Tri-Cities hospitals treating fewer COVID patients. Snowy weather slows testing

The percentage of patients being treated for COVID-19 in Tri-Cities area hospitals has dropped below 10% for the first time since before Thanksgiving.

The Benton Franklin Health District reported 36 patients being treated for COVID-19 in the four Benton and Franklin county hospitals as of Wednesday.

They accounted for just 9% of all 387 patients hospitalized in Richland, Kennewick, Pasco and Prosser.

The Washington state Department of Health recommends fewer than 10% COVID patients to ensure adequate hospital capacity and tracks new COVID admissions as part of the requirements considered for reopening businesses during the pandemic.

The number of COVID hospital patients is likely to continue to drop. Numbers of local cases have been declining and there is typically a lag time between new cases and people becoming sick enough to require hospitalization.

The Tri-Cities had 47 more confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, according to the local health district.

It is in line with declining numbers of new cases, bringing the average number of new cases this week — starting with the weekend — to 37 per day.

That is down from an average of 64 new cases a day last week, and 76 and 94 the previous two weeks.

However, fewer people may have been tested this week because of the snowy weather.

New case rates

The Tri-Cities area has had an average of 16 cases per day per 100,000 people over the past seven days.

However, the statewide rate has dropped to just under 11 cases per 100,000, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Just three states had lower rates.

The national rate for seven days as of Tuesday was about 26 per 100,000.

South Carolina has the highest rate in the United States at 57. Hawaii is the lowest at just under 4.

Washington state tracks case rates over two weeks based test samples that returned with positive results were returned.

Using that metric, Benton County dropped below a rate of 300. The last time case rates came close to being that low was in September.

The local health district said the county had 292 new cases total per 100,000 people in the two weeks ending Feb. 10.

Franklin County had 409 cases total per 100,000 people for the same two-week period, which is close to the rate at the start of October.

The new cases reported Wednesday included 39 new cases in Benton County for a total of 14,358 since the start of the pandemic.

Franklin County had just eight new cases reported Wednesday for a total of 10,692 since the start of the pandemic.

Together the two counties have had 25,050 COVID-19 cases confirmed with positive test results since the start of the pandemic.

Deaths of 278 Tri-Cities area residents have resulted from complications of COVID-19. The Benton Franklin Health District reports deaths weekly on Fridays.

COVID Vaccine

More that 37,000 COVID-19 shots have been administered in Benton and Franklin counties as of Monday, and 6,438 people have had to doses of the vaccine to be fully immunized.

According to CDC, 1.2 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in Washington.

As of Tuesday, more than 1.4 million doses had been delivered to the state.

Currently approved vaccines require two shots for maximum effectiveness.

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, 71.6 million doses have been distributed and 55.2 million shots of the approved vaccines have been given, according to CDC statistics. The population of the United States is approximately 328 million.

COVID tests

The percentage of positive COVID-19 test results in the Tri-Cities area continues to be higher than for the state.

At the Columbia Basin College test site in Pasco, 15.7% of test results were positive for the two weeks ending Feb. 6.

On Jan. 28, the most recent date with confirmed testing data for the state, 22,678 specimens were collected statewide, with 6% testing positive.

The average positive test rate for the seven days prior also was 6%. More than 4.9 million tests have been conducted in Washington.

Washington state

The Washington state Department of Health reported 579 new cases of COVID-19 Tuesday and 34 deaths since Friday.

Statewide totals from the illness caused by the coronavirus are 329,746 cases and 4,709 deaths. Those numbers are up from 329,167 cases Sunday and 4,675 deaths Friday. The case total includes 16,918 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. 28, the date with the most recent complete data, 73 people with confirmed cases of COVID-19 were admitted to Washington state hospitals.

Preliminary reports indicate average daily hospital admissions were 65 in early February.

Out of the state’s total staffed intensive care unit beds (1,197), approximately 78.4% (938) were occupied by patients Tuesday. Of those staffed ICU beds, 10.8% (129) held suspected and confirmed COVID-19 patients.

Cases by County

According to DOH data, King County continues to have the highest numbers in Washington, with 82,022 cases and 1,321 deaths. Pierce County is second in cases, with 36,648. Spokane County has the second-highest number of deaths at 531.

Following Pierce for number of cases is Spokane, Snohomish, Yakima, Clark, Benton and Franklin counties. If Benton and Franklin counties were considered together, they would rank sixth, 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.

There have been more than 27.7 million confirmed coronavirus cases and 487,564 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 2.4 million people have died from the disease worldwide. Global cases exceed 109 million.

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

This story was originally published February 17, 2021 at 1:41 PM.