Fewer Tri-Citians getting COVID tests. Positive results still double what’s needed to reopen
The number of people showing up at the Tri-Cities free drive-thru COVID-19 testing site has dropped after the holidays, despite the closure of a Kennewick site a week ago.
New case counts are generally dropping at the same time, but that does not appear to be linked to fewer people being tested, as the percentage of positive test results has not spiked.
A drop in testing can be good if it is because fewer people are getting the disease. But that’s not the case if the percentage of positive test results increases.
The Washington state Department of Health is reporting 20% positive test results in Benton County and 22% in Franklin County, although it said that data on negative test results was incomplete, so numbers should be interpreted with caution.
However, the Benton Franklin Health District is seeing about the same percentage of positive tests at the drive-thru testing site off Argent Road at Columbia Basin College, said Erin Hockaday, operations section chief for the health district.
A large proportion of the testing done in the Tri-Cities area is at the CBC site, she said.
That site was collecting an average of 700 samples to test a day in December, Hockaday said.
The number of test samples collected at the CBC site has dropped to an average of 560 a day this month.
That’s despite the closure of a free, drive thru testing site in Kennewick last week.
Testing done by the Washington National Guard moved from the HAPO Center, formerly TRAC, to south Kennewick early in January. But the Kennewick site closed when National Guard staff were redeployed to work at mass vaccination sites, like the one at the Benton County Fairgrounds.
A modest spike in testing was seen in December as Tri-Citians prepared to travel or planned to gather with family and friends.
This month demand for testing has dropped some, both nationally and locally, Hockaday said.
The CBC COVID testing site had scaled up to perform 900 and more tests a day in December, with 995 test samples collected on a single day just before Christmas.
The CBC site at 3110 W. Argent Road has had no trouble keeping up with recent demand, said Nikki Ostergaard, spokeswoman for the Benton Franklin Health District.
The Kennewick site had been open so briefly that word was just getting out about it before it closed. It was averaging just 130 to 140 tests a day, Hockaday said.
Testing encouraged
More people should consider being tested if they have symptoms or think they may have been exposed, said officials with the Benton Franklin Health District.
More data gives a more accurate look at COVID activity in the Tri-Cities area. Some people infected with the coronavirus have no symptoms.
It also could help drop the percentage of positive test results below 10%, one of the requirements the state of Washington is using to allow regions to move to Phase 2 of reopening.
As of Friday the six-county region that includes Benton and Franklin counties reported 23% of their test results were positive.
Those wanting a COVID-19 test can preregister for the CBC drive-thru site at bit.ly/Tri-CitiesTesting, but it 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.
Tri-Cities cases
The Tri-Cities has 103 new confirmed cases of COVID-19, the Benton Franklin Health District reported on Wednesday.
That’s about the same as last Wednesday, and about 30 fewer than the Wednesday before that.
However, it is more than the 78 cases reported on Tuesday, and brings the new cases reported this week — starting with the weekend — to an average of 91 cases per day.
That’s still down from an average of 101 cases per day reported last week, and the week before cases were averaging 152 each day.
New case rates continue to drop in the Tri-Cities area.
Benton County had 538 new cases per 100,000 people for the two weeks ending Jan. 20. It is the lowest case rate reported since Jan. 7.
On Tuesday the reported case rate for Benton County was 556.
Franklin County had 599 new cases per 100,000 for the two weeks ending Jan. 20. It is the lowest case rate reported since before Thanksgiving.
On Tuesday the reported case rate for Franklin County was 636.
Case rates give a snapshot of a longer period than daily new case numbers but reports lag daily case reports. Case rates are based on when a person sought testing or when symptoms appeared, rather than when positive case results were reported to public health agencies.
The Tri-Cities area now has had 23,660 cases confirmed through positive test results since the start of the pandemic, including 13,779 in Benton County and 9,881 in Franklin County.
The new cases reported Wednesday included 60 in Benton County and 43 in Franklin County.
The number of people being treated for COVID-19 at local hospitals dropped to 52 on Wednesday, after a one-day spike to 60 patients Tuesday.
The count of COVID patients at local hospitals has been in the 50s and 60s all month, down from 74 on the last day of December.
The 52 patients being treated for COVID-19 as of Wednesday accounted for just under 13% of the 413 patients at hospitals in Richland, Kennewick, Pasco and Prosser.
Vaccines
As of Monday, 12,074 doses of the COVID vaccine had been administered in Benton County and 2,550 in Franklin County, according to the latest data submitted by providers and clinics to the Washington state Department of Health.
In the two counties, 2,026 people are fully vaccinated with two shots. Currently approved vaccines require two shots for maximum effectiveness.
Statewide 719,775 doses had been delivered to providers and 124,800 had been delivered for the CDC’s long-term care vaccination program. Of those delivered doses, 59.2% had been administered.
On the national level, 44.3 million doses have been distributed and 23.5 million shots of the approved vaccines have been given, according to CDC statistics. The population of the United States is approximately 328 million.
Washington state
The Washington state Department of Health reported 1,352 new cases of COVID-19 and 19 deaths Tuesday.
Statewide totals from the illness caused by the coronavirus are 303,482 cases and 4,167 deaths. Those numbers are up from 301,194 cases and 4,148 deaths Monday. The case total includes 13,314 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 Jan. 7, the date with the most recent complete data, 97 people with confirmed cases of COVID-19 were admitted to Washington state hospitals.
Preliminary reports indicate average daily hospital admissions were 97 in mid-January.
Out of the state’s total staffed intensive care unit beds (1,212), approximately 78.5% (951) were occupied by patients Tuesday. Of those staffed ICU beds, 14.3% (173) held suspected and confirmed COVID-19 patients.
For the past seven days, Washington had a case rate of 22.9 per 100,000 people. Six states were lower.
The national rate for the same period was 50.1 per 100,000, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
On Jan. 7, the most recent date with confirmed testing data, 24,467 specimens were collected statewide, with 10.5% testing positive.
The average positive test rate for the seven days prior was 10.4%. More than 4.4 million tests have been conducted in Washington.
Cases by county
King County continues to have the highest numbers in Washington, with 76,146 cases and 1,220 deaths. Pierce County is second in cases, with 32,936. Snohomish County has the second-highest number of deaths at 473.
Benton and Franklin County rank seventh and eighth for cases in the state, behind Spokane, Snohomish Yakima and Clark counties. If they are considered together, they would rank fifth in the state for cases.
Craig Sailor with The (Tacoma) News Tribune contributed to this report.
This story was originally published January 27, 2021 at 1:46 PM.