Tri-Cities death toll reaches 96. COVID cases spike again, fueling Father’s Day worries

The Tri-Cities area had another large spike in confirmed COVID-19 cases announced Friday — 107 more cases.

It nearly rivaled the worst day to date for new cases. On Tuesday 114 new confirmed cases were reported.

Last month the Tri-Cities was seeing new cases in the 30s or 40s daily, according to the health district.

The increase comes as the Tri-Cities area needs to reduce the transmission of the coronavirus to show the state Department of Health that it can safely reopen more businesses.

It also comes just before Father’s Day, when area residents may be tempted to ignore bans on gatherings in the Tri-Cities and recommendations that people maintain six feet of distance from nonhousehold members.

One more person in the Tri-Cities area has died from complications of COVID-19, bringing total deaths since the start of the pandemic to 96, the Benton Franklin Health District also announced on Friday.

The most recent death was a Franklin County man in his 50s with underlying health conditions.

Hospitalizations also remain high, indicating that the new cases are the result of more than testing restrictions starting to ease.

The number of hospitalized patients with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 remains near the high of 76 reported on Thursday. It dropped by one to 75 on Friday.

Statewide 242 patients are hospitalized with confirmed cases of COVID-19.

The Benton Franklin Health District said hospitals were near capacity for intensive care unit beds this week, with the units caring for COVID-19 patients and others.

The lack of beds caused at least one person injured in an accident in the Tri-Cities to be flown out-of-town by air ambulance to an available ICU bed in Spokane.

Cases by city

The new case numbers break down to 59 new cases confirmed in Benton County residents and 48 new cases in Franklin County residents.

The total cases since the start of the pandemic is 2,452 in Benton and Franklin Counties, including 1,325 in Benton County and 1,127 in Franklin County.

In Pasco, the second-largest of the Tri-Cities, the number of confirmed cases since the start of the pandemic topped 1,000 on Friday. The health district reported 979 cases on Thursday, increasing to 1,025 on Friday.

In Kennewick, the largest town, confirmed cases increased from 738 on Thursday to 772.

Richland had nine new cases for a total of 260, West Richland had four new cases for a total of 63 and Prosser had 10 new cases for a total of 160.

Previously, the local health district released case information by city only once a week, but has started releasing the information weekdays.

Reopening on pause

The Tri-Cities area continues to wait to hear if it may reopen more businesses and allow small gatherings.

Benton and Franklin counties applied to move to Phase 2 of reopening last week, but the state Department of Health put its application on pause.

The only other county in the state that has not advanced to Phase 1.5, Phase 2 or Phase 3 is Yakima County. King County, home of Seattle, was approved on Friday to move to Phase 2.

State health officials want to allow some time to show that steps the Tri-Cities counties said they would take will slow the spread of the coronavirus before they make a decision on the local applications, said Heather Hill, the communicable disease programs supervisor for the local health district, in the Kadlec on Call podcast.

Among changes is an order from the bicounty health officer requiring that most people wear masks in public if they cannot maintain six feet of distance from nonhousehold members.

The increase in cases coincides with people spending less time at home, say local public health officials.

People who have symptoms or took part in recent gatherings where they could not maintain six feet of distance from others should get tested, according to the Benton Franklin Health District.

Symptoms include fever or chills, cough, shortness of breath, difficulty breathing, fatigue, muscle or body aches, loss of taste or smell, sore throat, congestion or runny nose, nausea or vomiting, or diarrhea.

“A lot of us aren’t in the habit of calling the doctor when we have a cough or mild symptoms,” said Dr. Amy Person, health officer for the Benton Franklin Health District.

But now people with even mild symptoms are advised to contact their health care provider to discuss testing for COVID-19.

Testing is now more widely available.

Testing available

Earlier this spring, the laboratory testing capacity and supplies for collecting and transporting samples to a laboratory were so limited in the Tri-Cities area that only the very sickest people could be tested.

Now more labs are doing testing and supplies are more readily available.

Free drive-thru testing by members of the Washington National Guard started Wednesday at the Toyota Center in Kennewick and the HAPO Center, formerly TRAC, in Pasco. The first test results from the 162 people tested that day were not expected by Friday.

Testing is expected to ramp up to cover 240 people a day total at both sites.

It is available Tuesday through Saturday, but only by appointment. Call 211 or 877-211-5445 to make an appointment for up to two people per car.

Anyone can sign up for testing, but those who may have been exposed to the coronavirus or who have symptoms are particularly urged to take advantage of the free testing.

As cases have increased, the Benton Franklin Health District has been unable to contact each person who tests positive within 24 hours as it was typically doing earlier.

The increase in testing due to drive-thru service will further increase the case load for staff.

State help for Tri-Cities

The local district announced Friday that the Washington state Department of Health will step in to help contact people newly diagnosed with COVID-19 and those they might have exposed.

“We requested help from DOH with contact tracing to allow us to get caught up, train new staff and volunteers, and allow more staff to focus on outreach and outbreak mitigation,” said Rick Dawson, a senior manager for the local health district.

Now district employees and trained volunteers conduct “contact tracing” by telephone, interviewing each person who tests positive to try to determine how they may have been exposed to the coronavirus and to determine who they might have infected.

Those people are then contacted and asked to self-quarantine for two weeks to make sure they do not expose others if they have been infected. People can infect others before symptoms develop and in some cases when they don’t develop any symptoms.

The state has set a reopening target requiring 90% of people who test positive to be contacted within 24 hours and 80% of their close contacts within 48 hours.

Assistance from the state agency should help Benton and Franklin counties to meet state reopening targets for contact tracing, Dawson said.

Contact tracing is not new to the Tri-Cities, just the scale at which it must be done is new.

People who test positive for illnesses like measles, mumps, legionella and E. coli have long been contacted by telephone to help determine how they might have been exposed to the illness and who they might have exposed.

During the coronavirus pandemic, contact tracing in the Tri-Cities has helped identify COVID-19 outbreaks in long-term care facilities and in workplaces, including food processing plants.

This story was originally published June 19, 2020 at 2:23 PM.