Over 500 new Tri-Cities COVID cases reported, with Christmas surge yet to come
The Tri-Cities averaged 127 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 over the holiday weekend, a drop from the daily case total of late December.
However, public health officials and other health workers are bracing for a surge of new COVID-19 cases following the Christmas and New Year’s holidays.
The Benton Franklin Health District reported 509 cases for the past four days, after not reporting cases New Year’s Eve through the weekend.
From the previous weekend through Dec. 31, confirmed new cases were averaging 164 a day.
The new cases reported on Monday included 287 in Benton County for a total of 11,740 since the start of the pandemic and 222 cases in Franklin County for a total of 8,836.
Together the two counties have had 20,576 cases since March.
New case rates for Benton County dropped to 562 new confirmed cases per 100,000 people for the two weeks ending Dec. 28.
That’s down from numbers in the 800s in mid December, but still above the summer peak case rate of about 400.
There is a lag in the weeks covered by the latest case rates because newly reported positive test results are backdated to the day when a person sought testing or when symptoms appeared.
New case rates for Franklin County dropped to 711 new confirmed cases per 100,000 for the two weeks ending Dec. 28. That is down from case rates that exceeded 1,000 earlier in December and the peak case rate last summer of about 900.
Tri-Cities new cases peaked in July and then fell through the end of the summer, only to rise sharply with colder weather.
There were no new recent deaths from complications of COVID-19 reported by the Benton Franklin Health District on Monday, leaving total COVID deaths in the Tri-Cities area at 233.
They include 156 Benton County residents who have died and 77 in Franklin County.
COVID hospital patients
The number of patients being treated for COVID-19 at local hospitals dropped from 74 on New Year’s Eve to 62 reported on Monday.
They accounted for 16% of the 399 patients at the hospitals in Richland, Kennewick, Pasco and Prosser.
The state Department of Health set a goal of fewer than 10% of patients being treated for COVID to ensure adequate capacity.
Four more workers or residents at long-term care facilities, such as nursing homes, have tested positive for COVID-19 as of Monday in Benton and Franklin counties.
They bring the total since the start of the pandemic to 744, with the health district tracking long-term care cases closely because residents are at increased risk of death from COVID due to their age and health.
Washington state
In its first dashboard update since New Year’s Eve, the Washington State Department of Health reported more than 8,000 new cases of COVID-19 on Sunday.
The DOH did not update its counts on New Year’s Day, and its counts were delayed Saturday due to “data processing challenges.”
Statewide totals have reached 255,396 cases and 3,459 deaths. The case total includes 10,015 cases that are listed as probable.
Thursday’s count was 246,752 total cases and 3,461 deaths.
Previous case counts are revised daily by the DOH, with deaths updated on weekdays.
The DOH website cautions that Sunday’s case totals could include up to 1,700 duplicates because negative test results from Nov. 21-30 are incomplete.
“Therefore, testing numbers and case counts should be interpreted with caution,” the site says. “The Epidemiological Curves tab is the most accurate representation of COVID-19 activity and is updated daily as new cases are identified and duplicates are resolved.”
King County continues to report the state’s highest counts for cases (65,265) and deaths (1,049).
Pierce County has the second most cases with 26,839, followed by Spokane, Snohomish, Yakima, Clark, Benton and Franklin counties. If Benton and Franklin counties were considered together they would rank fifth.
Each of the state’s 39 counties have reported positive cases and all but six have reported more than 200.
Lauren Smith of The (Tacoma) News Tribune contributed to this report.