Mask up, beg Tri-Cities leaders as coronavirus cases grow at alarming rate

It took two months for the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the Tri-Cities area to reach 1,000, but only about another month for cases to reach 2,000.

“Our infection rates are rising, and the rate at which they are rising continues to go up as well,” said Dr. Amy Person, the health officer for Benton and Franklin counties, at a Monday afternoon news conference.

She was joined by two local county commissioners, who urged area residents to mask up, both for the protection of others and to help local businesses on the brink of financial disaster.

New cases in the two counties have averaged 91 confirmed cases a day for the seven days before the news conference.

However, Tuesday new confirmed cases dropped to 44 — with 26 in Benton County and 18 in Franklin County — for a total of 2,795 for both counties. No new deaths from complications of COVID-19 were reported on Tuesday, leaving the total at 97.

Some of the new cases are the result of free drive-thru testing newly available in Kennewick and Pasco, she said. Call 211 for an appointment and more information.

But the majority of new cases are not because of increased testing, she said.

If it was testing that was driving most of the increase, the number of patients hospitalized in the two counties would not have doubled in a couple of weeks, she said.

On Tuesday, 78 people were reported hospitalized in the two counties for treatment of confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19, up from a previous high of 76 on June 18.

They account for about 25% of patients in hospitals in Richland, Kennewick, Pasco and Prosser, the highest percentage yet.

“Infections are everywhere in the bicounty area,” Dr. Person said.

“We can either pull together and all of us do what we need to do as individuals, as businesses, as leaders, as a community to get through this or we can continue to pick at each other and argue and try to prove each other wrong,” Dr. Person said.

“My biggest fear is that by the time we get to the wake-up call of recognizing that this virus is real, it is going to be too late,” she said.

Avoiding outbreaks

Public health officials are seeing outbreaks in multiple locations, she said, although she declined to name businesses.

Instead, she said she had some practical advice to offer.

“If you walk into a business and there are no signs about masking, employees are not wearing masks and everyone in there is not wearing masks, then that’s probably a business (that) if they don’t have an outbreak now, they will,” she said.

Hospitals are able to care for the increase in patients, but “if we continue to see doubling of hospital cases every couple of weeks, we are going to reach a point where the hospitals will not have capacity,” she said.

As more people began leaving their homes as the “Stay Home, Stay Healthy” initiative that began in March dragged on, infection rates have increased at an alarming rate.

“Our natural experiment of people being outside, not wearing face coverings, not necessarily maintaining physical distance has not kept infection out of this community,” Dr. Person said.

The infection will continue to spread in the Tri-Cities area until a vaccine is available or until 180,000 people become infected, she said. That would overwhelm not only the Tri-Cities hospitals but the entire state’s hospital system, she said.

The answer is to take the simple step of wearing a face covering in public to reduce the spread, she and two local county commissioners said.

Wearing masks in public can help lower COVID-19 transmission rates, which would mean more businesses could reopen, they said.

“There is only limited research so far, but what it does suggest is wearing a cloth face covering is better than wearing no mask at all,” Dr. Person said.

Not a recommendation

Initially the Benton Franklin Health District recommended face coverings, but as of June 8 Dr. Person has ordered people in the two counties to wear cloth masks in places like stores.

The same order requires businesses to post signs and take steps to ensure customers are wearing cloth face coverings.

“This is a requirement, not just a recommendation,” she said.

If you don’t wear a mask “you are hurting your neighbors out there that have small businesses that ... are about in financial ruin now,” said Benton County Commissioner Jerome Delvin. “It is important we help them.”

Washington state health officials have been reluctant to allow the Tri-Cities area to move past Phase 1 of reopening, like most of the rest of the state, because of factors that include high and rising new case counts and a lack of people wearing face coverings.

Delvin been wearing a mask for about two months, both because of his age and because he has diabetes, he said.

“I really care about my health. I care about my neighbor’s health,” he said.

He was disappointed to see few customers wearing face coverings when he shopped at a large home improvement store over the weekend, he said.

“It is up to us,” said Franklin County Commissioner Bob Koch. “Buck up. Wear a face covering.”

Mask surveys

The local health district is compiling numbers from its first survey over the weekend of how many people are wearing face masks in Tri-Cities area businesses. It plans to repeat the survey weekly.

Gov. Jay Inslee has mandated masks in public in Yakima County, which has the highest number of new COVID-19 cases now in the state.

“We need to do this on our own,” Delvin said. “It shouldn’t need to be mandated by a state agency to take care of our own.”

Dr. Person said the disease needs to be taken seriously and the community needs to think about how it can recover the economy.

“The way to do that is not to pretend COVID-19 is a fake virus,” she said. “This virus is very real and is having a devastating affect on families who have lost people to this disease and who have have seen family members hospitalized for weeks.”

People may think they are strong enough to beat the virus, but they should remember that not everyone else is and do their part to help their neighbor, she said.

It is not enough to ask ill people to stay home to keep the coronavirus from spreading, because people without symptoms can spread it.

Wearing face coverings is a way to protect others, she said.

Coronavirus spreads through respiratory droplets produced when an infected person coughs, sneezes or talks.

Wearing a cloth mask can help contain the droplets and prevent them from landing in the mouths or noses of those nearby or possibly being inhaled into their lungs, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

This story was originally published June 23, 2020 at 5:00 AM.