COVID hospitalizations still climbing in Tri-Cities. Another death reported

The Benton Franklin Health District reported another death as the number of new COVID-19 cases in the Tri-Cities jumped 676 over the past three days.

However, health officials warn that “positive case counts are anticipated to be significantly underreported” due to a slow down in system processing at the state level.

The delay is affecting the reporting of positive results to the public from Dec. 3 forward until the issue is resolved by the Washington State Department of Health, the local health district announced Sunday.

Officials clarified that the slow down will have no impact on the time frame for test results being provided to people who have tested.

The state health department also notified local health jurisdictions that it has resumed reporting negative lab results, but has a backlog to get through from Nov. 21 to Dec. 1.

“Since this time frame is still incomplete, positivity rates continue to be inaccurate and will appear higher than actual,” the health district said.

This comes at the same time public health officials have been saying they expect to see an increase in disease activity as the spread of infection through Thanksgiving travel and gatherings starts to show up.

COVID case rates

A Franklin County man in his 70s died recently of complications of the disease, the health district said Monday. He had underlying health conditions that have been linked to the risk of a severe case of the coronavirus.

There have been 206 deaths in the two counties from infection with the coronavirus, including 139 in Benton County and 67 in Franklin County.

The new confirmed cases reported Monday include 390 in Benton County residents and 286 in Franklin County residents.

The total for the two counties since the start of the pandemic is now 15,996 — 8,923 confirmed cases in Benton County and 7,073 in Franklin County.

The new case rate in Franklin County per 100,000 is 1,070 for the two weeks through Nov. 30. That is slightly down from 1,094 for the two-week period ending Nov. 23.

Case rates are figured based on when symptoms occurred or tests were done, causing a delay in data.

In Benton County, 744 cases per 100,000 were reported for the two weeks ending Nov. 30. That’s also down from 760 reported a week earlier.

Since the health district last reported Friday, nine more patients were hospitalized locally for treatment of COVID-19.

The 72 patients accounted for 18 percent of the 402 patients at the hospitals in Richland, Kennewick, Pasco and Prosser.

Washington state

The Washington State Department of Health on Saturday reported 1,503 new confirmed cases of COVID-19. The department is no longer reporting deaths on weekends.

Pierce County reported 177 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday. Pierce County had a total of 247 deaths likely caused by COVID-19 as of Saturday, according to the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department.

Statewide totals from the illness caused by the coronavirus are at 175,793 cases and 2,925 deaths, up from 174,290 cases on Friday.

King County continues to have the highest numbers in Washington, with 47,032 cases and 914 deaths. Yakima County has 14,175 cases and 313 deaths. Pierce is second in cases with 18,365.

All counties in Washington have cases.

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

This story was originally published December 7, 2020 at 3:44 PM.