New Tri-Cities COVID cases trending down, but too many for schools to open

The number of new daily COVID-19 cases in the Tri-Cities area is continuing to drop this week.

“Our trends are really moving in a very nice direction,” said Dr. Amy Person, the health officer for the Benton Franklin Health District, at a news conference on Thursday.

Daily new COVID-19 cases are down about a third from the peak this summer in Franklin County, and Benton County cases are down about a quarter, she said.

“I think we are seeing the positive effects of what the residents of Benton and Franklin counties are doing to help lower COVID-19 disease rates,” Dr. Person said.

Surveys of shoppers leaving grocery stores in the two counties have consistently shown 98% of shoppers with masks and that is reflected in data, she said.

On Thursday, 41 new cases were reported in Benton and Franklin counties, down from more than 200 cases reported on a few days in June and July.

There was one new death reported, bringing total COVID deaths in the two counties since the start of the pandemic to 145.

Local hospital patients being treated for COVID-19 continued to drop to just 34 in Thursday’s report, down from as many as 89 earlier in the summer.

COVID and schools

While the trend of fewer new cases is encouraging, cases remain too high to allow in-person classes for K-12 students, Dr. Person said.

Over the past two weeks Franklin County has had a total of 547 new cases per 100,000 people and Benton County had 310 cases per 100,000 people.

Any county with more than 75 cases per 100,000 over 14 days is considered to have high COVID-19 activity.

At that level, distance learning is recommended for most students, and sports and extra curricular activities should remain on hold, according to Washington state guidance issued on Wednesday.

The state recommends that full-time in-person learning for all elementary students and hybrid learning for middle and high school students not resume until cases over 14 days fall below 25 cases per 100,000 population. It is the same target set by the state as it considers allowing more businesses to reopen and social gatherings to be held.

Some communities around the world are sending students back to class. But they are in countries that have had lower disease activity than in the United States, Washington state and the Tri-Cities area, Dr. Person said.

As some U.S. schools in the Midwest and South have opened, new cases have been reported within one to two days, she said.

To get new case rates down in the Tri-Cities and allow students to return to class, residents need to wear face coverings anytime they are outside the home, maintain physical distancing and not attend gatherings. Employers also need to encourage employees to stay home when sick.

“These are the choices we can make as individuals,” she said.

She acknowledged that it has been a difficult time for local residents economically, socially and emotionally.

Now families face another challenge as students learn from home as parents are working, including many workers with essential jobs that cannot be done at home, she said.

Testing myth

Public health workers continue to hear that new case rates are high because too much testing is being done, Dr. Person said.

“Nothing could be farther from the truth,” she said.

Countries that have either slowed the spread of the coronavirus or prevented disease rates from rising all have done testing early and frequently, she said.

The earlier testing can identify people as being infected, the earlier they can isolate at home to prevent infecting more people and the earlier their close contacts can be notified and can quarantine for the disease’s incubation period.

“That’s going to slow the spread,” Dr. Person said.

Information on where to get tested locally is posted by the local health district at bit.ly/TCtestingsites.

Cases, hospitalizations

The new confirmed cases reported on Thursday include 20 cases in Benton County for a total confirmed cases since the start of the pandemic of 3,632.

The other 21 cases where in Franklin County, which has had a total of 3,412.

Nearly 550 more people were tested, according to the health district on Thursday, for a total approaching 36,000 residents tested in the two counties.

The death reported Thursday was a Benton County man in his 50s. He had no known underlying health condition that would put him at risk of a severe case of COVID-19 and he was not old enough — in his 60s or older — to be at risk of a severe case.

His death brought the number of deaths from complications of COVID-19 in Benton County to 105. Franklin County has had 40 deaths.

The Benton Franklin County Health District does not add a death to its coronavirus tally unless the person had a positive COVID-19 test result and the death certificate showed that complications of the disease were the primary cause of death.

The number of people hospitalized locally for treatment of COVID-19 dropped to 34, as reported on Thursday. That’s down from 38 reported on Wednesday and down from 64 a week ago.

Numbers of hospitalized COVID patients have not been in the 30s consistently since May.

The patients being treated for COVID-19 accounted for just 11% of the patients in hospitals in Richland, Kennewick, Pasco and Prosser hospitals. A week ago they accounted for 19% of patients.

This story was originally published August 6, 2020 at 1:47 PM.