2nd Tri-Cities COVID death this week reported. Slight jump in new cases
The number of new COVID-19 cases reported in the Tri-Cities area on Friday jumped to 47 and one more person has died of the disease.
It was the second death reported in Benton and Franklin counties this week.
While the 47 cases are up from the 29 cases reported on Thursday, it’s still a significant drop from the 74 cases reported on the previous Friday, Aug. 14, and the 93 cases reported the Friday before that.
And it is still in line with the downward trend of cases in Benton and Franklin counties.
It brings the average cases per day for the past 14 days to 43. For the past 28 days cases have averaged 60 per day.
If the trend continues, Benton County students could resume some in-person classes as soon as October, Dr. Amy Person, health officer of the Benton Franklin Health District, said in a brief interview with the Columbia Basin Badger Club.
The Franklin County case rate also is dropping, but is not as low as the Benton County rate.
Benton County has had 264 confirmed cases total in the past 14 days and Franklin County, with about half as many people, has had 336 confirmed cases in two weeks.
155 deaths
The death reported on Friday was a Franklin County man who was at risk of severe illness if infected with the coronavirus, both because of his age and because he had underlying health conditions.
His death brings the total for the two counties to 155 deaths due to complications of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic.
The local health district does not add deaths to its tally of those caused by the coronavirus unless it can verify a positive COVID-19 test and the death certificate shows that the coronavirus was the cause of death.
The number of people hospitalized locally for treatment of COVID-19 on Friday remained in the 30s, as they have since Aug. 4. That is down from a high of 89 at the start of July.
The 38 patients hospitalized for COVID-19 treatment on Friday accounted for 13% of total patients in hospitals in Richland, Kennewick, Pasco and Prosser.
The Benton Franklin Health District has credited more people wearing masks and the increased availability of testing with reducing the number of new cases.
Increased testing limits the spread of the coronavirus, by quickly identifying people who are ill and the people who they may have close contact with while infectious.
Close contacts are asked to quarantine at home until it is clear whether or not they were infected.
The health district reported on Friday that for a fifth week in a row 98% of people observed leaving eight grocery stores in the two counties had masks. In the first survey done in late June, just 53% of shoppers leaving grocery stores had masks.
The number of new daily cases reported in the two counties has dropped by more than 50% since early July.