LOCAL NEWS
Washington crests 10,000 total COVID-19 deaths since start of pandemic
Jan 7, 2022, 5:28 PM
Nurse Nick Brideau (L), from the ICU COVID unit, wheels a patient towards Nurse Karen Hayes as the patient is transferred to the acute care COVID unit at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, Washington. (Photo by Karen Ducey/Getty Images)
(Photo by Karen Ducey/Getty Images)
Washington hit a grim milestone on Friday, cresting 10,000 COVID-19 deaths since the start of the pandemic in early 2020.
Common link among children who’ve died of COVID-19 in Washington state
In total, the state reports 10,004 COVID deaths, along with over 820,000 total cases, and 47,062 hospitalizations, with a 1.1% rate of death for those who tested positive for the virus.
The largest portion of deaths comes from King County, which reports nearly 2,200. Despite rapid increases in cases brought on by the omicron variant, deaths in the county have remained relatively steady since November of 2021, averaging between 1-3 a day.
State health leaders continue to emphasize that the best way to avoid a severe case of COVID-19 is to get vaccinated. Around 63% of the state’s total population has been fully vaccinated, as well as 73.8% for those ages 12 and up.
Some counties continue to lag behind in vaccination rates, though. That includes Stevens County, which currently sits at a 33.2% vaccination rate across all demographics, as well as Skamania (37.2%), Ferry (38.7%), Asotin (37.5%), and Pend Oreille (36.7%) counties.
