Thanksgiving holiday wipes out Tri-Cities progress. 246 new COVID cases, 3 more deaths

Public health officials say that recent progress in reducing the spread of COVID-19 throughout the Tri-Cities was wiped out by the Thanksgiving holiday.

The comments made Thursday by Dr. Amy Person came just hours before the Benton Franklin Health District reported a new daily case count of 246 and three more deaths.

The triple-digit number is a trend that has held steady all week. Officials had expected it would take more than a week for local case counts to reflect the travel and large gatherings that happened around the Nov. 26 holiday.

However, Person said they believe it can be turned around just as quickly, as long as people are vigilant about personal health and safety and avoid close contact.

“Towards the end of November we had seen an improvement related to limitations in the places where people could gather outside of their home, particularly if they’re spending prolonged time without their mask on and gathering with people outside of the home,” Person said during a weekly virtual media briefing.

“What we have seen in early December, as we anticipated, is that the effect of Thanksgiving has erased a large degree of the progress we had made through that point.”

Person’s comments were made after evaluating the patterns in disease activity and the trend of the epidemic curve, which shows the progression of illness linked to the coronavirus.

Three men — two in their 60s and one in his 70s — died recently of complications of COVID-19, the health district reported Thursday. Two men were Benton County residents and the third lived in Franklin County.

All three had underlying health conditions that have been linked to the risk of a severe case of the coronavirus.

New COVID cases

Of the 246 new confirmed cases Thursday, 162 were in Benton County for a total 9,423 since the pandemic started, and 84 in Franklin County for a total 7,392.

The rate in Benton County per 100,000 is 729 cases for the two weeks through Dec. 3. In Franklin County, 1,084 cases per 100,000 were reported for the same two-week period.

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

“We know that people are tired of doing what they need to do. They’re tired of being away from their families, from spending time with their friends,” said Person.

“But we do need as a community to try to continue to keep our masks on, to remain physically distant from one another, and not to gather outside of the home so that we can again bring the disease activity down and reduce the number of people who are being infected with COVID-19,” she added. “And, more importantly, to reduce the number of people who are being hospitalized or who are dying from COVID-19.”

Dr. Person said hospitalizations lag behind new confirmed cases because typically people who become ill with the virus do not seek inpatient treatment until later.

Hospital admissions as of Thursday show 73 people being treated for the virus — or 17.5 percent of the total 416 patients — at facilities in Kennewick, Pasco, Richland and Prosser.

Health district data shows 11 more residents and staff members of long-term care facilities have tested positive, bringing the pandemic’s total to 684.

The health district said the positivity rate for cases in the two counties was 19.6 percent, as reported Wednesday through the Washington state Department of Health. Updated data was not yet released for Thursday.

Overall, 90.2 percent of hospital beds in the two counties are being occupied by patients seeking a vast array of medical care. The state Department of Health wants to see fewer than 80% of beds in use to ensure hospital readiness.

Slow vaccine rollout

Person touched on how the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is working to give emergency-use authorization for the vaccine, which could start being distributed as early as next week.

She reminded residents that it is the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the state Department of Health — not the local health district — that will be identifying the healthcare workers and first responders with the most high risk to be in the first round of recipients.

“At this point it is estimated that for the general community, the vaccine will be available late spring to early summer of 2021,” said Person.

She noted that since it will be a slow rollout for the vaccine, and two more large holidays are approaching later this month, people should continue to “carefully weigh the risk of their actions against their values, remembering also that everything that we do as individuals, as families, as organizations effects others in this community.”

Health officials have seen COVID disease activity rates rise and fall over relatively short periods of time, she said.

“In July we were able to drop rates by over 50 percent in a month’s time by the choices that people made,” said Person. “There’s no reason we can’t see that same kind of dramatic improvement even in December if people make those same kinds of choices.”

Washington state

The Washington state Department of Health reported 3,538 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 49 deaths Wednesday.

Pierce County reported 711 cases Wednesday and one new death. Pierce County has a total of 254 deaths likely caused by COVID-19 as of Wednesday, according to the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department.

Statewide totals from the illness caused by the coronavirus are at 189,863 cases and 3,016 deaths, up from 187,091 cases and 2,941 deaths Tuesday. Washington’s population is estimated at about 7.6 million, according to U.S. Census figures from July 2019. The DOH revises previous case and death counts daily.

Hospitalizations continue to increase with 113 people with confirmed cases of COVID-19 admitted to Washington state hospitals on Nov. 20, the most recent date with complete data. Preliminary data indicates average daily admittances were 106 in early December. Average daily hospitalizations previously peaked during the April surge at 78.

Approximately 12.5% (1,177) of all staffed adult acute care hospital beds were occupied by COVID-19 patients on Wednesday. In the state’s intensive care units, 25.1% (294) of staffed adult beds were occupied by suspected and confirmed COVID-19 patients.

On Nov. 28, the most recent date with testing data, 13,168 specimens were collected statewide, with 15.8% testing positive. The average positive test rate for the seven days prior was 15.6%. More than 3.2 million tests have been conducted in Washington.

The test numbers reflect only polymerase chain reaction tests, which are administered while the virus is presumably still active in the body.

King County continues to have the highest numbers in Washington, with 50,841 cases and 944 deaths. Spokane County is second, with 20,024 cases. Snohomish County has the second highest number of deaths at 319.

All counties in Washington have cases. Only four counties have case counts of fewer than 100.

For the past seven days, Washington had a case rate of 38.1 per 100,000 people. The national rate for the same period is 61.8 per 100,000, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Rhode Island has the highest rate in the United States, at 123.8. Hawaii is the lowest, at 6.5.

There have been more than 15.3 million confirmed coronavirus cases and 289,188 deaths from the virus in the United States as of Wednesday afternoon, according to Johns Hopkins University. The United States has the highest number of reported cases and deaths of any nation.

More than 1.5 million people have died from the disease worldwide. Global cases exceed 68 million.

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