22 Tri-Cities area coronavirus deaths reported. Plus, the scramble for supplies continues

Another death was reported from complications of COVID-19 in the Tri-Cities area on Wednesday, bringing the total of known deaths in the area to 22.

The latest case was a Benton County woman in her 70s. Hers was the 20th death in Benton County and there were two in Franklin County.

The total deaths now include five people who were in their 90s, eight in their 80s, five in their 70s and four in their 60s.

As of Tuesday, Benton County had the fourth highest number of deaths in the state, with at least two-thirds of them linked to retirement or long-term care centers. Wednesday statewide counts were not yet available from the Washington state Department of Health.

The Benton Franklin Health District has linked the high number of deaths locally to outbreaks in retirement and nursing homes.

The number of known cases in the two counties increased 6 percent to 343 on Wednesday, up from 324 on Tuesday.

Benton County had 240 cases and Franklin County had 103 cases, according to the Wednesday report.

Benton County cases include 190 confirmed by testing for the new coronavirus and 50 additional probable cases for which testing was not done, but people developed symptoms after close contact with a person who tested positive.

Franklin County cases include 73 confirmed by testing and 30 additional probable cases.

Benton Franklin Health District has been reporting probable cases because of a shortage of supplies to test patients for COVID-19 in the Tri-Cities area, causing an inaccurate picture of the number of cases.

Cases by age

The largest number of positive cases in the two counties are in people older than 80, with 59 cases. Other adult cases ranged from 27 cases for people ages 71-80 to 57 cases in people ages 31-40 in the two counties. There have been 30 cases in people 20 and younger.

The local health district is no longer reporting the number of negative cases, which is data it had received from the Washington state Department of Health. The state is not currently compiling that data.

The number of known cases in healthcare workers increased from 72 on Tuesday to 83 by Wednesday.

The number of retirement or long-term care homes, such as nursing homes, with COVID-19 cases in residents and staff remained at six, on Wednesday, all of them in Benton County.

The cases at the homes increased from 109 on Tuesday to 129 on Wednesday, an increase of 18 percent.

Regency Canyon Lakes of Kennewick had 49 cases and Life Care Center of Richland had 56 cases. Both are nursing homes, providing long-term care to some of the area’s must vulnerable residents.

Bonaventure Senior Living of Richland had 13 cases, Solstice Senior Living of Kennewick had eight cases, Affinity at Southridge in Kennewick had two cases and Parkview Estates in Kennewick had one case.

All the homes but Affinity at Southridge and Parkview Estates also have additional suspected cases, according to the Benton Franklin Health District.

As of April 5, the state had identified 126 long-term care facilities around Washington with residents who were infected with COVID-19.

In the Tri-Cities, nursing homes and other facilities with elderly residents are being given priority for still limited tests for the new coronavirus.

Testing supplies

Adequate supplies to collect samples from patients for tests for infection with the new coronavirus has been an issue not only for the Tri-Cities, but statewide.

But Dr. Kathy Lofy, the state health officer, said the state on Tuesday had obtained “tens of thousands” of test kits.

“We are going to be deploying a lot of these test kits to our local health jurisdictions to help with a lot of the testing that needs to happen within congregate care settings,” she said.

The state has a sufficient number of ventilators to treat COVID-19 patients, said Dr. Raquel Bono, director of Washington state’s COVID-19 Health System Response Management.

Before making the decision to return 400 ventilators to the federal Strategic National Stockpile, the state determined it had 1,000 ventilators and 500 more that could be used from ambulatory surgery centers if needed, Bono said.

“At the same time, we had already initiated our procurement for about 354 ventilators and an additional 800 ventilators. The delivery of those are expected in the next couple of weeks,” she said.

The Tri-Cities area has an adequate supply now of ventilators for seriously ill COVID-19 patients, according to the Benton Franklin Health District.

If more are needed, they may be shipped in from other areas of the state, where COVID-19 cases are expected to peak earlier than in the Tri-Cities.

Masks, gloves, gowns

The demand for personal protective equipment for health care workers — N95 respirators, surgical masks, face shields, surgical gowns and gloves — exceeds supply, said John Wiesman, the state Secretary of Health.

The state recently sent 24,000 surgical masks, 1,400 gowns and 1,200 N95 respirator masks to Benton and Franklin counties to be distributed to hospital employees and first responders, said Deanna Davis, emergency manager of Benton County Emergency Services.

However, that supply may only last for a few days, she said.

The public continues to be asked to donate supplies, with the need greatest for masks and face shields, she said.

They can be dropped off at Franklin County Emergency Management, 1011 E. Ainsworth St., Pasco. It has been open 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. or people may call 509-545-3546 to arrange a time to drop off donations.

The state is using several strategies to reduce the demand for personal protective equipment, including Inslee’s order to halt elective surgeries and dental services, encourage the use of telemedicine, and discarding N95 respirators or surgical masks when they become soiled, Wiesman said.

“Standard practice would be changing them after each patient encounter,” he said.

Wiesman offered a snapshot at Washington’s supply of personal protective equipment and its procurement effort, which has involved looking for supplies from around the world.

More supplies ordered

Of the 6 million personal protective equipment items that the state has received, 591,720 were donated and 1,526,438 were from the federal Strategic National Stockpile, Wiesman said.

“The stock we have is intended to fill the gaps that the health care providers themselves can’t get through their supply chain or the pieces of [personal protective equipment] that the state needs for its work,” he said.

The state has 31.6 million N95 masks and 33 million surgical masks on order, he said.

“We are targeting orders for 6 million N95 masks, 24 million surgical masks, 18 million gowns, and 108 million gloves per week for 12 weeks. In order to tap into many of the supply chains out there, we needed to commit to a set order every week through June.

“That really is how competitive right now the market is for these products,” Wiesman added.

Since March 16, the state has shipped to health care providers 2.2 million items, including 393,794 N95 respirators, 664,600 surgical masks, 873,690 gloves and 67,610 face shields.

Wiesman said in the state warehouse, there are 3.8 million items that are being processed for shipment from Monday through Wednesday, including about 554,000 N95 masks and 782,000 surgical masks.

“The N95 masks are being prioritized for our hospitals and the surgical masks for our long-term care facilities,” he said.

Gov. Jay Inslee’s chief of staff, David Postman, said the governor issued a directive on April 2 to the heads of the state Department of Enterprise Services — the state’s purchasing agency — and the Emergency Management Division on procurement of personal protective equipment.

The directive states: “DES is authorized to take appropriate risks in fulfilling these emergency procurement goals that would not otherwise be acceptable outside this emergency.”

“Frankly, there are some scams around [personal protective equipment] flying around. We’re working very hard to vet those, but the governor also wanted people to understand that in an emergency situation, we may not be able to do everything exactly how it happens in the quiet of the regular turn of business,” Postman said.

Masks recommended

The Benton Franklin Health District is recommending that residents of the two counties cover their nose and mouth when they are in public and continue to maintain a 6-foot distance at all times from other people.

It’s recommended homemade cloth masks, masks made from vacuum cleaner bags and scarfs, but not surgical and N95 respirator masks that are in short supply for healthcare workers.

Some Tri-Cities residents are getting creative as they look for ways to keep their faces covered in public.

Gary Spaulding, of Kennewick, has tried a hoodie worn backward. He folds the top of the hood into a triangle that can be secured with a large rubber band or the hood’s ties, he said. He links the rubber bands from his morning newspaper together and fastens them behind his ears.

This story was originally published April 8, 2020 at 1:26 PM.