Just 1 Tri-Cities COVID death last week. But virus on track statewide to be a top-5 killer

The Tri-Cities area had just one death confirmed as COVID-19-related last week, down from 10 deaths over the previous two weeks.

However, statewide 10 to 15 people a day are dying, putting COVID on track to be one of the top five causes of death in the state in 2020.

As of Friday, 1,905 people in Washington have died from COVID complications — 156 of them Tri-Citians.

The recent drop in Tri-Cities deaths was one of several encouraging statistics released by the Benton Franklin Health District on Friday evening.

The new cases announced Friday brought the number of COVID-19 cases in Benton and Franklin counties since the start of the pandemic to more than 8,000.

However, overall the number of new cases continue their decline since the start of July.

The Washington state Department of Health called out Benton, Franklin and Yakima counties in its weekly COVID state situation report on Friday for decreasing their number of new cases, while most other counties in the state had plateauing or increasing cases.

The dropping number of new cases helped convince the state to reduce restrictions on the three counties starting last Thursday. They now are allowed limited indoor dining in restaurants, limited indoor church services, outside fitness classes and gatherings of up to five nonhousehold members.

Washington State University

Counties with increases included Whitman County, which has had an outbreak among Washington State University students living off campus in Pullman.

The cases have been traced primarily to off-campus gatherings in the Greek Row area where students live in fraternity, sorority and other houses, WSU said in a statement. It said students who do not follow state mandates to protect against the spread of the coronavirus could face university disciplinary hearings.

Walla Walla County cases increased because of an outbreak at the Washington state Penitentiary and Kitsap County cases increased because of an outbreak at a Bremerton hospital.

Those outbreaks show the continued possibility of outbreaks across the state.

High case rate

“While we see some positive trends in our data, we must continue to think differently about the ways we interact with one another,” said John Wiesman, state secretary of health. “It remains critical that we limit the size and frequency of our social gatherings, wear face coverings and stay home when we are sick.”

To reduce the spread of new cases, the effective reproductive number, or the average number of people each infected person passes the coronavirus to, must drop below one.

That number for both eastern and western Washington has remained close to 1 since mid July and appears to have dropped below 1 in the last two weeks.

However, more time is needed to assess and confirm the trend, according to the statewide situation report.

The state considers more than 75 cases per 100,000 people over two weeks a high rate. It recommends that schools not partially reopen until cases drop below that.

The Benton Franklin Health District reported the rate for the two weeks ended Aug. 16 on Friday as 136 per 100,000 people in Benton county and 368 per 100,000 in Franklin County.

That’s down from 273 per 100,000 in Benton County and 500 per 100,000 in Franklin.

For the seven days ending Friday, Aug. 28, the local health district reported that nearly 8% of test results reported in Benton County and nearly 17% of test results in Franklin County were positive.

The target set by the state to show that adequate testing is being done is 2%.

Adequate testing levels can reduce the spread of COVID-19, say public health officials. Testing helps identify those infected and allows public health officials to then quickly notify their close contacts and ask them to quarantine until it is certain they have not been infected.

Tri-Cities case trend

The total cases in Benton County over the seven days ending Friday was 155 new cases, with 46 of those reported on Friday. New cases averaged 130 for the previous two weeks.

The cause of the uptick on cases Friday was not immediately known, but higher than usual case numbers based on the positive test results reported daily to the health district have been higher than usual on three of the four Fridays this month.

Franklin County had 94 new cases reported for the seven days ending this past Friday, including 24 new cases reported Friday.

Its cases have dropped substantially from 145 new cases the week before and 212 new cases two weeks earlier.

The Benton Franklin Health District reported 12 new patients being treated for COVID-19 at the hospitals in Richland, Kennewick, Pasco and Prosser over the last week. That matches the average number of new patients for the previous two week periods.

The number of hospitalized people being treated locally for COVID-19 remained in the 30s all last week, which is a level not seen that low consistently since May.

Outbreaks, deaths

The number of deaths in the two counties is now 156, including 81 deaths of people living in nursing homes and other long-term care homes for the elderly or disabled.

After COVID-19 outbreaks in long-term care and retirement homes in the Tri-Cities this spring, some 70% to 75% of total deaths were linked to the homes.

That has dropped to 52% of total deaths linked to long-term care homes now.

The 156 people who died, include 70 people age 80 or older. However, not everyone who has died has been elderly. In the two counties 14 people younger than 60 have died of complications of the coronavirus. The youngest have been in their 40s.

Coyote Ridge Corrections Center in Connell also has had a COVID-19 outbreak that has infected 233 prisoners and employees. Two prisoners have died.

Four residents of Benton and Franklin counties known to have worked at Tyson Fresh Meats in Wallula south of Pasco also have died. It is unknown whether they were infected on or off the job.

The Washington State Department of Health on Friday reported 598 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 15 deaths.

Statewide totals from the illness caused by the coronavirus are at 73,301 cases and 1,905 deaths.

If the current pattern of 10 to 15 deaths per day holds, Washington state would see 1,250 to 1,875 more residents die by the end of the year, according to the state Department of Health’s latest weekly situation report.

That would make COVID-19 one of the top five causes of death in the state for the year, it said.

Washington state

Thirty-two people with confirmed COVID-19 cases were admitted to Washington state hospitals on Aug. 9, the most recent date with complete data. Late March had two days with 88 people admitted, the highest numbers to date during the pandemic.

On Aug. 17, the most recent date with complete data, 16,281 specimens were collected statewide for the active virus, with 4% testing positive. The average positive test rate for the seven days prior was 4%. More than 1.4 million tests have been conducted in Washington.

King County continues to have the highest numbers in Washington, with 19,322 cases and 723 deaths. Yakima County is second, with 10,899 cases and 239 deaths. Pierce is third with cases at 6,678 and 166 deaths.

Because they are counted separately, -Benton and Franklin rank sixth and seventh for total cases and deaths.

On Friday, Washington had a 965-per-100,000-people case rate. The national rate is 1,784, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Louisiana has the highest rate in the United States at 3,140. Vermont is lowest at 253.

There had been nearly 5.8 million confirmed coronavirus cases and 181,265 deaths from the virus in the United States as of Friday evening, according to Johns Hopkins University. More than 833,000 people have died from the disease worldwide.

Craig Sailor of The (Tacoma) News Tribune contributed to this report.

This story was originally published August 29, 2020 at 1:10 PM.