20 Tri-Cities places approved to give COVID shots — when more vaccine arrives

The Tri-Cities area is preparing to administer more doses of the COVID-19 vaccine as the groups eligible for it are expanded.

So far more than 20 providers in Benton and Franklin counties have been approved by the Washington state Department of Health to administer the vaccine, said Nikki Ostergaard, spokeswoman for the Benton Franklin Health District.

Those include hospitals, clinics, doctor’s offices and pharmacies.

However, the health district has been asked by the state not to release the names of those approved to give the vaccine to help maintain the safety of the vaccine.

They may not have received any vaccine yet and no countywide list is being kept of people wanting the vaccine.

Instead, area residents will get the vaccine where they normally get their flu shots to get the COVID vaccine when they are eligible. In many cases their provider will notify them of the vaccines availability, according to the health district.

So far, Washington state has approved only health care workers and long-term care facility residents and staff to get the vaccine available in the state so far.

As soon as the end of the month vaccines may be available also to people 70 or older and people 50 or older who live in a multigenerational home, where people of at least two generations are living.

The federal government this week called for states to start vaccinating anyone 65 or older immediately. However, the decision on eligibility for the COVID vaccines is made by the state and Washington state has not announced any change from its phased approach announced only last week.

The Washington state Department of Health will launch “Phase Finder” online Monday, Jan. 18, to help people know when they are eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine.

State residents can enter information that will help the state place them in a vaccine eligibility phase. They can ask to be notified when their phase is allowed to start getting vaccinated and could receive information on where to get it if their provider does not offer it.

As of this week, Benton and Franklin counties have been allocated 14,300 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, so far.

However, there is no information on how many of those doses have made it into the arms of people in the initial phase of vaccinations.

Some of the doses may be being held back for the second shot that is required as a booster several weeks after the initial vaccine is given to a person, said Nikki Ostergaard, spokeswoman for the Benton Franklin Health District.

Tri-Cities COVID cases

The Tri-Cities area had another 135 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 reported Wednesday by the Benton Franklin Health District.

It drops the average number of cases reported this week — starting with the weekend — to 153.

That’s down from the average number of cases reported daily last week by the Benton Franklin Health District of 176 each day. In reports the week before that — the last week of December — new cases were averaging 164 a day.

Public health officials have been watching for a spike in cases following the Christmas and New Year’s holidays, but have not seen one yet.

Case rates remain high, however, with those reported Wednesday for the Tri-Cities area the highest of the month so far.

Benton County had 638 new cases per 100,000 people for the two weeks ending Jan. 6.

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.

The Benton County case rate had not climbed above the 500s this month until the Tuesday report.

Franklin County also had its highest case rate reported this month with 794 new cases per 100,000 reported for the two weeks ending Jan. 5.

Case rates for both counties remain below the post-Thanksgiving spike, when the Benton County rate climbed above 800 and the Franklin County rate climbed above 1,000.

The new cases reported on Wednesday included 99 in Benton County for a total there of 12,380 cases since the start of the pandemic. Franklin County had 36 more cases for a total of 9,366.

Together the two counties have had 22,196 cases confirmed by positive COVID test results.

Deaths, hospitalizations

The Benton Franklin Health District does not plan to report new recent deaths from COVID-19 until Friday as a new state law limits access to data for death records to keep personal information private.

With no COVID deaths reported by the health district in the Tri-Cities area since the law took effect Jan. 1, the number of deaths for the two county area remains at 233. That includes 156 Benton County residents who have died and 77 Franklin County residents.

Area hospitals are treating 60 patients for COVID-19, the Benton Franklin Health District reported Wednesday.

COVID patient counts had dropped to a January low of 50 the previous two days. Previous high hospitalization numbers for COVID patients included 89 one day in late June and 81 on a day in December.

The 60 COVID patients reported Tuesday accounted for just under 15% of the 410 patients at hospitals in Richland, Kennewick, Pasco and Prosser.

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

Testing site closed

The free, drive thru COVID testing site at 1709 S. Ely St., Kennewick, was closed on Wednesday.

Strong winds Tuesday night and Wednesday morning damaged the site.

However, the Columbia Basin College drive-thru testing site off Argent Street in Pasco remained open. Its hours are 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. seven days a week.

For more information on places offering COVID testing in Benton and Franklin counties, go to bit.ly/Tri-CitiesTesting.

Washington state

The Washington state Department of Health reported 2,502 new cases of COVID-19 Tuesday and 90 deaths since Friday.

Statewide totals from the illness caused by the coronavirus are 278,544 cases and 3,789 deaths. Those numbers are up from 276,042 cases Monday and 3,699 deaths Friday. The case total includes 11,843 cases listed as probable.

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

As of Dec. 24, the date with the most recent complete data, 90 people with confirmed cases of COVID-19 were admitted to Washington state hospitals.

Preliminary reports indicate average daily hospital admissions were 99 in early January.

Out of the state’s total staffed intensive care unit beds (1,180), approximately 78.4% (925) were occupied by patients Tuesday. Of those staffed ICU beds, 18.3% (216) held suspected and confirmed COVID-19 patients.

For the past seven days, Washington had a case rate of 38 per 100,000 people. Six states were lower.

The national rate for the same period is 75.2 per 100,000, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Arizona has the highest rate in the United States at 129.5. Hawaii is the lowest at 13.4.

According to the CDC, 195,567 people in Washington (2.5% of the population) have been vaccinated with a first dose and 567,725 doses have been delivered to the state as of Tuesday. 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.

On the national level, 27.6 million doses have been distributed and 9.3 million people have received the first shot of the approved vaccines. The population of the United States is approximately 328 million.

On Jan. 1, the most recent date with confirmed testing data, 3,930 specimens were collected statewide, with 18.8% testing positive.

The average positive test rate for the seven days prior was 16.2%. More than 4.1 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.

Cases by county

King County continues to have the highest numbers in Washington, with 70,545 cases and 1,122 deaths. Pierce County is second in cases, with 29,563. Snohomish County has the second-highest number of deaths at 432.

Following Pierce is cases are Spokane, Snohomish, Yakima, Clark, Benton and Franklin counties. If Benton and Franklin counties were considered together, they would rank fourth in the state for cases, according to the latest complete data for cases.

All counties in Washington have cases. Only three counties have case counts of fewer than 100, including Columbia with 91.

There have been more than 22 million confirmed coronavirus cases and 380,365 deaths from the virus in the United States as of Tuesday afternoon, according to Johns Hopkins University. The United States has the highest number of reported cases and deaths of any nation.

More than 1.9 million people have died from the disease worldwide. Global cases exceed 91 million.

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

This story was originally published January 13, 2021 at 3:43 PM.