Tri-Cities hospitals packed with COVID patients. Most in 5 months

New confirmed cases of COVID-19 dropped Tuesday below 200 for the first time in more than a week for the Tri-Cities area.

However, hospitals are treating more COVID patients from the surge following Thanksgiving than they have in the past five months. Kadlec Regional Medical Center in Richland reported this week a high number of COVID patients in its intensive care unit.

Kadlec, the largest Tri-Cities hospital is using 68% of its intensive care unit beds for COVID patients, said Elaine Couture, chief executive for in Washington for Kadlec-owner Providence during a media briefing Monday for the Washington State Hospital Association.

“That’s pretty significant,” she said.

More typical for Providence in Washington state is 16% to 30% of ICU patients being treated for COVID.

About 22% of patients being admitted at Kadlec have COVID-19, she said.

The chief executive of Trios Health in Kennewick, John Solheim, said last week that although emergency room use is lower than usual, admissions are higher because patients are sicker. People are tending to wait longer before they seek care during the pandemic.

The intensity of the care that needs to be provided is much higher, emergency room doctors are telling him, Solheim said during a Tri-City Development Council webcast.

The good news for COVID patients is that survival rates have improved for hospitalized patients, said Dr. Peter Rutherford, chief executive of Confluence Health, which has a hospital in Wenatchee and clinics in Moses Lake and Royal City.

New treatments, including drugs and new oxygenation methods, have helped more hospitalized patients survive and has resulted in a smaller percentage of patients needed to be ventilated, he said.

Hospital officials say they are frequently asked if they can deliver meals and treats to health care workers, said Cassie Sauer chief executive officer of the hospital association.

“If there is any act of support you can do for your health care workers it is not to get sick in a way that they are going to have to take care of you,” she said.

“It is physically and emotionally exhausting to take care of patients with COVID. To watch people essentially suffocate to death from a disease that is preventable is really challenging,” she said.

COVID cases

Local hospitals have 81 patients being treated for COVID, according to the Benton Franklin Health District.

It is the first time reported hospitalization numbers for the two counties have topped the 70s since midsummer. In late June as many as 89 patients were hospitalized in the two counties for treatment of COVID.

The 81 patients being treated for COVID as of Tuesday — including those who tested positive and those with symptoms awaiting test results — amounted to 21% of patients hospitalized in Richland, Kennewick, Pasco and Prosser.

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

The new cases on Tuesday put Benton County over 10,000 confirmed cases since the start of the pandemic.

Nationwide, deaths from the disease have now topped 300,000, which is roughly equivalent to the combined populations of Benton and Franklin counties.

The new cases on Tuesday put Benton County over 10,000 confirmed cases since the start of the pandemic.

The new confirmed cases reported by the Benton Franklin Health District on Tuesday totaled 160.

They included 106 in Benton County for a total of 10,053 since the start of the pandemic. Franklin County had 54 new confirmed cases reported Tuesday for a total of 7,783.

Together the two counties have had 17,836 cases.

Deaths attributed to the coronavirus stand at 213 for the area, including 144 residents of Benton County and 69 residents of Franklin County. No new deaths were reported in the Tri-Cities area Tuesday.

Washington state

The Washington state Department of Health reported 2,353 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 Monday and 39 deaths since Friday.

Statewide totals from the illness caused by the coronavirus are at 203,797 cases and 2,918 deaths, up from 201,876 cases Sunday and 2,879 deaths Friday. 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 105 people with confirmed cases of COVID-19 admitted to Washington state hospitals on Nov. 25, the most recent date with complete data. Preliminary reports indicate average daily admittances were 113 in early December.

Approximately 12.6% (1,144) of all staffed adult acute care hospital beds were occupied by COVID-19 patients on Monday. In the state’s intensive care units, 20.8% (250) of staffed adult beds were occupied by suspected and confirmed COVID-19 patients.

On Dec. 3, the most recent date with testing data, 24,598 specimens were collected statewide, with 12% testing positive. The average positive test rate for the seven days prior was 13.2%. More than 3.3 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 54,535 cases and 918 deaths. Pierce County is second in cases, with 21,661. Snohomish County has the second highest number of deaths at 314.

After Pierce County, those with the highest case numbers are Spokane, Snohomish, Yakima and Clark counties, with Benton and Franklin counties in seventh and eighth cases. Combined they have more cases that Yakima County, which would make them fifth.

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 37.9 per 100,000 people. The national rate for the same period is 64.5 per 100,000, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Rhode Island has the highest rate in the United States, at 117.3. Hawaii is the lowest, at 6.8.

There have been more than 16.3 million confirmed coronavirus cases and 300,456 deaths from the virus in the United States as of Monday afternoon, according to Johns Hopkins University. The United States has the highest number of reported cases and deaths of any nation.

More than 1.6 million people have died from the disease worldwide. Global cases exceed 72 million.

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

This story was originally published December 15, 2020 at 1:55 PM.