Tri-Cities coronavirus deaths jump to 27. More cases in nursing homes, health workers

Five more deaths from complications of COVID-19 were reported in the Tri-Cities area on Thursday, bringing the local death toll from the disease to 27.

Cases also increased significantly, with the Benton Franklin Health District reporting that additional information was received that connected previously suspected cases with lab-confirmed cases.

The number of known cases in the two counties jumped from 343 on Wednesday to 408 on Thursday, an increase of about 19 percent.

The number of cases at Life Care Center in Richland, a nursing home, increased from 56 to 84 on Wednesday, with the total including both staff and residents who are believed to have been infected with the new coronavirus.

It was part of an increase in known cases linked to long term care and retirement homes of 23 percent in 24 hours.

A significant number of the cases in the Tri-Cities area are in senior living and long-term care centers, said Heather Hill, the communicable disease programs supervisor for the local health district, said during a live talk show Wednesday night for Kadlec.

“Anytime you get this (elderly) population living close together, a virus like this can enter that population and be quite devastating,” she said. “And unfortunately that is what is happening in our community.”

As of Wednesday 35 percent of COVID-19 cases in Washington state were in people 60 and older, but the majority of deaths have been in that older age group, she said.

Statistics show that most younger people who do not have pre-existing health conditions may weather a new coronavirus infection much better than the older population, she said.

Cases, deaths by county

The deaths announced Thursday were all in Benton County.

They included two women and a man in their 90s, a man in his 80s and a man in his 60s.

Only two of the 27 deaths in the two counties were in Franklin County.

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

As of Wednesday, the latest Washington state data available, only three counties in the state had more deaths then than Benton County from complications of COVID-19. They were King with 242 deaths, Snohomish with 62 and Whatcom with 20.

The case total for the two local counties on Thursday included 283 in Benton County and 125 in Franklin County.

Benton County cases include 215 confirmed by testing for the new coronavirus and 68 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 86 confirmed by testing and 39 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.

The number of known cases in healthcare workers increased from 83 on Wednesday to 93 on Thursday, an increase of 12 percent.

The health district has not released information on where those cases are among hospitals, clinics and long term care homes.

Nursing home cases

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 Thursday, all of them in Benton County.

But the number of cases in the homes was up from 129 on Wednesday to 159 on Thursday, an increase of 23 percent.

Life Care Center of Richland appeared to have the worst outbreak with 84 cases, followed by Regency Canyon Lakes in Kennewick with 50 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 three 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.

Despite the heavy toll of the new coronavirus on the Tri-Cities area on Thursday, Dr. Brian York, an infectious disease specialist for Kadlec clinics in the Tri-Cities, says more is known about the virus now, with improvements in testing and possible treatments coming.

Testing improvements

Kadlec would like to participate in trials of experimental drugs, and some treatments that have shown promise should be available eventually to prescribe not only to some of the sickest hospitalized patients but also some patients who are not hospitalized but are at high risk of serious complications, he said.

A shortage of testing supplies continued to be an issue in the Tri-Cities, but Kadlec has received some testing kits that it can use to check patients for the new coronavirus at its own laboratories, rather than sending them away for analysis.

Kadlec should start using the kits at the end of the week, but York warned that the manufacturer has been unable to meet demand and Kadlec has only a limited number.

Results for analysis of test samples that are not done locally usually are not available for three to four days, he said.

Other new coronavirus testing methods, with results available in five to 15 minutes could be available early next week, he said.

With limited testing supplies available, the testing focus continues to be on patients admitted to the hospital, certain patients at high risk of serious complications who are treated at clinics, and health care workers who need to be tested for the safety of patients.

York is hoping that in the next several weeks new coronavirus test kits will be more widely available, allowing for expanded testing.

The limited testing being done so far in the Tri-Cities area creates a false picture of the pandemic locally, he said.

It keeps the number of known cases artificially low, which may create a false sense of security. At the same time it can make COVID-19 look more severe that it is when the number of deaths are compared to the number of known cases.

York also is looking forward in the coming months to antibody tests, which will show which people may have already been exposed to COVID-19 but had no symptoms or only very mild symptoms.

He suspects that a large number of people may have developed immunity to the new coronavirus.

No coronavirus peak forecast

Tri-Cities health professionals say there is not enough information yet to predict when COVID-19 cases could peak in the Tri-Cities.

Some health officials have said that cases in parts of Western Washington may be peaking now, but Washington state Department of Health officials say they need to see a few more weeks of data to confirm that.

The most reliable computer models of the new coronavirus pandemic are lowering their predictions of hospitalization, intensive care admissions and ventilator use, York said.

But those projections reflect continued social distancing and other precautions to help prevent the spread of COVID-19, he said.

The Benton Franklin Health District recommends people stay six feet away from others in public, wear face coverings, not touch their faces, and frequently and thoroughly wash their hands.

“We’re going to need to continue all of these practices because the virus is not going away in the next few weeks or, for that matter, the next few months,” Hill said.

“We need to understand this is likely to be our new norm,” she said.

This story was originally published April 9, 2020 at 1:44 PM.