Tri-Cities COVID cases up last week. State health officials concerned

The Tri-Cities area had just one new COVID-19 death last week, but the 249 new cases were higher than the week before.

The Washington state Department of Health has some concerns, saying in a statement on Friday that it is seeing a plateau in the dropping number of new cases in Benton and Franklin counties after a sharp decline earlier this summer.

That could mean transmission of the virus is increasing.

Data based on when people with positive test results first developed symptoms show a plateau in the decline of cases during the last two weeks of August for both counties.

However, officials at the Benton Franklin Health District remain optimistic about the overall progress the two counties are making in reducing the spread of the coronavirus.

“Our cases per 100,000 over 14 days have dropped 57% since July 30 in Benton County and by 62% in Franklin County,” the local health district posted Friday on Facebook. “We’re hoping that trend continues.”

Daily cases reported by the local health district for the seven days ending Friday, Sept. 11, shows an increase of 35 more cases than reported for the seven days ending Sept. 4.

Franklin County declined from 109 new cases to 94 over the past week, but Benton County new cases jumped from 105 to 155.

School reopenings

For public schools to partially reopen the state Department of Health wants to see fewer than 75 new cases in two weeks per 100,000 people in a county.

The latest confirmed case count based on when symptoms first appeared is for Aug. 17-30, with Benton County at 131 cases per 100,000 and Franklin County at 200 cases per 100,000.

All cases reported in the state of Washington for the same two weeks came to 85 cases per 100,000 people.

Preliminary data for when symptoms appeared, rather than when positive test results were reported to public heath officials, showed the number of new cases in Benton County down to that goal of 75 cases per 100,000 people on the two weeks ending Sept. 8, the local health district announced.

However, some additional cases continue to be added to that preliminary data for early September, including additional data for the two weeks ending Sept. 8 that has increased the total to 86 cases per 100,000.

COVID hospitalizations

The number of patients admitted to Tri-Cities area hospitals last week for treatment of COVID-19 dropped to 13 last week, down from a spike to 35 new patients the week before.

On Friday, 32 people were being treated for COVID-19, including new and earlier admissions, at local hospitals.

They accounted for just under 10% of the patients in Richland, Kennewick, Pasco and Prosser hospitals. It is one of the lowest percentages reported this summer.

In Benton County, 10% of test results received last week were positive. In Franklin County 12% of test results were positive.

Statewide the recent average positive test rate was 3.3%.

The test numbers reflect only polymerase chain reaction tests, which are administered while the virus is presumably still active in the body.

Total number of deaths from COVID-19 in the Tri-Cities area is 160. Benton County has had 113 deaths and Franklin County has had 47.

Washington state

The Washington state Department of Health on Friday reported 544 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 and six deaths.

Statewide totals from the illness caused by the coronavirus are at 79,011 cases and 1,991 deaths, up from 78,467 cases and 1,985 Thursday. Washington’s population is estimated at about 7.6 million, according to U.S. Census figures from July 2019.

Twenty-six people with confirmed COVID-19 cases were admitted to Washington state hospitals on Aug. 23, the most recent date with complete data. Late March had two days with 88 people admitted, the highest numbers to date during the pandemic.

King County continues to have the highest numbers in Washington, with 20,640 cases and 744 deaths. Yakima County is second, with 11,129 cases and 251 deaths. Pierce is third with cases at 7,232 and 160 deaths.

Benton and Franklin counties ranked sixth and seventh for the total number of cases, after Snohomish and Spokane counties.

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

On Friday, Washington had a 1,041-per-100,000-people case rate. The national rate is 1,935, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Louisiana has the highest rate in the United States at 3,355. Vermont is lowest at 265.

There had been more than 6.43 million confirmed coronavirus cases and 192,792 deaths from the virus in the United States as of Friday evening, according to Johns Hopkins University. More than 911,000 people have died from the disease worldwide.

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

This story was originally published September 12, 2020 at 1:51 PM.