New COVID cases jump to 331 on Friday in Tri-Cities area

The Tri-Cities area had 331 new cases of COVID-19 reported on Friday, up from daily reports of about 125 per day early in the week.

Health officials reported that was up to 266 new cases on Thursday before it jumped again on Friday.

The Friday cases bring the average number reported daily this week by the Benton Franklin Health District to 176 each day.

That’s still lower than numbers reported on several days during the post-Thanksgiving surge.

Public health officials say part of the jump in new confirmed cases late this week is likely due to the Tri-Cities popular free drive-thru testing sites being closed some days during the holidays and fewer people opting to get tested over the holidays.

The Benton Franklin Health District would expect any surge from Christmas gatherings and travel to start showing up Friday, Jan. 8, which is two weeks after Christmas, and into the coming week.

But it is too soon to definitively tie the higher case number on Friday to the holidays.

Its contact tracers are still making calls on newly reported cases to determine how people may have been infected, how they might have spread the disease and whether that might be tied to holiday gatherings with nonhousehold members or holiday travel.

COVID deaths

The health district has reported no deaths due to complications of COVID-19 in the new year, as employees work through its reporting process due to a new state law covering death records.

The state’s vital statistics law has changed to increase security on personal information included in death records and access to data on death records is now more limited.

The Benton Franklin Health District now plans to report deaths each Friday, rather than each weekday, but reported no deaths on Jan. 8.

It confirms that deaths of Tri-Cities area residents were due to complications from COVID-19 by checking for a positive COVID-19 test and also verifying that a death certificate lists COVID-19 as a primary cause of death.

Since the start of the pandemic 233 Tri-Cities area deaths have been attributed to COVID-19, including 156 Benton County residents and 77 Franklin County residents.

COVID case rates

The current case rate for Franklin County is 706 new cases per 100,000 people for the two weeks ending Jan. 1. That’s down from a case rate that exceeded 1,000 after Thanksgiving.

The current case rate for Benton County is 520 new cases per 100,000 for the same two weeks. That’s down from case rates in the 800s after Thanksgiving.

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.

The new cases reported on Friday included 217 in Benton County for a total of 12,321 cases reported since the start of the pandemic.

Franklin County had 77 cases report on Friday for a total of 9,111 since the start of the pandemic.

Together the two counties have had 21,432 confirmed cases.

The number of people hospitalized locally for treatment of COVID-19 as of Friday dropped slightly to 61, from 66 a day earlier.

That’s down from a recent high of 81 COVID patients in mid December.

The 61 COVID patients on Friday accounted for 15% of all 411 patients at hospitals in Richland, Kennewick, Pasco and Prosser.

That’s above the state recommendation of less than 10% to ensure adequate hospital capacity.

Washington state

The Washington state Department of Health reported 3,353 new cases of COVID-19 and 29 deaths Thursday.

Statewide totals from the illness caused by the coronavirus are 264,012 cases and 3,634 deaths. The case total includes 10,611 cases listed as probable. Those numbers are up from 260,659 cases and 3,605 deaths on Tuesday. DOH revises previous case and death counts daily.

Washington’s population is estimated at about 7.6 million, according to U.S. Census figures from July 2019.

As of Dec. 19, the date with the most recent complete data, 96 people with confirmed cases of COVID-19 were admitted to Washington state hospitals.

Preliminary reports indicate average daily hospital admissions were 96 in late December.

Out of the state’s total staffed intensive care unit beds (1,223), approximately 81.7% (999) were occupied by patients Thursday. Of those staffed ICU beds, 19.8% (242) held suspected and confirmed COVID-19 patients.

For the past seven days, Washington had a case rate of 34.6 per 100,000 people. Five states are lower.

The national rate for the same period is 68.7 per 100,000, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

New Jersey has the highest rate in the United States at 136.7. Hawaii is the lowest at 10.

According to the CDC, 121,354 people have been vaccinated with a first dose in Washington and 518,550 doses have been delivered to the state as of Thursday. Currently approved vaccines require two shots for maximum effectiveness.

Currently, Washington state is in phase 1A of vaccinations. That phase includes high-risk health care workers, high-risk first responders and residents and staff of congregate living settings such as nursing homes.

As of Tuesday when the latest data was released by the state Department of Health, 522,550 doses of the vaccine have been allocated to Washington state and 425,900 have been delivered. Of that supply, providers have reported 110,225 total doses of vaccine administered since the state began phase 1A in mid-December.

On the national level, 21.4 million doses have been distributed and 5.9 million people have received the first shot of the approved vaccines. The population of the United States is approximately 328 million.

On Dec. 27, the most recent date with confirmed testing data, 5,831 specimens were collected statewide, with 17.5% testing positive.

The average positive test rate for the seven days prior was 10.7%. More than 3.9 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.

County cases

King County continues to have the highest numbers in Washington, with 66,998 cases and 1,093 deaths. Pierce County is second in cases, with 27,769. Snohomish County has the second-highest number of deaths at 408.

Ranking third for cases is Spokane County, followed by Snohomish, Yakima, Clark, Benton and Franklin counties. If Benton and Franklin counties were considered together, they would rank fifth for cases.

All counties in Washington have cases. Only four counties have case counts of fewer than 100, including Columbia with 85.

There have been more than 21 million confirmed coronavirus cases and 364,550 deaths from the virus in the United States as of Thursday afternoon, according to Johns Hopkins University. The United States has the highest number of reported cases and deaths of any nation.

More than 1.8 million people have died from the disease worldwide. Global cases exceed 87 million.

This story was originally published January 8, 2021 at 2:13 PM.