Record COVID testing expected in Pasco as cases surge, another death reported

An average of 132 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 for the past two days and another death due to complications of COVID-19 were reported on Thursday.

The Benton Franklin Health District did not release information on Veterans Day, so data released Thursday was for two days.

The death reported Thursday was a Benton County woman in her 60s with no known underlying health conditions.

Her death brings the number of Tri-Cities area residents who have died due to infection with the coronavirus to 192, including 129 residents of Benton County and 63 residents of Franklin County.

With 264 new local cases reported on Thursday, the average per day for the week so far is 135.

That compares to an average of 82 new cases per day last week and 42 a day the previous week in mid-October. Local cases are reported on a weekly schedule from the weekend through Friday.

Franklin County is close to hitting a case rate of 400 cases per 100,000 residents over two weeks.

Tri-Cities case rates

The Benton Franklin Health District on Thursday reported Pasco had 399 cases per 100,000 residents for the two weeks ending Nov. 5.

Benton County reached a rate of 382 cases per 100,000 people for the same two-week period.

The state set a rate of 75 per 100,000 people over two weeks as high risk for school reopening.

But the Benton Franklin health officer, Dr. Amy Person, says some schools nationally and internationally have shown that they can reopen with higher new area case rates with limited in-school transmission if strict safety protocols are followed.

The new confirmed cases reported on Thursday for two days included 182 in Benton County, bringing its known COVID cases since the start of the pandemic to 6,263.

Franklin County had 82 more confirmed, bringing its cases to 5,302. The counties together have had 11,565 cases.

The local health district does not track how many people have recovered.

On Thursday 35 were people hospitalized locally for treatment of a known or suspected infection with the coronavirus. Some of their patients were waiting for test results.

COVID patient numbers for all Benton and Franklin County hospitals have mostly been in the 30s for the past two weeks.

The 35 COVID patients on Thursday accounted for 9% of all patients in the Richland, Kennewick, Pasco and Prosser hospitals.

Washington state did not update COVID case numbers on Veterans Day and numbers for Thursday were not immediately available.

Busy Tri-Cities testing site

The COVID testing site by the Columbia Basin College at 3110 W. Argent Road, Pasco, was on track to collect a record-number of samples to test on Thursday.

The drive-thru testing site is open 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursdays through Mondays, with Thursdays and Mondays the busiest days, said Ben Shearer with the Pasco Fire Department. The fire department helps staff the site.

There is very little wait time on other days, he said.

Usually traffic backups start to clear by 1 p.m. on the busiest days, but Thursday the back up still had not cleared by 1:30 p.m.

“We’re trying to get people through as fast as we can,” Shearer said.

More than 800 people were expected to have samples collected for testing on Thursday at the Argent Road site.

Appointments for the Argent Road drive-thru testing, which are not required, can be made on line here. Information about other testing sites also is posted.

This story was originally published November 12, 2020 at 2:17 PM.