Deadliest week yet for coronavirus in Tri-Cities area

Last week was the deadliest to date for COVID-19 in the Tri-Cities.

Fourteen people died from complications of the disease caused by the new coronavirus.

The total number of Tri-Cities area deaths since the start of the outbreak is now 64, says the Benton Franklin Health District.

There have been other bad weeks.

Thirteen people died the second week of April and 10 more the week after.

All but three of the 64 deaths have been in people with underlying health conditions that may have contributed to the seriousness of their illness, said Rick Dawson a senior manager for the local health district. Conditions include asthma and diabetes.

“That’s the groups we want to protect,” he said. “But you really do not know who that is, who has that underlying health condition that makes them more at risk, so we need to protect everyone.”

In the past week, 190 new COVID-19 cases were reported. As of Saturday, 1,206 people in the Tri-Cities area have tested positive, say health officials.

The 26 new cases reported Saturday accounted for a 2% daily increase.

Path to economic recovery

They are not the numbers that the Benton Franklin Health District says are needed to safely return to more normal living, including having all businesses open.

To ensure a safer widespread reopening of the local economy:

▪ There needs to be a downward trend in COVID-19 cases that shows a consistent decrease in the number of new cases over a few weeks, Dawson said.

That would indicate the Tri-Cities area is controlling spread of the illness.

“Are we there yet? We are not,” Dawson said.

In March each person who contracted the illness was believed to spread it on average to three more people in the state, according to information Gov. Jay Inslee shared Friday from the Institute for Disease Modeling.

Western Washington brought its spread rate down to below an average of less than one other person infected by each newly ill person by mid April.

But in Eastern Washington the average number has remained above one new COVID-19 case spread by each ill person.

And among the hardest hit counties in Eastern Washington based on number of deaths or cases per population are Benton, Franklin and Yakima counties, where the average may be higher.

The rate at which the infection is spreading has gone up slightly in both Eastern and Western Washington in recent weeks.

▪ More testing must be available, Dawson said.

The tight supply of swabs and other products needed to test patients is gradually easing, but is not yet at optimal levels, he said.

Test results also must be available in less than 48 hours to be followed by health district contact tracing in less than 24 hours to quickly limit the spread of the new coronavirus, he said.

Health district workers figure out who a newly ill person may have been in close contact with and notify those people so they can go into self isolation in case they were infected.

▪ There must be an adequate supply of personal protective equipment, such as appropriate masks, for those who care for patients in hospitals, long-term care homes and as emergency responders, Dawson said.

“All of those people need to have an adequate, stable, steady, supply of PPE and at this point we’re not quite there,” he said. “We are still struggling.”

The local supply has improved but still has to be supplemented with supplies from state and federal stockpiles, he said.

▪ Hospital admissions for COVID-19 need to be stable or going down to ensure cases can be managed without stress on hospital systems.

On Saturday there were 41 patients with confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19 at Benton and Franklin county hospitals, among the highest number reported in recent weeks.

They accounted for 15% of the cases at hospitals in Richland, Kennewick, Pasco and Prosser.

Benton and Franklin counties are not eligible for early reopening of some businesses June 1.

The option is open only to counties with fewer people and with low COVID-19 case counts.

Among the five counties that have been approved is Columbia County in the Mid-Columbia. As of June 1 retail stores there can open for in-store purchases and restaurants can open at 50 percent capacity.

Coronavirus updates

In other Benton Franklin COVID-19 news, the Tree Top juice plant in Prosser closed on Tuesday after one of about 105 workers tested positive for COVID-19.

The plant is being sanitized and is expected to reopen on Monday.

The count of the Tyson Fresh Meats plant employees working at the Wallula plant and living in the Tri-Cities area who have been infected with the new coronavirus was reduced by two to 248 on Saturday.

Public health officials have been verifying numbers, including making sure that workers are not counted twice if they were tested at the plant and also by their own health care provider.

The number of cases in healthcare workers providing patient care or exposed to bodily fluids is 170 and the number of cases in staff or residents at nursing homes is 274, both totals unchanged on Saturday.

Some 45 of the 64 deaths, or 70%, are associated with long-term care facilities, such as nursing homes, or retirement communities in Benton or Franklin counties.

Deaths are fairly evenly split between men and women, with just under 52% of deaths in men.

The local health district uses death certificates to verify the cause or contributing causes of deaths, with that work not usually being done on the weekend.

Most people who have died have had risk factors for severe illnesses, including being both 60 or older and also having underlying health conditions, which can include asthma, diabetes, liver disease, obesity and heart conditions.

But among the deaths last week were the fourth Tri-Cities area person in their 50s to die and the third person to die who had no underlying health conditions.

The breakdown of COVID-19 cases between Benton and Franklin counties as of Saturday was 695 cases in Benton County and 513 in Franklin County workers.

More than 80 percent of cases have been confirmed by testing and the remainder have no test results available but were cases with symptoms and close contact with a person who tested positive.

The local health district is not tracking the number of recovered cases, the condition of hospital patients or how many are in intensive care units.

Instead, it is focusing much of staff efforts, with the help of volunteers, on tracking close contacts of people diagnosed with COVID-19 to prevent the spread of the disease.

This story was originally published May 9, 2020 at 1:32 PM.