New Tri-Cities COVID cases continue to average nearly 200 a day

The Benton Franklin Health District reported 959 confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Monday for the past five days.

The two-week new case rate per 100,000 people in Franklin County now exceeds 1,000, meaning more than 1 in every 100 residents was diagnosed recently with COVID-19.

The local health district had not released information since the day before Thanksgiving because workers had Thursday and Friday off.

The new cases reported Monday average 192 a day.

That compares to the average number of cases per day of 206 for last week up until Thanksgiving.

In the four weeks before that average daily cases had been steadily increasing, with cases those weeks averaging 163, 122, 82 and 42 cases per day.

The new case rate in Franklin County per 100,000 is 1,094 for the two weeks through Nov. 23. Case rates are figured based on when symptoms occurred or tests were done, causing a delay in data.

The case rate is up from 741 reported the week before that.

In Benton County, 760 cases per 100,000 were reported for the two weeks ending Nov. 23. That’s up from 670 reported a week earlier.

Benton County already had exceeded its peak two-week new case rate reported this summer of just over 400 and now Franklin County has also exceeded it peak case rate of about 900.

The new cases reported on Monday put the total for the two counties since the start of the pandemic at 14,740, including 8,177 cases in Benton County and 6,563 cases in Franklin County.

Deaths, hospitalizations

No new deaths from complications of COVID-19 were added to the local health district’s total for Benton and Franklin counties on Monday.

Although the Benton County coroner’s office has confirmed the death from COVID complications of a Kennewick teenager who had disabilities, the local health district does not confirm deaths until it verifies a positive COVID test and the cause on the death certificate.

The official local tally of deaths from coronavirus infections stands at 198, including 134 residents of Benton County and 64 from Franklin County.

Nine deaths from complications of COVID-19 were reported by the health district this month.

Local hospitals reported 53 patients being treated for COVID-19 on Monday. That’s up from 43 a week ago.

The 53 patients, either with positive COVID tests or pending test results, accounted for nearly 15% of patients in hospitals in Richland, Kennewick, Pasco and Prosser.

The state goal is fewer than 10% of hospital patients being treated for COVID to ensure adequate capacity.

Vaccine concern

A sign was hung across the Edison Street overpass of Highway 240 in Kennewick on Sunday saying “COVID-19 Vaccine Manufacturers are Exempt from Liability.”

It was part of the group V is for Vaccine’s demonstrations held in several countries on the busiest travel day of the year.

The group is concerned that the fast-tracking of COVID-19 vaccines will be done without long-term safety studies.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration says it is committed to expediting the development of COVID-19 vaccines, but not at the expense of sound science and decision making.

“We will not jeopardize the public’s trust in our science-based independent review of these or any vaccines,” said FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn in a statement. “There’s too much at stake.”

Anyone in the United States who believes they have been harmed by the COVID or other vaccine may address it through a claim to the federal government’s National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, after the act establishing the program in 1986 eliminated financial liability of vaccine manufacturers.

The Insurance Journal reports that the program has not received any additional funding at this point to handle COVID claims.

Washington state

The Washington State Department of Health on Saturday reported 2,467 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 and on Sunday reported 2,066 new cases.

The department does not report deaths on weekends.

Statewide totals from the illness caused by the coronavirus are at 162,700 cases and 2,703 deaths, up from up from 158,167 cases on Friday and 160,634 cases on Saturday.

King County continues to have the highest numbers in Washington, with 43,847 cases and 866 deaths. Pierce is second in cases with 16,757 and Spokane is third with 16,606 cases.

They are followed by Snohomish, Yakima, Clark, Benton and Franklin counties, according to the latest state count available for all counties. If Benton and Franklin counties were considered together, they would rank fourth for number of cases.

Just five counties in Washington have fewer than 100 cases, including Columbia with 38 cases.

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

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