Daily COVID cases continue steep climb in Tri-Cities. 242 new cases reported Tuesday

The Tri-Cities area has another 242 confirmed cases of COVID-19 as the daily number of new cases continues to grow, the Benton Franklin Health District reported on Tuesday.

That was up from the average 198 new cases reported each of the previous three days, but the Tuesday report may have included some of the backlog that overwhelmed the Washington state Department of Health’s disease reporting system over the weekend.

They come as the state of Washington reported a record high number of cases on Tuesday.

The cases reported locally on Tuesday bring new known cases since Friday to an average of 209 per day.

It’s up from an average of 163 new cases per day last week.

The three weeks before that had steadily increasing rates averaging 122, 82 and 42 cases per day, respectively. Local cases are reported on a weekly schedule of the weekend through Friday.

The new case rate in Franklin County was 824 new cases reported per 100,000 population over the two weeks ending Nov. 17.

It is the most recent day for which mostly complete information is available based on when onset of symptoms or collection of testing samples was reported.

In Benton County the new case rate was 711 new cases reported per 100,000 over the same two weeks.

A week earlier the Benton County case rate was 518 and the Franklin County rate was 493, according to data from the Benton Franklin Health District.

Franklin County has not reached its previous peak rate, but Benton County is well over its previous high rate.

In the first peak of the virus this summer in the Tri-Cities area, Benton County reached a case rate just over 400 and Franklin County reached a case rate of about 900.

The 242 new cases reported on Tuesday included 148 in Benton County and 94 in Franklin County.

Since the start of the pandemic Benton County has had 7,506 confirmed cases and Franklin County has had 6,082 for a bicounty total of 13,588.

No additional deaths from complications of COVID-19 were reported by the local health district on Tuesday, leaving the tally at 198, including 134 residents of Benton County and 64 residents of Franklin County.

Nine deaths from coronavirus infections have been reported in the Tri-Cities area so far this month.

Local hospitals reported to the health district that they were treating 44 patients for COVID-19 on Tuesday.

That compares to 36 a week ago and 23 a month ago.

The 44 patients being treated for COVID-19 — either with positive test results or pending test results — accounted for 12% of all patients at hospitals in Richland, Kennewick, Pasco and Prosser.

Washington state

The Washington state Department of Health reported a record high 3,482 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 35 deaths Tuesday.

Statewide totals from the illness caused by the coronavirus are at 151,019 cases and 2,690 deaths, up from 147,537 cases and 2,655 deaths Monday. Washington’s population is estimated at about 7.6 million, according to U.S. Census figures from July 2019.

Forty-three people were admitted to Washington state hospitals on Nov. 5, the most recent date with complete data. Average daily hospitalizations peaked in early April at 78. Preliminary data shows hospitalizations have been increasing in November.

King County continues to have the highest numbers in Washington, with 40,522 cases and 864 deaths.

Pierce County has the second highest number of cases, 15,370, followed by Spokane County with 15,004, according to the state.

They are followed by Snohomish, Yakima, Clark, Benton and Franklin counties. If Benton and Franklin counties were considered together, they would rank fourth.

Yakima County has the second highest number of deaths at 295, according to the last state data for all counties.

All counties in Washington have cases. Only five counties have case counts of fewer than 100, including Columbia with 30.

For the past seven days, Washington had a case rate of 30.3 per 100,000 people. The national rate for the same period is 52.3 per 100,000, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. North Dakota has the highest rate in the United States, at 158.5. Hawaii is the lowest, at 6.8.

There have been more than 12.5 million confirmed coronavirus cases and 259,477 deaths from the virus in the United States as of Tuesday afternoon, according to Johns Hopkins University. The United States has the highest number of reported cases and deaths of any nation, although some countries have a higher rate based on population.

More than 1.4 million people have died from the disease worldwide. Global cases exceed 59 million.

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

This story was originally published November 24, 2020 at 2:13 PM.