105 new Tri-Cities COVID cases. Test site closed as WA National Guard redeployed
The Tri-Cities area has 105 new confirmed cases of COVID-19, the Benton Franklin Health District announced on Wednesday.
That follows a holiday weekend with an unusually low case count of an average of 84 new confirmed cases per day.
The previous week cases were averaging 152 per day, which is still higher than the number of cases announced Wednesday.
Case rates give a snapshot of a longer period than daily numbers, and they are based on when a person sought testing or when symptoms appeared, rather than when positive case results were reported to public health agencies.
Benton County had 683 confirmed cases per 100,000 people for the two weeks ending Jan. 13, down from the case rate released on Tuesday of 688.
It is still up from rates in the 500s, as reported Jan. 1-11.
Franklin County had 757 new cases per 100,000 people for the same two weeks, dropping its new case rate below 800 for the first time in a week. Case rates reported this month have been as low as 706.
The number of people being treated for COVID-19 in local hospitals increased from 57 reported Tuesday to 60 reported on Wednesday. Hospital patient counts have been in the 50s and 60s all month.
The 57 COVID patients as of Wednesday accounted for 14% of the 419 patients in hospitals in Richland, Kennewick, Pasco and Prosser.
Tri-Cities cases, deaths
The new cases reported on Wednesday included 63 in Benton County for a total there since the start of the pandemic of 13,302.
Franklin County had 42 new cases announced, for a total of 9,634.
Together the two counties have had 22,936 cases confirmed with positive COVID-19 test results.
The Benton Franklin Health District is reporting recent deaths only once a week, on Fridays.
The death toll for the Tri-Cities area stands at 249, including 166 deaths of Benton County residents and 83 deaths of Franklin County residents. Sixteen of the deaths were announced this month.
Testing site closes
Wednesday was the last day for free, drive-thru testing for COVID-19 at the Kennewick testing site, the Benton Franklin Health District announced late Wednesday morning.
It was staffed by the Washington National Guard, and the staffers at the 1709 S. Ely St. site are being given another assignment.
No further details on the new assignment were given, but the Washington National Guard is helping set up four mass COVID vaccination sites within a week in the state of Washington.
One of those sites will be at the Benton County Fairgrounds in Kennewick. Details have yet to be released, but more information on the vaccination site could be made public this week.
The Tri-Cities’ second drive-thru testing site will remain open on Argent Street by Columbia Basin College from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. seven days a week.
It has collected test samples from 8,699 people in the last two weeks, while the Kennewick site has collected 807 samples over the same time.
The coronavirus testing site had just opened Jan. 5 after it moved from the HAPO Center (formerly TRAC) in Pasco. It had collected test samples from 2,427 people since then.
In the short time it had been open, it had to close for one day because a windstorm damaged its tent, and word was still getting out about the new location. In addition, it was open five days a week compared to the seven days at the CBC site.
Preregistration for the CBC test site can be done online at bit.ly/Tri-CitiesTesting, but is not required.
Information also is posted at that website by the Benton Franklin Health District on other places, such as pharmacies and clinics, offering COVID testing in Benton and Franklin counties.
Washington state
The Washington state Department of Health reported 1,373 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday and 37 deaths since Friday. The state did not report data on Monday, Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
U.S. deaths from the disease which was first reported in Washington one year ago this week topped 400,000 Tuesday.
Statewide totals from the illness caused by the coronavirus are 291,989 cases and 3,940 deaths. Those numbers are up from 290,616 cases Monday and 3,903 deaths Friday. The case total includes 12,568 cases listed as probable. 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. 31, the date with the most recent complete data, 100 people with confirmed cases of COVID-19 were admitted to Washington state hospitals.
Preliminary reports indicate average daily hospital admissions were 114 in early January.
Out of the state’s total staffed intensive care unit beds (1,214), approximately 81.9% (994) were occupied by patients Friday. Of those staffed ICU beds, 19.6% (238) held suspected and confirmed COVID-19 patients.
For the past seven days, Washington had a case rate of 27 per 100,000 people. Five states were lower.
The national rate for the same period was 66.8 per 100,000, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Arizona has the highest rate in the United States at 116.9. Hawaii is the lowest at 10.1.
According to DOH, 294,386 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in Washington.
As of Tuesday, 607,350 doses had been delivered to state providers and 88,725 had been delivered for the CDC’s long-term care vaccination program. Of those delivered doses, 42.2% had been administered.
Currently approved vaccines require two shots for maximum effectiveness.
Currently, Washington state is in phase 1B tier 1 of vaccinations. That phase adds anyone 65 years and older and people 50 years and older living in multigenerational households.
On the national level, 31.1 million doses have been distributed and 12.2 million people have received the first shot of the approved vaccines according to CDC statistics from Friday. The population of the United States is approximately 328 million.
On Dec. 31, the most recent date with confirmed testing data, 19,883 specimens were collected statewide, with 11.2% testing positive.
The average positive test rate for the seven days prior was 10.2%. More than 4.2 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.
Cases by county
King County continues to have the highest numbers in Washington, with 73,667 cases and 1,166 deaths. Pierce County is second in cases, with 31,164. Snohomish County has the second-highest number of deaths at 444.
After Pierce, the counties with the most cases are Spokane, 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 Columbia, San Juan and Wahkiakum counties have case counts of fewer than 100. Columbia County has 93 cases.
There have been more than 24.2 million confirmed coronavirus cases and 401,288 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 2 million people have died from the disease worldwide. Global cases exceed 96 million.
This story was originally published January 20, 2021 at 1:53 PM.