according to the Washington State Department of Health (DOH).

Out of the 8,609 total county cases reported during the week of April 19-25, patients who have recovered or are recovering have remained at 7,879, in step with the previous week, according to reports from Thurston County Public Health and Social Services.

Since last reported on April 22, there have been 61 new hospitalizations in Thurston County, bringing the total number since the start of the pandemic to 539 as of press deadline, according to the DOH.

Health care workers have been hard at work, administering a total of 193,877 vaccine doses countywide since the beginning of the pandemic, according to the DOH. That’s 26,061 new doses in one week, between press deadlines on April 22 and on April 27.

In neighboring Pierce County, four new deaths and 242.1 new cases per 100,000 population have been reported during the 14-day period between April 5-19, according to the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department. The total number of cases in the county has climbed to 43,572 with 525 total deaths.

In Washington state, as of April 25, there were 368,557 total confirmed cases of COVID-19, with 28,860 probable cases. A total of 21,950 people have been hospitalized due to the illness, and 5,450 people have died, according to the DOH. The statewide rate of those who have died after contracting the virus stands at 1.4 percent. And 5,157,791 vaccine doses have been administered in the state.

Nationwide, as of press deadline, there were 31,883,287 cases, 569,272 confirmed deaths and 231 million doses of vaccines administered, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. New cases are on a downward trend over the last 30 days — especially in the last week — but deaths have appeared to have plateaued, CDC graphs indicated.