2 more COVID deaths in Tri-Cities area. Officials worry about Labor Day weekend

The Tri-Cities area faces a test this holiday weekend, say public health officials.

“Don’t blow it,” advised Heather Hill, communicable disease supervisor for the local health district, in a webcast with the Tri-City Development Council.

Public health officials are hoping that progress in reducing daily COVID-19 case rates can be sustained, allowing some in-person public school classes to be held this fall.

On Thursday, just 28 new COVID-19 cases were reported in Benton and Franklin counties. But there were also two new deaths from the disease and the most people hospitalized for treatment of COVID-19 in just over four weeks.

After other holidays this spring and summer during the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of new cases in the Tri-Cities has jumped.

But this will be the first major holiday since mandates to wear masks in public around nonhousehold members and to wear masks in businesses have taken full effect, said Dr. Amy Person, health officer at the Benton Franklin Health District, at a media briefing Thursday.

It also will be the first holiday weekend since small gatherings have been allowed in the Tri-Cities area.

Starting Aug. 27 groups of up to five nonhousehold members are allowed to gather for the first time since late March.

Labor Day critical

“This is a weekend that is kind of critical for us,” Hill said. “How we conduct our lives as a community is going to make a difference to the fall months.”

Area residents will need to “find new ways to enjoy old traditions,” Dr. Person said.

There’s an air show in the Tri-Cities or families can just head to area parks and be sure to socially distance. It also is a chance to visit family in long-term care facilities now that many of those in the Tri-Cities are allowing outdoor visits, she said.

Now the Tri-Cities is on track to reduce daily cases enough to start holding some public school classes in person, Dr. Person said.

The state-set target to start hybrid home and in-class public schooling is less than 75 new cases per 100,000 people over two weeks.

The Benton Franklin Health District says that for the two weeks ending Aug. 22 Benton County had dropped to 122 new cases per 100,000 and Franklin County had dropped to 273 cases per 100,000.

The district looks at numbers for a two-week period ending 7 to 10 days ago to make sure all confirmed cases for the two weeks have been reported.

School outlook

At the rate that new daily cases have dropped since early July, a partial reopening of schools yet this fall, particularly in Benton County, is achievable, Dr. Person said.

Some limited inside restaurant dining has been allowed since late August and non-essential retail stores have been open in the Tri-Cities for close to two months. That’s raised questions about why schools also cannot open, Dr. Person said.

It’s a matter of scale, she said.

There is concern about having a classroom full of students and staff together for far more hours than people would shop in a store or eat in a restaurant, she said.

Several private schools already are holding in-person classes, but Dr. Person said they have the advantage of having fewer students, making it easier to return to class safely. The health district has been working with the administrators of private schools as well as public schools on student safety.

“The health district remains committed to getting our kids back into school in whatever form will be safest for them and will facilitate their learning,” she said.

Getting public school students back to in-person classes will require continued work by area residents, including wearing masks, limiting the size of gatherings, frequent hand washing and staying home while sick, she said.

She recommends that people create a pod of five trusted friends or extended family members for small group gatherings to reduce the likelihood of infection with the coronavirus.

Trust is the key, she said.

People in the pod need to trust that others are not attending large gatherings and staying home when sick.

Health and economy

Local public health officials have frequently heard that the effects of business shutdowns have been so damaging to the economy, that a better choice would have been to just let people do what they wanted, Dr. Person said.

There might be more COVID-19 cases but the economy would not have suffered, some people believe.

But good health and a good economy during the pandemic appear to be linked, Dr. Person said. Managing the rate of infection helps communities recover economically.

“If we look across the globe, countries that have suffered high rates of disease and high rates of death due to COVID are also the ones that have struggled economically,” she said.

“You can’t function economically if your workforce is all sick or if your patrons are afraid to come back in (to your business) because they are afraid of getting sick,” she said.

Deaths, hospitalizations

The deaths from complications of COVID-19 reported on Thursday included a Frankllin County woman in her 60s who was at risk of serious illness or death from infection with the coronavirus both because of her age and the underlying health conditions she had before being infected.

However, the other person who died was a Franklin County woman in her 50s with no known underlying health conditions.

Deaths from complications of COVID-19 now total 159, including 47 in Franklin County and 112 in Benton County. Benton County has slightly more than twice as many people as Franklin County and has a higher percentage of elderly residents.

The new cases reported on Thursday included eight in Benton County and 20 in Franklin County. The brought confirmed cases since the start of the pandemic to 4,190 in Benton county and 3,994 in Franklin County for at total of 8,184.

The district is not tracking active versus recovered cases.

The number of people being treated at local hospitals for COVID-19 increased to 42 on Thursday, according to the Benton Franklin Health District. It broke a four-week streak of the number of locally hospitalized COVID patients dropping into the 30s.

The 42 patients, either with positive test results or awaiting test results, accounted for 13% of patients at hospitals in Richland, Kennewick, Pasco and Prosser. The percentage had dipped below 10% as recently as eight days earlier.

Washington state

Statewide the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases since the start of the pandemic topped 75,000 on Wednesday.

The Washington State Department of Health on Wednesday reported 438 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 and four deaths.

Statewide totals from the illness caused by the coronavirus are at 75,377 cases and 1,935 deaths.

King County continues to have the highest numbers in Washington, with 19,797 cases and 731 deaths. Yakima County is second, with 10,975 cases and 242 deaths. Pierce is third with cases at 6,873 and 174 deaths.

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.

All counties in Washington have cases. Garfield and Wahkiakum have case counts of fewer than 10.

On Wednesday, Washington had a 994-per-100,000-people case rate. The national rate is 1,845, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Louisiana has the highest rate in the United States at 3,210. Vermont is lowest at 261.

There had been more than 6.1 million confirmed coronavirus cases and 185,644 deaths from the virus in the United States as of Wednesday evening, according to Johns Hopkins University. More than 859,000 people have died from the disease worldwide.

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

This story was originally published September 3, 2020 at 1:43 PM.