More Tri-Citians could be asked to quarantine under changed CDC guidance

More Tri-Citians could be asked to self quarantine as guidelines tighten for who is considered a “close contact” of an infected person.

Close contacts are asked to stay home for 14 days and monitor themselves for symptoms to help prevent spreading the disease.

Last week the Centers for Disease Control announced that it was expanding the definition of close contacts, and Washington state and the Benton Franklin Health District now are adopting the new definition.

Previously, a close contact was defined as anyone who spent 15 consecutive minutes within six feet of a person with COVID-19, putting them at risk of being infected with the coronavirus.

The new definition says the 15 minutes of contact may be cumulative over 24 hours, instead of at one time. That means, for example, that three, five-minute exposures to an infected person would be considered close contact.

But the CDC says factors to consider also include the distance between two people, the length of exposure and whether the infected person was coughing, singing or shouting.

Closer contact, longer exposure and certain activities by the infected person increase the risk of transmission.

The CDC said public health officials also may consider whether the person with COVID-19 was in the most infectious phase of the disease, which is around the onset of symptoms. A person may be infectious up to two days before symptoms appear.

Other factors that could be considered are whether the exposure was outdoors, which reduces the risk, and whether ventilation was good if the exposure was indoors.

The new definition does not take into account whether masks were being worn because the CDC said that the general public has not received training on proper selection and use of face coverings.

However, masks remain required in Washington state when indoors with nonhousehold members and outdoors if six feet of distance may not be possible.

When the Benton Franklin Health District is notified of a positive test result for COVID-19, its contact tracers call the infected person to identify where that person may have been infected and to determine who their close contacts were.

Close contacts are then notified and asked to quarantine to prevent further spread of the coronavirus.

Most people voluntarily comply, public health officials have said.

Tri-Cities cases, deaths

Another 36 confirmed COVID-19 cases were reported in the Tri-Cities area on Friday.

It brought total new cases reported for the week — including the past weekend — to 357 or an average of 51 per day. That’s up from an average of 42 new cases a day for the previous week.

After a dramatic drop in cases from July through early September, the number of new cases reported has been creeping up again.

The new cases reported on Friday include 20 in Benton County for a total of 5,291 since the start of the pandemic and 16 in Franklin County for a total of 4,885.

The local health district does not update new case information on the weekends.

The latest case rate for Benton County confirmed by the Washington state Department of Health is 152 cases per 100,000 people over the two weeks ending Oct. 19.

Preliminary data shows the Benton County case rate will increase to as high as 185 cases per 100,000 over the two weeks ending Oct. 26.

For Franklin County the latest case rate confirmed by the Washington state Department of Health is 264 cases per 100,000 over the two weeks ending Oct. 19.

No new Tri-Cities area deaths from complications of COVID-19 have been reported since Wednesday.

It was the only COVID-caused death reported this week, bringing the total residents who have died from infection with the coronavirus in the Tri-Cities area to 189.

The number of patients hospitalized locally for treatment of COVID on Friday was 33, down from 36 on Thursday.

Until the past three days, the number of patients being treated for COVID at Tri-Cities hospitals had not been in the 30s for multiple days in a row since August.

The 33 COVID patients on Friday accounted for about 10% of all patients in the Richland, Kennewick, Pasco and Prosser hospitals.

Washington state

The number of new cases in the state topped 1,000 on Friday, with the Washington state Department of Health reporting 1,016 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 and seven deaths.

Statewide totals from the illness caused by the coronavirus are at 106,573, cases and 2,366 deaths, up from 105,557 cases and 2,359 deaths Thursday. Washington’s population is estimated at about 7.6 million, according to U.S. Census figures from July 2019.

Thirty-four people with confirmed COVID-19 cases were admitted to Washington state hospitals on Oct. 11, the most recent date with complete data. Average daily hospitalizations peaked in early April at 78.

On Oct. 19, the most recent date with complete data, 23,855 specimens were collected statewide, with 3.6% testing positive. The average positive test rate for the seven days prior was 3.7%. More than 2.4 million tests have been conducted in Washington.

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

King County continues to have the highest case numbers in Washington, with 27,353 cases and 815 deaths. Yakima County is second, with 11,931 cases and 273 deaths. Pierce is third with cases at 10,331 and 227 deaths, according to the state’s tally.

If Benton and Franklin counties are considered together, they would rank next for total cases. Considered separately, they rank six and seventh after Spokane and Snohomish counties.

All 39 counties in Washington have cases. Eight counties have case counts of fewer than 100. Columbia County has and only 16 cases. Only Wahkiakum County, with 10 cases, has fewer.

For the past seven days, Washington had a case rate of 9.5-per-100,000-people. The national rate for the same period is 23.2, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. North Dakota has the highest rate in the United States at 123 Vermont is the lowest at 3.8.

There have been more than 9 million confirmed coronavirus cases and 229,511 deaths from the virus in the United States as of Friday afternoon, according to Johns Hopkins University.

The United States has the highest number of reported cases and deaths of any nation, although some other countries have higher rates based on population. More than 1.1 million people have died from the disease worldwide. Global cases exceed 45 million.

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

This story was originally published October 30, 2020 at 2:10 PM.