New COVID cases in Tri-Cities hold steady. WSU Pullman has growing problem

The Tri-Cities area had 100 more cases of confirmed COVID-19 reported over the past three days on Monday but no new deaths.

That puts the new cases at an average of about 33 a day, in line with a drop in new cases of more than 50% since the start of July.

The Benton Franklin Health District does not update case and death numbers over the weekend, instead reporting data for three days on Mondays.

Benton County had 54 cases reported for a total of 4,159 since the start of the pandemic and Franklin County had 46 cases for a total of 3,944 cases. Total cases for the two county come to 8,103 since March, with the local health district not tracking active versus recovered cases.

Benton County has had 307 confirmed cases over the past two weeks, a modest drop from the 330 cases reported over the previous two-week period.

Franklin County, however, has seen cases drop to 213 total over the past two weeks, down from 380 cases reported over the previous two-week period.

Benton, Franklin and three other counties still in modified Phase 1 of the state’s Safe Start reopening plan, received permission last week for more activities, including limited indoor dining, limited indoor church services and gatherings of up to five nonhousehold members.

But the state is not allowing advances to additional full phases, instead focusing on getting new case numbers low enough to allow public schools to partially reopen. The goal is to get below 75 cases per 100,000 population, which is considered a high rate by the state.

For Benton County that will require dropping from about 307 cases total in two weeks to about 150. For Franklin County it will mean dropping from about 213 cases total in two weeks to about 72.

On Monday, 34 patients were hospitalized locally for treatment of COVID-19. Numbers have dropped into the 30s since Aug. 4. They have ranged from 89 people hospitalized locally for COVID-19 treatment at the start of July to 28 as recently as April 27.

The 34 patients account for just under 11% of all patients at hospitals in Richland, Kennewick, Pasco and Prosser.

The number of deaths attributed to complications of COVID-19 in Benton and Franklin counties remain at 156, including 45 in Franklin County and 111 in Benton County.

Washington State University

The number of coronavirus cases in Whitman County has nearly tripled in the past week, one of the highest growth rates in the nation. On Sunday the Washington state Department of Health was reorted 471 cases.

The county is home to Washington State University, and students have been pouring into Pullman in the past week for the start of the school year.

Pullman Police Chief Gary Jenkins recently announced that officers will be immediately issuing tickets for violations of Gov. Jay Inslee’s pandemic restrictions. Police previously had been giving warnings.

The county said in a press release that of the 58 new positive cases reported in the county Saturday, 22 were in people 19 or younger and 36 were in people age 20 to 39.

Pullman ranks fifth in the United States for metro areas where new cases are rising the fastest, on a population-adjusted basis, according to a New York Times case tracker. The Times reported Pullman had only 14 new confirmed cases of the virus last week and 222 this week.

Washington state

The Washington State Department of Health on Saturday reported 578 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 441 new confirmed cases on Sunday.

DOH is no longer reporting COVID-19 death counts over the weekend. While all deaths will continue to be reported, DOH will now add the counts generated from the weekend to the following Monday and Tuesday reports.

Statewide totals from the illness caused by the coronavirus are at 74,320 cases and 1,905 deaths.

King County continues to have the highest numbers in Washington, with 19,553 cases and 723 deaths. Yakima County is second, with 10,942 cases and 239 deaths. Pierce is third with cases at 6,648.

They are followed by Snohomish and Spokane counties and then Benton and Franklin counties with the sixth and seventh highest number of cases and deaths in the state, according to state data.

On Sunday, Washington had a 980-per-100,000-people case rate. The national rate is 1,811, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Louisiana has the highest rate in the United States at 3,153. Vermont is lowest at 258.

There had been nearly 6 million confirmed coronavirus cases and 183,020 deaths from the virus in the United States as of Sunday, according to Johns Hopkins University. More than 844,000 people have died from the disease worldwide.

Lauren Kirschman, The (Tacoma) News Tribune, contributed to this report.

This story was originally published August 31, 2020 at 12:58 PM.