Richland coronavirus cases jumped 15% in a week. Here’s how each city is doing

New coronavirus cases jumped 15% in Richland over the past week, the largest percentage of any of the three Tri-Cities.

But it still is not close to matching the rate of infection in Pasco, which has the highest rate of COVID-19 cases in the Tri-Cities, according to data released each Tuesday by the Benton Franklin Health District.

The rate of known cases per 10,000 people in Pasco is 82, based on U.S. Census population estimates for 2019. That is up from 74 reported as of May 19.

Kennewick has a rate of 63 cases per 10,000 cases, up from 59.

Richland has a rate of 33 cases per 10,000, up from 29.

In other towns, West Richland’s rate dropped to 31.

Prosser has a particularly large number of known COVID-19 cases for its population, a rate of 122 per 10,000 known cases, up from 92 last week.

Here’s the breakdown by city:

▪ In Pasco, with the second largest population of the Tri-Cities, cases increased 11% over the last week with 60 new cases for a total of 615.

▪ In Kennewick, the largest of the Tri-Cities, cases increased 9% with 42 new cases for a total of 534.

▪ In Richland, there were 25 new cases for a total of 193 cases.

▪ In West Richland there are 31 cases per 10,000 people, a lower rate than Pasco, Kennewick or Richland. It had just two new cases over the last week for a 4% increase to 47 known cases.

▪ In Prosser cases increased over the last week by 34%, with 20 new cases to bring its cases to 78.

▪ In Connell two more cases were reported for a 14% increase to 16 cases.

▪ Eltopia had one more case, an increase of 9% for a total of 12.

Other small communities in Benton and Franklin counties have fewer than 10 cases and data by residence has not been made public to protect the privacy of individuals in small towns.

Tri-Cities jobs

Employment data for the Tri-Cities suggests that Pasco may have a larger percentage of workers who continue to report to work each day doing “essential” jobs, possibly increasing their risk of exposure to the new coronavirus.

According to Washington state data, Pasco has 4,190 people working in agriculture jobs and 3,370 working in manufacturing jobs, which would include food processing jobs.

That compares to just 313 people employed in agriculture jobs and 1,508 employed in manufacturing jobs in Richland, and 1,510 employed in agriculture jobs and 2,659 employed in manufacturing jobs in Kennewick.

Agriculture and food processing jobs are considered essential by the state, and state unemployment data shows a small number of claims for agriculture jobs, in particular.

In Pasco, agriculture work employs more people than any other category of job except educational services.

There also is large variance among the three Tri-Cities for the number of resident employed in the category of scientific, management, administrative and waste management.

Some employers who have many employees in those categories — Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and Hanford — have had the majority of employees teleworking to help control the spread of the new coronavirus.

Pasco has 3,728 people with jobs in that category, Kennewick has 4,572 and Richland has 6,075.

COVID-19 deaths

Although known cases are higher in Pasco than Kennewick or Richland, the opposite appears to be true for deaths from complications of COVID-19.

Franklin County, where Pasco is its largest city, has had 17 deaths linked to COVID-19, according to the Benton Franklin Health District.

Benton County — where Kennewick and Richland are the largest cities — has had 64 deaths.

The local health district has said that part of the difference is linked to Kennewick and Richland having the majority of the retirement communities and long-term care homes in the Tri-Cities.

About 70 percent of deaths in the Tri-Cities have been linked to facilities for seniors.

The health district has reported 1,560 known cases of COVID-19 in the two counties as of Tuesday.

This story was originally published May 27, 2020 at 2:18 PM.