14 more COVID deaths reported in Tri-Cities area, after audit of death certificates

The Benton Franklin Health District reported 14 more deaths from complications of COVID-19 in the Tri-Cities area on Friday.

The deaths, which happened between July 17 and Sept. 18, were discovered in an audit by the local health district of deaths in the Tri-Cities.

They bring total deaths in the two counties since the start of the pandemic to 185.

Four of the deaths were missed because residents of Benton and Franklin counties were in other counties when they died, and the local health district was not notified of the deaths.

The other 10 were just missed during a hectic two-month period at the health district, with some of its staff out and other staff reassigned to cover other jobs.

Initially, the audit of all deaths back to the start of the pandemic identified 30 more local residents who had positive test results for COVID-19 and had died.

As they do with all deaths, local health officials took a close look at their death certificates and determined that the coronavirus was the direct cause of death for 14 of them, said Nikki Ostergaard, spokeswoman for the Benton Franklin Health District.

The audit was prompted by a closer look at workers at Twin City Foods in Pasco who died of COVID-19.

The local health district confirmed two workers there died. The company says there is not information to link the infection of those employees to their work at the plant.

One of the Twin Foods employees who died was a worker who was currently living in Benton County, but his family listed his home in Texas for the death certificate so he had not been included in local death stats. The worker is among the 14 deaths reported by the local health district on Friday.

The health district checked into a third death because the person had a connection to Twin City Foods workers, but found his death had already been reported in the July deaths of workers at Tyson Fresh Meats south of Pasco.

Four residents of Benton and Franklin counties believed to have worked at the larger Tyson beef packing plant in Wallula also have died. It is unknown whether they were infected on or off the job.

“The Benton Franklin Health District recognizes the importance of accuracy and transparency in reporting data to our community and stakeholders and regrets the information was missed,” Ostergaard said.

“Each one of these numbers is a person in our community and it is important we not only provide all information, but recognize family members are grieving the loss of these individuals,” she said.

The health district has a new process in place to perform regular death audits now and to make sure local deaths due to COVID-19 are not missed, she said.

Tri-Cities COVID cases

The Benton Franklin Health District reported 29 new confirmed COVID-19 cases on Friday, a number in line with many days in the past two weeks before a spike in cases to 37 cases reported Thursday and 41 reported Friday.

They bring total cases in Benton County since the start of the pandemic to 4,780 and total cases in Franklin County to 4,466.

The Washington state Department of Health’s confirmed new case rate for Benton County increased to 107 per 100,000 people over the two week period ending Sept. 27. A day earlier it had been reported at 102.

It’s confirmed new case rate for Franklin County increased to 183 per 100,000 over the same two weeks. A day earlier the rate was reported at 176.

The Washington state Department of Health has set rates at 75 or more per 100,000 over two weeks as high risk for school reopening.

But Dr. Amy Person, health officer for Benton and Franklin counties, says the recent experiences of other schools nationally and internationally shows that schools could partially reopen at higher rates with only limited spread of the coronavirus if safety protocols are followed.

Washington state

The Washington state Department of Health reported Thursday 710 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 and six deaths as the state passed the 2 million mark for coronavirus tests.

Statewide totals from the illness caused by the coronavirus are at 91,918 cases and 2,183 deaths, up from 91,208 cases and 2,177 deaths Wednesday. Washington’s population is estimated at about 7.6 million, according to U.S. Census figures from July 2019.

Twenty people with confirmed COVID-19 cases were admitted to Washington state hospitals on Sept. 19, the most recent date with complete data. Average daily hospitalizations peaked in early April at 78.

King County continues to have the highest numbers in Washington, with 23,547 cases and 782 deaths. Yakima County is second, with 11,536 cases and 263 deaths. Pierce is third with cases at 8,518 and 208 deaths, according to the state’s tally.

Benton and Franklin rank sixth and seventh for cases, following Spokane and Snohomish counties.

All counties in Washington have cases. Ten counties have case counts of fewer than 100, including Columbia County with 14 cases.

On Thursday, Washington had a 1,210-per-100,000-people case rate. The national rate is 2,275 according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Louisiana has the highest rate in the United States at 3,704. Vermont is lowest at 292.

There had been more than 7.5 million confirmed coronavirus cases and 212,594 deaths from the virus in the United States as of Thursday afternoon, according to Johns Hopkins University.

The United States has the highest number of reported cases and deaths of any nation. More than 1 million people have died from the disease worldwide. Global cases exceed 36 million.

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

This story was originally published October 9, 2020 at 1:47 PM.