Rise in COVID case rates worse in Benton County. Another death reported

Another death from complications of COVID-19 and 66 more Tri-Cities area cases were reported Thursday by the Benton Franklin Health District.

That’s the lowest number of new daily cases reported this week, but it still puts the average daily number of cases for the week so far at 86.

That’s up from an average of 51 new COVID cases per day last week and an average of 42 new daily cases the previous week. Local cases are reported on a weekly schedule from the weekend through Friday.

Case rates based on population have returned to levels seen in early to mid August. And the Benton County case rate is climbing faster than the rate in Franklin County.

The increase in cases comes as Washington state on Wednesday reported the highest single-day total of new cases since the start of the pandemic. And more than 100,000 cases were reported for one day in the United States on Wednesday.

The death reported locally on Thursday was a Franklin County woman in her 70s.

She was at risk of a severe case of the virus because of her age, but had no known underlying health conditions linked to COVID risk.

Deaths since the start of the pandemic in the Tri-Cities area now total 191, including 128 people in Benton County and 63 in Franklin County.

The cases reported for the Tri-Cities area on Thursday included 51 in Benton County and 15 in Franklin County.

They bring total cases in the bicounty area since the start of the pandemic to 10,692, including 5,646 in Benton County and 5,046 in Franklin County.

Test results are running 13% positive in Benton County and 15% positive for Franklin County, with the most recent data for Oct. 26 to Nov. 1.

There were 32 patients being treated for COVID-19 in local hospitals on Thursday, up from numbers mostly in the 20s in October. There have been as many as 39 COVID patients in local hospitals at one time this month.

The 32 COVID patients on Thursday accounted for 9% of total patients in the hospitals in Richland, Kennewick, Pasco and Prosser.

Testing traffic jam

Traffic was backed up on Argent Road in Pasco on Thursday morning, with people trying to get onto a site next to the Columbia Basin College campus for free drive-thru testing for COVID-19.

Pasco police arrived to set up barricades to direct traffic and keep it flowing.

The site collected a record number of samples for testing, about 600, on Monday. When it reopened on Thursday, it was on track to set another record, said Ben Shearer of the Pasco Fire Department.

The site at 3110 W. Argent Road is open 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursdays through Mondays and is popular, in part, because test results are available in just one to three days.

Appointments for the drive-thru testing near the CBC campus can be made online at bfhd.wa.gov/covid19 under “Testing Sites.”

The Benton Franklin Health District has compiled a list of additional testing places for active coronavirus cases, including free drive-thru testing, with hours of operation, at bit.ly/TCtestingsites.

School reopening

A new report by the Institute of Disease modeling, reaffirms the importance of reducing community transmission prior to reopening K-12 schools for in-person learning, said the Washington state Department of Health on Thursday.

But it also said that while there are risks associated with full in-person learning, the risks can be significantly reduced by wearing masks, screening daily for symptoms, physical distancing, improved ventilation, hand hygiene and keeping students in limited groups to reduce the number of people with which staff and students have contact.

With good safety and sanitation practices, the three-month cumulative transmission incidents would be reduced to 2% or less for students and staff in school five days a week, the report said. Without the measures, up to 45% of staff and 33% of students could be infected in the same time period.

“The findings of this modeling indicate that it is possible to carefully resume some in-person learning for some students, especially younger students, while keeping the risk of transmission in our schools relatively low if strong health and safety measures are in place,” said Lacy Fehrenbach, deputy secretary for COVID-19 response at the state Department of Health.

Dr. Amy Person, health officer for the Benton Franklin Health District, has not changed her recommendation that schools partially reopen, saying that schools elsewhere that follow strict preventive measures have returned to some in-class learning without major COVID outbreaks.

Tri-Cities case rates

Case rates for Benton and Franklin counties are increasing even as rates were already were far above what the Washington state Department of Health considers high risk for school reopening — 75 or more cases per 100,0000 over two weeks.

The latest case rate for Benton County confirmed by the Washington state Department of Health is 179 cases per 100,000 over the two weeks ending Oct. 24.

But preliminary data shows that will increase to 260 for the two weeks ending Nov. 2.

Positive test results are backdated to the date when symptoms first appeared for the state’s calculation of the confirmed case rate, causing a lag time in results.

The preliminary data puts the case rate at close to the rate reported for the two weeks ending Aug. 4, as a steep drop in daily case rates was continuing then.

However, it is still below the peak rate of 425 cases per 100,000 over two weeks in early July.

For Franklin County the latest case rate confirmed by the state is 274 cases per 100,000 over the two weeks ending Oct. 24.

It’s case rate also is going up, with preliminary data showing that the case rate will reach 321 per 100,000 people over the two weeks ending Oct. 31.

That’s the highest case rates have been since mid August, but well below the peak case rate of 918 cases per 100,000 people over two weeks seen in early July.

Washington state

The Washington State Department of Health on Wednesday reported 1,469 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 16 new deaths. It surpasses the previous high of 1,056 on July 6 to become the highest number of new cases reported on a single day.

Statewide totals from the illness caused by the coronavirus are at 111,480 cases and 2,416 deaths, up from 110,011 cases and 2,400 deaths on Tuesday.

King County continues to have the highest number of cases in Washington, with 28,926 cases and 822 deaths. Yakima County is second, with 12,061 cases and 279 deaths. Pierce is third with cases at 10,879 and 233 deaths.

Benton and Franklin rank sixth and seventh for cases, following Spokane and Snohomish. If Benton and Franklin counties were considered together, they would rank fourth.

All counties in Washington have cases with just two with fewer than 20 — Columbia with 18 and Wahkiakum with 11.

Jon Manley with The (Tacoma) News Tribune contributed to this report.

This story was originally published November 5, 2020 at 2:05 PM.