Most Tri-Cities hospital ICU beds are full. Many new COVID cases, 1 death

The Tri-Cities hospitals have come close to maxing out their intensive care unit capacity in recent days with COVID-19 and other patients, according to the Benton Franklin Health District.

The increased demand on hospitals with the jump in confirmed cases of COVID-19 is the biggest concern of public health officials for the community, said Dr. Amy Person, the health officer for the two counties, at a Thursday press briefing.

On Thursday, 76 people were hospitalized in Benton and Franklin counties for treatment of confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19, the highest one-day number yet.

One death was reported Thursday by the local health district, bringing the total deaths from complications of COVID-19 in the two counties to 95.

There were 65 more confirmed cases reported overnight, bringing the total COVID-19 cases for the Tri-Cities area to 2,345.

Patients being treated in area hospitals for COVID-19 have almost doubled in recent weeks, said Dr. Person.

“Our hospitals are doing well managing these patients now but they are not going to be able to continue to manage doubling of patients every couple weeks,” she said.

People are not being hospitalized just because they have COVID-19, she said.

“These are people who are sick enough to require hospital services and they are needing to require long stays in the hospital,” she said.

More younger people are being infected now than earlier in the pandemic in the Tri-Cities area and hospitals also are treating more younger patients, said Rick Dawson, a senior manager for the local health district.

About 9% of Benton County residents hospitalized for a confirmed case of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic are under 40.

For Franklin County residents, the percentage of is 17%.

COVID transmission

The community needs to take steps to stop transmitting the infection to one another, Dr. Person said.

Essential workers need to stay home when they are sick. Anyone who feels sick needs to be tested. And anyone in public near other people needs to wear a face mask, she said.

“That is going to stop you from transmitting infection to others,” she said. “It is not going to be 100%. There is not one thing that any of us can do that is going to be 100%.”

But everyone working to contain the spread of the infection can bring the infection rate down, she said.

“Our infection rates are increasing. How fast they are increasing has really started to go up over the last few weeks,” she said.

In April the Tri-Cities area was reporting 10 to 20 cases per day with the count sometimes reaching the 40s, Dawson said.

In May that increased to 30 to 40 per day.

This week there was one day with 114 new confirmed cases reported, he said.

Individual behavior appears to be driving the increase, he said.

There have been social gatherings, protests, political rallies, barbecues, volleyball tournaments and parks full of large gatherings, Dawson said.

Public health officials also see cases in essential businesses, whether food processing or grocery stores, he said.

“It is telling us that our case count and our infection rate is being driven by a large variety of exposures and the best we can do is try to limit those exposures and protect ourselves,” he said.

Public health officials also are concerned as more businesses reopen, as the two counties remain in Phase 1 of reopening.

The state Department of Health has put the counties’ applications to move to Phase 2 on pause.

The state has had some phone calls with local health officials and requested more information, but another formal meeting between state and local officials has not been scheduled to the knowledge of local health district officials.

Testing to increase

The state has set a reopening target of no more than 50 cases total over two weeks in Benton County and no more than 24 in Franklin County.

The new cases reported on Thursday included 29 in Benton County for a total of 1,266 there since the start of the pandemic. There were 36 new confirmed cased in Franklin County reported Thursday for a total of 1,079.

State health officials also want to see more testing for COVID-19, and helped arrange for Washington National Guard teams to begin drive-thru testing in Pasco and Kennewick this week.

The testing at the two sites should ramp up to a total of 240 tests done a day, Dawson said. The first test results from the drive-thru testing are not expected to be available for at least two more days.

Appointments for the drive-thru testing are required by calling 211 or 877-211-5445 during business hours weekdays.

More testing also should help increase the percentage of tests that are negative, which state health officials also want to see as they consider allowing Benton and Franklin counties to reopen more businesses and allow some small gatherings.

Benton, Franklin and Yakima counties are the only ones in the state that have not moved to Phase 1.5, Phase 2 or Phase 3 of reopening.

Abut 17 percent of Benton County test results are positive and 28% to 29% of Franklin County test results are positive.

“Both of those numbers are highly concerning to us because that is a very, very high infection rate,” Dawson said.

The data comes from the state Department of Health. Dawson cautioned that the state has not been able to assign nearly a quarter of negative case results to a county, which has increased the ratio of positive to known negative cases.

Deaths, cases

The death reported on Wednesday was a Franklin County woman in her 50s with underlying health conditions, according to the Benton Franklin Health District.

There have now been 73 deaths in Benton County caused by COVID-19 and 22 in Franklin County.

In Franklin County 15% of deaths have been in people younger than 60 and in Benton County 1% of deaths have been in people younger than 60.

The local health district confirms deaths by checking for a positive test result and information on the death certificate that shows that infection with the coronavirus was the primary cause of death.

In Benton County those most likely to have been diagnosed with COVID-19 are people ages 20-39. They account for 36% of cases, and 29% of cases are ages 40-59.

In Franklin County those ages 20-39 account for 36% of patients, and 38% are ages 40 to 59.

The 76 people hospitalized in the two counties for COVID-19 treatment accounted for nearly 21% of hospitalized patients in Richland, Kennewick, Pasco and Prosser.

The Washington state Department of Health reports 177 Benton County residents have been hospitalized with confirmed COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic and 111 Franklin County residents have been hospitalized, for a total of 288 for both counties.

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