48 current COVID outbreaks in Tri-Cities. What it means for schools

Benton and Franklin counties now have 48 active outbreaks of coronavirus infections.

Outbreaks in businesses have been primarily in health care organizations, long-term care centers and in food production facilities where people work together closely, Dr. Amy Person said during a media briefing on Thursday.

And as of Wednesday just two of the current outbreaks were in schools, said Heather Hill, the communicable disease program manager for the local health district.

Those cases were in workers who are based in offices or administrative areas rather than in classrooms, Hill said, speaking on the Kadlec on Call podcast.

There was one outbreak in a classroom setting, but that was because COVID safety protocols were not being followed, Dr. Person said.

In other cases people were infected outside school, but then entire classrooms were potentially exposed by the infected person and had to be quarantined for two weeks.

A school or business outbreak is declared if public health contact tracers determine that an employee of a business infected at least one other person at the workplace or school. Outbreaks linked to gatherings involve five or more infected people.

School ‘success story’

Schools have been a success story, Dr. Person contends.

“Because of the adherence to safety protocols and the hard work that our schools, our school nurses and our public health staff have been doing, we have been able to continue to have in-person education provided to our youngest students and our students at highest risk,” she said. “... Schools have been doing a great job at preventing disease from spreading within the schools.”

However, unless the Tri-Cities area does a better job of reducing the rate of new infections “we will continue to see impacts on our schools,” she said. “And that will impact the ability of schools to be able to provide that education that those kids really need.”

So far, only elementary school students in the three Tri-Cities districts are attending partially in-person classes. Most high school and middle school students are still learning remotely, though some at-risk students have been allowed to attend in-person.

Public health contact tracers who talk with people who became infected and those they came in contact with continue to link the spread of the virus to their personal lives, Hill said.

Area residents are being mostly responsible about wearing masks in stores and at schools, but let their guard down with friends and family.

The health district sees the spread of the disease when people are in close proximity with others and not wearing masks, Dr. Person said.

“There is an unfortunate attitude that ‘I’m young and healthy — it’s OK if I get infected’,” Hill said. “But there is always the potential you’ll expose somebody and infect them (and) the outcome will be devastating. And you might not even realize you infected somebody else.”

Tri-Cities school cases

As of Thursday, Kennewick, with about 18,000 students, reported there have been 124 positive COVID cases since Sept. 1.

Of those, 16 positive cases were reported this week and 41 in the past two weeks. Multiple cases this week at the same school included three students testing positive at Southgate Elementary and two at Amon Creek Elementary.

Pasco, with 19,000 students, reported having 149 positive cases in students and staff since the start of the school year. There have been 63 cases in the past two weeks in Pasco schools.

And in Richland, with about 14,000 students, the school district reported 49 cases in students and in 29 employees since Oct. 19-20.

This story was originally published December 3, 2020 at 12:57 PM.