Local COVID deaths reach 98. Another child seriously ill

Another death from complications of COVID-19 was reported Thursday in the Tri-Cities area, plus a second case of a seriously ill Tri-Cities child linked to coronavirus.

The number of confirmed cases in Benton and Franklin County now top 3,000, with 80 new cases reported Thursday by the Benton Franklin Health District. The bicounty total is 3,005.

The 80 new cases are far above targets the state has set as it considers applications for reopening businesses, but they are lower than some recent days when more than 100 cases were reported.

The number of hospitalized patients also dropped.

The death reported Thursday was a Franklin County woman in her 70s with underlying health conditions that put her at risk of serious illness from the coronavirus.

There have been 98 deaths from complications of COVID-19 in the Tri-Cities area, with 73 in Benton County and 25 in Franklin County.

The new confirmed cases included 33 in Benton County and 47 in Franklin County, for a total of 1,555 cases in Benton County and 1,450 cases in Franklin County.

Both a previous case and the new case of multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children, or MIS-C, were in Franklin County.

A diagnosis requires a recent positive test for COVID-19, fever and inflammation of organs — such as heart or lungs — with no other plausible diagnosis for symptoms, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

Parents are advised to watch for fever or headache, abdominal pain with or without diarrhea, fatigue and respiratory symptoms such as shortness of breath, said Dr. John McGuire, chief of the Division of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine at Seattle Children’s Hospital.

The state has set a reopening target of no more than 25 cases per 100,000 people over 14 days, said Dr. Amy Person, the health officer for Benton and Franklin counties. She spoke at a news media briefing Thursday and also for the Kadlec on Call podcast.

Benton County has had 179 cases per 100,000 over the two weeks ending June 24 and Franklin County has had 429 cases per 100,000, she said.

Case targets

The state is not making counties meet every requirement to be approved to move to another phase of reopening.

But each of the three counties not yet approved to move to at least Phase 1.5 of business reopening, “the disease burden is enormous,” said Rick Dawson, a senior manager for the Benton Franklin Health District.

Benton, Franklin and Yakima counties remain in Phase 1, with Benton and Franklin’s application to move to Phase 2 on hold as discussions continue between local and state health officials.

“Most of the other counties in the state of Washington are at least coming close to meeting that (new case) metric,” Dawson said. “While I don’t think it is going to stop us, it is definitely a very large hurdle.”

Cases in Coyote Ridge Correctional Center are contributing to the daily case counts released to the public, but the state is allowing local officials to separate cases in inmates at the Connell prison from COVID-19 case counts.

The Department of Corrections has reported 110 prisoners at the prison in Franklin County have been infected with the coronavirus in recent weeks and two inmates have died.

There also are 43 employees who tested positive, but their cases are included in the counts for the Mid-Columbia counties where they live, rather than all being added to the Franklin County total.

Taking the inmate cases out of the total cases does not come close to allowing the area to meet state targets of no more than 25 new cases per 100,000 over two weeks.

“If we included the inmates we were 12 times over the number. If we took the inmates out we were 10 times over,” said Dr. Person.

However, removing inmates from the count does give a better look at how coronavirus is spreading person to person in the community, she said.

Hospital capacity

The number of patients hospitalized in the two counties with confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19 dropped to 68 on Thursday, down from a high of 89 a day earlier.

They account for 21% of the patients at hospitals in Richland, Kennewick, Pasco and Prosser.

Kadlec Regional Medical Center in Richland, the largest of the local hospitals, has seen about a doubling of patients in the last month with confirmed COVID-19 cases.

On June 23 it reached a high of 46 patients with confirmed cases, said Reza Kaleel, Kadlec chief executive.

That does not include suspected cases awaiting COVID-19 test result, which require the same level of safety precautions and personal protective equipment.

Kadlec is a regional health center and treats patients for COVID-19 from around the Mid-Columbia and nearby Oregon communities, but hospital officials said the majority of patients are from Benton and Franklin counties.

The average age of hospitalized patients has been dropping, Kaleel said. That’s led to fewer patients on ventilators and more patients who are seriously ill but survive the illness.

“It is not just the old and poor health,” said Brad Prior, a Kadlec intensive care unit registered nurse. “We are seeing 40 year olds in here that are having the same amounts of lung issues as the elderly.”

This is not the common flu, as some people argue, he said.

“We are watching these people die everyday, and it is sad,” he said. “It is hard to see them being alone because we can’t have family members up here.”

Many COVID-19 patients spend a week or two in the hospital on oxygen, even if they do not need a ventilator, said Dr. Brian York, an infectious disease specialist.

Testing increase

At least some of the increase in confirmed COVID-19 cases is from increased testing, as testing has expanded to include not only the most seriously ill patients in the Tri-Cities or people known to have been in close contact with confirmed cases.

Drive-thru testing by the Washington National Guard started last week at the Toyota Center in Kennewick and the HAPO Center, formerly TRAC, in Pasco.

Call 211 or 877-211-5445 for an appointment. Some tests are being given to people who arrive without appointments at the two sites if there are openings because of a high number of no-shows.

About 12% of people tested at the drive-thrus last week were positive, with about 140-180 tests a day done at both sites combined last week, Dr. Person said.

That compares to an overall rate, which includes clinic and hospital testing, of 17% positive tests in Benton County and 30% positive tests in Franklin County.

“There are significant number of people in our community who have been infected,” she said.

“They may not have had severe symptoms, which may mean they were not seeking medical care,” she said. “So having this kind of community testing is very helpful in identifying people who may be contagious so they can take the necessary tests to stay home.”

The goal is to identify more cases so not only those with positive cases don’t spread it, but also the people who they may have already exposed can self quarantine in case they develop the disease. The coronavirus can be spread before symptoms develop.

This story was originally published June 25, 2020 at 2:40 PM.