Kennewick has double the COVID rate of Richland. Pasco is even higher

Pasco now has reached more than triple the rate of coronavirus infections compared to Richland, and Kennewick has double the Richland rate.

According to data released Friday by the Benton Franklin Health District, 42 of every 1,000 people in Pasco has had a confirmed case of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic.

That compares to 26 per 1,000 people in Kennewick and 13 per 1,000 people in both Richland and West Richland.

Prosser continues to have the highest infection rate in Benton and Franklin counties, with 57 per 1,000 who have tested positive since the start of the pandemic.

The daily number of new cases reported has dropped by about 50% in Benton and Franklin counties since the start of July, said Dr. Amy Person, health officer for the local health district on Thursday.

There were still 337 new cases reported in the two counties for the previous week, as reported in the local health district’s weekly recap. And 10 people were newly hospitalized for treatment of COVID-19 from Aug. 8-14.

The state Department of Heath has recommended that schools mostly not allow in-person classes until counties have less than 75 new cases per 100,000 over two weeks.

The target it will consider when it again accepts applications for more businesses to reopen and more gatherings is less than 25 per 100,000 — the same new case rate recommended for K-12 students to return to all in-school classes.

The Tri-Cities will need to see a continued decline in cases to meet those goals.

As of Friday, the local health district reported 273 new cases over the past 14 days in Benton County and 500 new cases over 14 days in Franklin County.

Dr. Person said the counties should be able to reach fewer than 75 new cases per 100,000 to allow children to start to return to school later this fall if people continue the “hard work” of recommended precautions.

It will require continued wearing of masks, maintaining 6 feet of distance from non-household gatherings, remaining quarantined if exposed and limiting gatherings.

Gatherings have been associated with some of the highest spread of infection, not just in the greater Tri-Cities area but across the country, Dr. Person said.

Despite the drop in new cases, there were eight more deaths in Benton and Franklin counties from Aug. 8-14.

The included one person age 40-49; one person age 50-59; two ages 60-69; three people ages 70-79 and one person age 80-89.

Dr. Person said she expects to see a drop in the number of deaths in the next couple of weeks because of the decrease in new cases confirmed.

Here’s a look at cases by cities:

Tri-Cities case rates

▪ Pasco has had 3,194 cases confirmed, about double the number of July 1. The total rate of infection in residents since the start of the pandemic is 42 per 1,000.

State labor data shows that Pasco has more people with agriculture and food processing jobs than Kennewick, Richland or West Richland. Continuing to report to work in those essential jobs puts them at higher risk of infection.

▪ Kennewick has had 2,233 cases confirmed, up from 1,143 at the start of July. The total rate of infection is 26 per 1,000.

▪ Richland has had 782 cases confirmed, a little more than double the 350 reported July 1. The total rate of infection is just over 13 per 1,000.

▪ West Richland has had 191 cases, which is up from 90 as of July 1. Its total rate of infection is just under 13 per 1,000.

Outlying town rates

▪ Prosser has had 361 cases, which puts its case rate since the start of the pandemic at 57 per 1,000. However, unlike most towns in Benton and Franklin counties, its number of cases did not double since July 1. Then it had 200 cases.

Prosser has agriculture and food processing workers and also is near the Yakima County line, where the outbreak of COVID-19 was the worst in the state by population earlier in the pandemic.

▪ Connell has had 282 cases reported, up from 133 at the start of July. Its rate is 51 cases per 1,000 since the start of the pandemic.

Its case rate is increased by an outbreak of COVID-19 at the Coyote Ridge Corrections Center.

▪ Benton City has had 138 cases confirmed since the start of the pandemic, with a sharper increase since July 1 than most local communities. At the start of July it had only 48 known cases total.

▪ Mesa has had 85 cases total, more than triple the 23 cases reported as of the start of July.

▪ Eltopia has had 48 cases, up from 22 as of July 1.

▪ Plymouth has had 16 cases, and Paterson and Kahlotus each have had fewer than 10 cases.