5 more Tri-Cities deaths linked to COVID-19, as vaccine supply falls far below demand

Five more Tri-Cities area residents have died of complications of COVID-19, says the Benton Franklin Health District.

It has been announcing deaths weekly since the start of 2021, with the death tally announced Friday dropping to fewer than one a day for the first time this year.

Last Friday it announced nine deaths and the week before it announced seven deaths.

The number of people hospitalized locally for treatment of COVID also dropped on Friday, following a general downward trend since the start of the new year.

The new deaths announced Friday bring the local deaths to 270, including 36 deaths announced in December and 32 in January.

The most recent deaths included four Benton County residents — a woman in her 80s, a woman in her 90s and two men in their 70s.

A Franklin County man in his 70s also died.

Since a new law increasing privacy of information on death certificates took effect Jan. 1, the local health district no longer reports whether those who died had pre-exisiting health conditions that increased their risk.

Tri-Cities cases

The number of new confirmed COVID-19 cases was 98 in the Tri-Cities area, as reported on Friday, up from 60 reported on Thursday.

It puts the average number of new cases this week — starting with the past weekend — at 76 per day.

Last week, cases averaged 96 per day, down from an average of 101 cases per day reported the previous week and 152 per day the week before that in mid-January.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tracks a rolling seven day average of daily cases per 100,000 people, allowing a comparison between the Tri-Cities area and the rest of the state and the nation.

For the past seven days in Benton and Franklin counties, cases per day have averaged 25 per 100,000 people.

Washington had an average daily case rate of 20.7 per 100,000 people. Eight states were lower.

The national rate for the same period was 40.5 per 100,000, according to the CDC. Texas has the highest rate in the United States at 69.2. Hawaii is the lowest at 6.

The new cases announced Friday included 53 in Benton County to bring its total to 13,988 since the start of the pandemic.

Franklin County had 45 more cases for a total of 10,429.

Together the two counties have had 24,417 cases confirmed by positive test results since the start of the pandemic.

The COVID-19 deaths announced Friday brought Benton County’s death tally to 181 and Franklin County to 89.

The number of people hospitalized locally for treatment of COVID-19 dropped to 43, down from a spike to 57 mid-week.

In January, COVID patient counts in the 50s and 60s were reported on most days, with the count dropping into the 40s on only one day.

The 43 COVID-19 patients on Friday accounted for 10% of the 416 patients in the hospital in Richland, Kennewick, Pasco and Prosser.

That is close to the goal set by the Washington state Department of Health of less than 10% to ensure adequate hospital capacity.

Vaccine appointments

Registration for Tuesday through Saturday COVID-19 vaccination appointments for the coming week opened at 3:30 p.m. Friday.

About 3,200 appointments appeared to be offered for 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, plus more appointments from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday.

People are encouraged to come early for their appointments, especially those in the afternoon, so any unused vaccines can be given to people eligible for the vaccine who are willing to wait in their car in a holding line each afternoon vaccines are offered.

A week ago all appointments were claimed within a few hours or the opening of registration. But for this week, 375 appointments were still unclaimed as of mid morning Saturday.

To register for an appointment at the Benton County Fairgrounds, go to PrepMod.doh.wa.gov.

Click on “Find a Vaccine.” On the next page you do not need to fill out the form at the top of the page.

Instead, scroll down to look for the Benton County Fairgrounds clinics listed for each day that registration is open and whether any appointments are currently available.

If you fail to find any appointments open, check back for appointments posted due to cancellations or extra vaccine available.

The Richland Senior Association has started a toll-free help line for seniors who don’t have computer access or are having trouble navigating online appointment systems.

Call 800-595-4070 and leave a voicemail message with your name, phone number and what you are calling about. A volunteer will pick up the message and call you back.

Vaccine demand

The demand for vaccine continues to outpace the amount of COVID-19 vaccine available, according to the Washington state Department of Health.

The past week more than 600 facilities in the state requested more than 358,000 first doses. But the federal government, which supplies vaccine to the state, provided less than a third of that, 107,125 doses.

The allocation to the state of second dose vaccine also fell short at 58,725 doses. Providers had request 14,000 more than that.

The state Department of Health allocated 19% of vaccine to community health centers, local health districts and private practices; 23% to hospitals; 36% to mass vaccination sites; 19% to pharmacies and 3% to tribes and Urban Indian Health Programs.

In the Tri-Cities area, 26,049 COVID-19 vaccinations have been given, with 4,193 people in Benton and Franklin counties fully vaccinated, according to the state Department of Health.

Currently approved vaccines require two shots for maximum effectiveness.

Statewide 833,935 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered, with 159,969 fully vaccinated as of Friday.

As of Thursday, more than 1.1 million doses had been delivered to the state. Of those delivered doses, 66.6% had been administered.

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, 57.4 million doses have been distributed and 35.2 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 1,624 new cases of COVID-19 and 28 deaths on Thursday.

Statewide totals from the illness caused by the coronavirus are 317,878 cases and 4,416 deaths. Those numbers are up from 316,254 cases and 4,388 deaths Wednesday. The case total includes 15,096 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. 16, the date with the most recent complete data, 70 people with confirmed cases of COVID-19 were admitted to Washington state hospitals.

Preliminary reports indicate average daily hospital admissions were 74 in late-January.

Out of the state’s total staffed intensive care unit beds (1,208), approximately 81.7% (987) were occupied by patients Thursday. Of those staffed ICU beds, 16.1% (194) held suspected and confirmed COVID-19 patients.

On Jan. 16, the most recent date with confirmed testing data, 15,538 specimens were collected statewide, with 7.1% testing positive.

The average positive test rate for the seven days prior was 7.6%. More than 4.6 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 79,340 cases and 1,268 deaths. Pierce County is second in cases, with 34,850. Snohomish County has the second-highest number of deaths at 495.

After Pierce, the counties with the most cases are Spokane, Snohomish, Yakima, Clark, Benton and Franklin counties. If Benton and and Franklin counties were considered together, they would rank sixth for cases, behind Yakima County.

All counties in Washington have cases. Only 12 of the state’s 39 counties have case counts of fewer than 1,000.

There have been more than 26.6 million confirmed coronavirus cases and 455,555 deaths from the virus in the United States as of Thursday evening, according to Johns Hopkins University. The United States has the highest number of reported cases and deaths of any nation.

More than 2.2 million people have died from the disease worldwide. Global cases exceed 104 million.

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

This story was originally published February 5, 2021 at 2:38 PM.