Tri-Cities new COVID cases continue to rise as Kennewick students start back to school

The number of COVID-19 cases jumped by 147 over the weekend, bringing the total in Benton and Franklin counties since the start of the pandemic to 9,678.

The health district reported there were no new deaths over the weekend.

The average number of daily cases rose to 46 for the seven days ending on Monday. That was up from 41 a day on Friday.

After seeing the number of new cases in the Tri-Cities drop from a high in July, rates leveled and are now trending upward again. But they have not reached the same levels as this summer. The third week of July saw as many as 184 new cases reported on a single day.

The number of people hospitalized in the Tri-Cities area with COVID-19 dropped by two patients back to 21 over the weekend.

It remains lower than the 89 patients that were being treated at local hospitals at the height of the outbreak this summer.

Those 21 patients this weekend accounted for 6 percent of all of the patients at Kadlec, Trios Southridge, Lourdes and Prosser hospitals.

Total deaths since the start of the pandemic in Benton and Franklin counties stayed at 187.

They were 126 Benton County residents and 61 people from Franklin County.

In all, 5,018 people in Benton County have tested positive for COVID since March and 4,660 people in Franklin County.

Back to school

Kennewick elementary school students returned to in-person classes on Monday.

For many of them, it was the first time they had been on school grounds since March and for the youngest students it was the first time they’d been in a classroom at all.

Health district officials continue to support returning to class. District health officer Dr. Amy Person has said they believe transmission rates between young children are lower than om older children. The county has not seen any cases where a child has passed the disease on to an adult or another child, she has said.

After reporting 15 cases cases among Kennewick School District employees and a student since the end of August, there haven’t been any new cases reported in Kennewick schools for a week.

Kennewick is the only district with a public list of cases, including what schools were affected. Richland has said it plans to start one soon.

Case rates

The rate of new cases per 100,000 people over a two-week period continues to climb in both counties. For the period between Sept. 22 and Oct. 5, there were 137 cases per 100,000 in Benton County, and 245 cases per 100,000 people in Franklin County.

These were the rates that were reported on Friday. The state has not updated its figures for Monday yet.

This is above the 75 cases per 100,000 people over a two-week period that the state Department of Health included in its guidance as safe for schools to reopen.

The state did not challenge Dr. Person’s position during a recent Richland School Board meeting that rates can be as high as 200 per 100,000 people without a major spread of the disease in the schools as long as precautions are followed.

State officials say the ultimate decision is up to each school district.

Washington state rates

The Washington State Department of Health on Sunday reported 530 new confirmed cases of COVID-19. The department is no longer reporting deaths on weekends.

Pierce County reported 108 new cases and one death on Sunday. Pierce County had a total of 185 deaths likely caused by COVID-19 as of Sunday, according to the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department.

Statewide totals from the illness caused by the coronavirus are at 98,201 cases and 2,239 deaths, up from 97,671 cases on Friday.

King County continues to have the highest numbers in Washington, with 25,093 cases and 793 deaths. Yakima County is second, with 11,708 cases and 267 deaths. Pierce is third with cases at 9,262.

All counties in Washington have cases.

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

This story was originally published October 19, 2020 at 2:23 PM.