102nd COVID death reported in Tri-Cities area. Hospital cases are up again
The local health district reported the 102nd death from complications of COVID-19 in the Tri-Cities area on Tuesday.
The most recent death was a Benton County man in his 80s, who had underlying health conditions that put him at risk of a severe illness from infection with the coronavirus.
Benton County has had 75 deaths from complications of COVID-19 and Franklin County has had 27.
The Benton Franklin Health District revised its counts by county on Tuesday, finding that two Franklin County cases had been incorrectly assigned to Benton County.
The number of new cases reported for the Tri-Cities area was low on Tuesday.
However, it is typical to see the count of new cases drop on Tuesday because of less testing of individuals over the weekend, according to Kathleen Clary-Cooke, spokeswoman for the local health district.
Numbers released Tuesday are Monday test results.
The health district reported 39 new confirmed cases in the two counties on Tuesday, including 15 in Benton County and 24 in Franklin County.
That’s a drop from the average of 85 new cases a day reported for Saturday through Monday and from some days last week when new confirmed cases topped 100 some days.
On the previous Tuesday, 44 new cases were reported.
There were a large number of people being tested this week, 657 people in Franklin County, but widespread testing has been done with the help of the National Guard at the Coyote Ridge Correctional Center in Connell to address an outbreak in prisoners and guards.
The testing of about 2,500 inmates and staff wrapped up on Monday.
New case counts for Benton and Franklin counties remain too high to meet targets set by the state for reopening some businesses and allowing small gatherings.
The goal for Benton and Franklin combined is a total of no more than 74 new cases over two weeks.
Hospital cases
The number of people hospitalized for treatment of COVID-19 increased to 81, the local health district reported on Tuesday. That’s up from 69 on Monday.
The recent high number was 89, reported last week.
Currently, people being treated for COVID-19 — both with confirmed cases and who are awaiting test results — account for 24% of the patients in hospitals in Richland, Kennewick, Pasco and Prosser.
Tri-Cities area hospital leaders who met with Gov. Jay Inslee on Tuesday told him that on Monday all intensive care unit beds but one were in use, according to the governor.
The total confirmed case count for the bicounty area since the start of the pandemic is 3,332, including 1,719 in Benton County and 1,613 in Franklin County.
The local agriculture workforce in the Tri-Cities area, who help feed the nation, and healthcare workers have been hit hard by the pandemic, said Dr. Amy Person, the health officer for the two counties.
They don’t have the luxury of working from home, she said.
This story was originally published June 30, 2020 at 6:01 PM.