More cases of serious illness linked to COVID-19 in children in Washington
Thirty-nine cases of a serious illness in children linked to COVID-19 have been detected in Washington state — more than doubling in four months.
They include two cases of multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) in Franklin County and six in Yakima County.
Only King County, the most populous county in the state has had more cases than Yakima, with 12 cases, according to the Washington state Department of Health’s new monthly report. About 41% of the cases have been in Hispanic children.
No cases have been detected in Benton, Walla Walla, Grant or Columbia counties and the two Franklin County cases were in May and June.
A diagnosis of MIS-C requires a recent positive test for COVID-19, fever and inflammation of organs — such as heart or lungs — with no other plausible diagnosis for symptoms, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
Parents are advised to watch for fever or headache, abdominal pain with or without diarrhea, fatigue and respiratory symptoms such as shortness of breath, said Dr. John McGuire, chief of the Division of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine at Seattle Children’s Hospital.
About half the cases statewide have been in children 10 and younger and half in those ages 10 to 20.
The coronavirus infections detected in children remain fewer than cases in working age adults in Benton and Franklin counties.
About 6% of COVID-19 cases confirmed in the two counties are in children younger than 10. Another 11% are in people ages 10-19.
Updated data on new COVID-19 cases in Benton and Franklin counties and the number of COVID-19 patients being treated at area hospitals was not immediately available on Wednesday.
Tri-Cities cases
The Tri-Cities has 56 more cases of COVID-19, the Benton Franklin Health District said on Wednesday.
It brings the average daily number of cases this week to 60, down from the 76 cases per day reported last week and 96 the week before.
The new cases include 36 in Benton County and 20 in Franklin County for a total of 24,716 in both counties since the start of the pandemic.
The number of deaths due to complications of COVID-19 in the Tri-Cities area remains at 270, with recent deaths reported once a week on Fridays.
The new case rate continues its downward trend.
Benton County had 355 cases per 100,000 people for the two weeks ending Feb. 3, the local health district reported on Wednesday. That’s down from 360 reported the day before.
Franklin County had 445 new cases per 100,000 people for the same two weeks. That’s down from 459 reported the day before.
Local hospitals were treating 42 patients for COVID-19, the local health district reported Wednesday.
That’s less than half of the 89 patients reported on one day in late June.
The 42 patients on Wednesday accounted for 10.2% of the 413 patients being treated at the hospitals in Richland, Kennewick, Pasco and Prosser.
It almost meets the state standard of less than 10% COVID patients to ensure adequate hospital capacity.
COVID testing
About 17% of the COVID tests have been positive at the free drive-thru testing site off Argent Road at Columbia Basin College in Pasco for the two weeks through Jan. 30.
The rate of positive tests remains significantly higher than for the state.
On Jan. 20, the most recent date with confirmed testing data, 23,359 specimens were collected statewide, with 6.9% testing positive.
The average positive test rate for the seven days prior was 6.8%. More than 4.7 million tests have been conducted in Washington.
One of the standards the state of Washington considers to allow regions of the state move from Phase 1 to Phase 2 of reopening is fewer than 10% positive tests.
The Benton Franklin Health District recommends anyone be tested if they are exposed to someone who has COVID-19, a doctor recommends it, you have symptoms of COVID-19 or you need to know your status.
The CBC test site is open from 8:30 to 4 p.m. daily.
Preregistration 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 935 new cases of COVID-19 and 107 deaths on Tuesday. Deaths have not been added since Friday.
Statewide totals from the illness caused by the coronavirus are 324,025 cases and 4,558 deaths. Those numbers are up from 323,090 cases Monday. The case total includes 16,158 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. 21, the date with the most recent complete data, 91 people with confirmed cases of COVID-19 were admitted to Washington state hospitals.
Preliminary reports indicate average daily hospital admissions were 77 in late-January.
Out of the state’s total staffed intensive care unit beds (1,190), approximately 77.7% (925) were occupied by patients Tuesday. Of those staffed ICU beds, 13.4% (160) held suspected and confirmed COVID-19 patients.
Cases by county
King County continues to have the highest numbers in Washington, with 80,594 cases and 1,290 deaths. Pierce County is second in cases, with 35,557. Snohomish and Spokane counties have the second-highest number of deaths at 505 each.
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 27.1 million confirmed coronavirus cases and 467,673 deaths from the virus in the United States as of Tuesday 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 of The (Tacoma) News Tribune contributed to this report.
This story was originally published February 10, 2021 at 2:13 PM.