2 more COVID deaths, but new cases and hospital patients drop in Tri-Cities area

Only 125 new cases of COVID-19 were reported for the previous three days by the Benton Franklin Health District on Monday, but there were two more deaths.

In other good news, the number of COVID-19 patients hospitalized dropped significantly.

The number of confirmed new cases reported Monday averaged just 42 for each of the previous three days for both Benton and Franklin counties — better than reports released on the previous three Mondays.

A week ago the local health district reported 226 cases over three days, or an average of 75 per day. Two weeks ago it reported an average of 102 cases per day for the three days and four weeks ago it reported an average of 123 cases per day over the three days.

The local health district does not report cases on the weekend, waiting until Monday to report cases for Friday through Sunday.

State and local health districts said last week that new case counts appeared to have plateaued in the Tri-Cities area and may be on their way down, although they wanted more days of data to confirm trends.

They credited increased compliance with orders to wear masks in public as possibly being reflected in better daily case counts.

Starting July 7 businesses were ordered not to serve customers who are not wearing face coverings or risk a fine or losing their business license.

There have been almost two full 14-day virus incubation cycles since then, the time after which local health district officials said they hoped to see the results of more people wearing masks show up in daily case count numbers.

However, the Tri-Cities area continues to have too many gatherings reported, say public health officials.

The Tri-Cities remains in modified Phase 1 of the state’s Safe Start reopening program, with only household members allowed to gather except for small behavioral health meetings such as Alcohol Anonymous. Churches can hold outdoor church services.

COVID deaths

The deaths reported Monday from complications of COVID-19 were both Benton County residents.

A man in his 80s and a woman in her 60s died. Both were at risk of serious illness if infected with the coronavirus both because of their age and their underlying health conditions.

Deaths now total 141 since the start of the pandemic, including 102 in Benton County and 39 in Franklin County, which has about half as many people and a younger population.

Hospital patients

The number of patients reported hospitalized locally for treatment of COVID-19 dropped to 45 as reported Monday.

That’s down from 59 reported on Friday. The number of hospitalized patients being treated for COVID-19 had mostly been in the 60s in July, with numbers spiking as high as 89.

The 45 patients reported Monday were still more than were being seen in May, when on many days the number of patients being treated for COVID-19 was in the 30s.

The 45 patients with either positive COVID-19 test results or awaiting test results accounted for just 15% of patients in hospitals in Richland, Kennewick, Pasco and Prosser. On some days in July more than 20% of local hospital patients were being treated for COVID-19.

The 125 new cases reported on Monday included 49 cases in Benton County and 76 in Franklin County for a total since the start of the pandemic of 3,515 cases in Benton County and 3,325 cases in Franklin County. The bicounty total is 6,840.

The number of people tested has not been available on recent days.

This story was originally published August 3, 2020 at 1:50 PM.