Tri-Cities COVID cases bump up at end of week. 1 more death

Another person in the Tri-Cities area has died of complications of COVID-19, the Benton Franklin Health District said on Friday.

It brings the total number of deaths in the two counties to 136.

The number of new cases confirmed were up after two days of totals below 100. But the number was still in line with totals that had been averaging slightly over 100 per day for about a week before that.

There were 108 more cases confirmed as of Friday in the two counties. On a couple of days in late June and the first of this month new cases spiked to a little more than 200.

Both local and state public health officials said this week that they were cautiously optimistic that number of daily new cases did not appear to be climbing and might even be starting to drop.

On Thursday there were just 58 new cases confirmed and on Wednesday there were just 72.

But overall new case counts remain high, particularly in Franklin County, even if they are not climbing.

Franklin County had been the Washington state county with the most cases per population for part of July but has dropped to the third highest rate below Okanogan and Douglas counties, according to the Harvard Global Health Institute.

Benton County ranks eighth among the 39 counties in the state for cases per population.

The Washington state Department of Health has set targets it will consider when the two counties next apply for a new phase of reopening of no more than 50 cases total in two weeks in Benton County and no more than 24 cases total in Franklin County.

The targets are based on fewer than 25 cases per 100,000 population in 14 days, and only five counties in Washington state are meeting that target, according to the Washington state Department of Health data for the two weeks ending July 17.

New cases

The new Tri-Cities area cases included 61 in Benton County for a total of 3,078 cases there and 47 new cases in Franklin County for a total there of 2,953.

Benton County has had 98 deaths and Franklin County has had 38 deaths, according to the Benton Franklin Health District.

The latest death was a Benton County man in his 80s. His age put him at risk of a severe case of COVID-19 but he had no known underlying health conditions that also have been linked to a more severe illness.

The number of patients hospitalized locally for treatment of COVID-19 was 67, down one in Friday’s report from the day before. That’s an increase from 57 reported on Monday but down from 89 at the start of the month.

The patients being treated for COVID-19, either with positive test results or awaiting test results, accounted for just under 20% of patients in hospitals in Richland, Kennewick, Pasco and Prosser.

The Washington state Department of Health is reporting 15,218 negative test results in Benton County for a rate of 17% positive and 8,486 negative test results in Franklin County for a positive rate of 26%.

This story was originally published July 24, 2020 at 2:14 PM.