Pierce County COVID-19 data update: Outbreaks in businesses and schools

Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department press release.

This week, you will see a shift in where outbreaks happened within schools. The number from sports grew a little, while the number from classrooms grew more. That shifted the ratio of outbreak-related cases and what we know right now:

• Classroom: 44%.
• Sports: 30%.
• Other: 25%.
• Transportation: 1%.

Every family is different, and you’ll make the right decision for yours. We certainly do for ours! For instance, our data manager has 2 kids who play sports. She weighed the benefits of sports against the risks of COVID-19 and the hard work schools are doing to keep student-athletes safe. She talked about her decision to let her kids participate. 

We work hard to bring you the most current reliable data. We know it will change over time, but that’s a good thing—it helps our understanding grow!

We’re reporting 50 new outbreaks. Nearly 75% happened mostly in class. And 82% of classroom outbreaks were in elementary schools. The remaining were mostly in middle and high schools and usually sports related.

Lots of things can contribute to those numbers in elementary school. Kids 5-11 are by far the least-vaccinated age group in Pierce County. Vaccines remain the best defense we have against COVID-19!

Business outbreaks were higher this week.

• Businesses and long-term care facilities had 221 outbreaks with 3,151 cases. Outbreaks increased 27% from last week. Cases associated with outbreaks increased by 25%.
• We named 11 new locations with larger outbreaks (10 or more active cases) from last week.
• Outbreaks in schools increased from 11 last week to 50 this week, with 241 related cases.

Learn about outbreak definitions and find more data in the Outbreaks section at tpchd.org/covid19cases.

Find more information on:

• Case counts, hospitalizations, vaccination and other metrics.
• COVID-19 vaccines.
• Getting a COVID-19 test.
• Childcare and schools.