Tri-Cities COVID cases are dropping but rate is still higher than for WA state

The Tri-Cities has 50 more cases of COVID-19, the Benton Franklin Health District reported on Tuesday.

That’s down from an average of 64 cases per day over the previous three days.

Last week an average of 76 new cases per day were reported and the week before that an average of 96 new cases per day were reported.

Despite the dropping number of new cases, case rates remain higher in the Tri-Cities than for the state of Washington.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tracks the average number of daily cases by state over seven days, providing a way to compare disease activity.

For the seven days reported through midday Monday, the Benton Franklin Health District data shows a rate of 25 new cases per day per 100,000 people in the Tri-Cities area.

For the same time period Washington had an average daily case rate of 18.5 per 100,000. Nine states were lower.

The national rate for the same period was 35.2 per 100,000, according to the CDC. South Carolina has the highest rate in the United States at 63.8. Hawaii is the lowest at 5.9.

Washington state uses a different system to track case rates, looking at total cases as determined by positive test results over two weeks.

Benton County had 371 new cases per 100,000 people for the two weeks ending Feb. 4. That’s down from a rate of 585 reported a month ago.

New case rates have not been reported in the 300s in Benton County since the first half of October.

Franklin County had 452 new cases per 100,000 for the two weeks ending Feb. 2.

That’s down from the rate of 750 reported a month ago. Rates below 450 were last reported in the third week of October.

COVID vaccine

The number of vaccine doses given in Benton and Franklin counties now totals 29,306.

Nearly 5,000 of them have been fully vaccinated with both doses. The two counties have a population of roughly 300,000.

Currently approved vaccines require two shots for maximum effectiveness.

Statewide 942,166 doses of the COVID-19 vaccines have been administered, according to the Washington state Department of Health. Washington’s population is estimated at about 7.6 million.

As of Monday, more than 1.1 million doses had been delivered to the state. Of those delivered doses, 78.8% 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, 59.3 million doses have been distributed and 42.4 million shots of the approved vaccines have been given, according to CDC statistics. The population of the United States is approximately 328 million.

COVID hospital cases

Local hospitals are treating 43 patients for COVID-19, the Benton Franklin Health District said Monday.

That’s the same as on Monday and down from numbers in the 50s and 60s for most days in January. In late June, as many as 89 patients were being treated for COVID-19.

The 43 COVID patients accounted for just under 11% of all patients in the hospitals in Richland, Kennewick, Pasco and Prosser.

The number of Tri-Cities area residents and employees of long-term care facilities, such as nursing homes, testing positive for COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic total 816, up from 802 at the end of January.

The 50 new cases reported in the Tri-Cities area Tuesday included 38 in Benton County for a total of 14,137 there since the start of the pandemic.

Franklin County had 12 new cases for a total of 10,523, or 24,660 for both counties.

Tri-Cities area deaths from complications of COVID-19 total 270.

Washington state

The Washington state Department of Health reported 723 new cases of COVID-19 on Monday. Death totals were not released Monday due to data processing issues, the state agency said.

Statewide totals from the illness caused by the coronavirus are 323,214 cases and 4,451 deaths. Those numbers are up from 322,491 cases Sunday. The case total includes 16,025 cases listed as probable.

As of Jan. 20, the date with the most recent complete data, 80 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 (1,196), approximately 77.8% (930) were occupied by patients Monday. Of those staffed ICU beds, 15.7% (188) held suspected and confirmed COVID-19 patients.

On Jan. 20, the most recent date with confirmed testing data, 25,492 specimens were collected statewide, with 6.1% testing positive.

The average positive test rate for the seven days prior was 6.9%. More than 4.7 million tests have been conducted in Washington.

Cases by county

King County continues to have the highest numbers in Washington, with 80,415 cases and 1,276 deaths. Pierce County is second in cases, with 35,451. Snohomish County has the second-highest number of deaths at 496.

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

All counties in Washington have cases. Only 12 of the state’s 39 counties have case counts of fewer than 1,000. They include Columbia County with 112 cases.

There have been more than 27 million confirmed coronavirus cases and 464,831 deaths from the virus in the United States as of Monday evening, according to Johns Hopkins University. The United States has the highest number of reported cases and deaths of any nation.

More than 2.3 million people have died from the disease worldwide. Global cases exceed 106 million.

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

This story was originally published February 9, 2021 at 2:04 PM.