COVID cases in Tri-Cities hit record daily high. Plus 2 more have died

The Tri-Cities hit a record for the most new coronavirus cases in a single day on Wednesday.

And nearly a quarter of the region’s hospitalized patients are being treated for COVID and COVID-like symptoms, say health officials.

The Benton Franklin Health District also said at a Wednesday news conference that it will issue an order requiring businesses to refuse service to people who aren’t wearing masks. The order will start Monday.

Gov. Jay Inslee said he was considering the same order to slow the spread of the virus in the Tri-Cities after he visited with business, community and health leaders here on Tuesday.

The local health district reported 215 new positive cases for the area on Wednesday. There were 68 new cases in Franklin County and 147 cases in Benton. Also, two more deaths were reported.

A Benton County woman in her 50s has died — and is believed to be the first in our area without either a prior health condition or an age factor that put her at higher risk of a severe illness.

A Benton County man in his 80s with underlying health conditions also has died.

Benton County now has had 77 people die from complications of COVID-19 and Franklin County has had 27 deaths.

The Benton Franklin Health District revised its counts by county this week, finding that two Franklin County cases had been incorrectly assigned to Benton County.

The new confirmed cases were significantly higher than those announced on Tuesday.

The health district reported 39 new confirmed cases between the two counties on Tuesday, including 15 in Benton County and 24 in Franklin County.

Counts announced Tuesdays often are low, because less testing is done on most weekends. Numbers released Tuesday are Monday test results.

On the previous Tuesday, 44 new cases were reported.

Kadlec, Trios, Lourdes and Prosser hospitals had a combined total of 81 COVID patients and 333 total patients.

State case target

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.

The total confirmed case count for the bicounty area since the start of the pandemic is 3,586, including 1,881 in Benton County and 1,705 in Franklin County.

The local agriculture workforce in the Tri-Cities area, who help feed the nation, and health care 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.

Coyote Ridge

Coyote Ridge Correction Center continues to be the only state prison with rising number of COVID cases with five more cases reported Wednesday.

The Washington State Department of Corrections said that more than 1,800 incarcerated in the Medium Security Complex have been tested and 660 staff members between June 24-29.

A news release reported that during that time only 3.3 percent of the inmates who were tested had positive results and less than 1 percent of employees had COVID.

“I’m pleased to see that at this time, it appears our mitigation strategy has helped us manage the spread of this virus. We will use this information moving forward to inform our ongoing response,” said Corrections Secretary Stephen Sinclair.

Two more inmates and three more employees at the Connell prison tested positive Wednesday. That brings the total cases to 223, with 173 of those being inmates including two who have died — a 68-year-old and 72-year-old.

“Initial results indicate that Coyote Ridge staff did an exemplary job of isolation and quarantine to reduce the spread throughout the facility,” said Heather Hill, the communicable disease program manager with the Benton-Franklin Health District.

The maximum and minimum security facility has nearly 2,500 inmates.

By comparison, Coyote Ridge has 7.5 times more cases than the number of cases in the Monroe Corrections Center.

That prison has 2,240 inmates and 19 inmates and 11 staff members tested positive, and a A 65-year-old corrections officer died.

This story was originally published July 1, 2020 at 2:08 PM.