Doctor calls change in Tri-Cities COVID cases ‘dramatic’

The decrease in new confirmed COVID-19 cases in the Tri-Cities area has been dramatic, said Dr. Amy Person, the health officer for Benton and Franklin counties at a Thursday media briefing.

“Disease activity has dropped by 50% over the last month,” she said. “We are now approaching levels as low as they were prior to the start of the holidays, which is very encouraging news.”

Benton County’s new cases have been on a steady downward trend recently, although Franklin County’s drop in cases appears to have recently plateaued, she said.

The Benton Franklin Health District reported 77 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, including 38 in Benton County and 39 in Franklin County.

The total for the two counties was higher than on previous days this week, possibly reflecting an increase in testing for COVID-19 as roads improved after snowstorms late last week through the Presidents Day weekend.

The new cases announced Thursday put the average number of new cases for the week so far — starting with the weekend — at 44 per day.

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

The Tri-Cities area has had about 18 new cases per 100,000 people on average for each of the past seven days.

The rate remains higher than the case rate of 11 new cases on average per day per 100,000 in Washington state, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday.

The national rate for the same period was 25 per 100,000. South Carolina has the highest rate in the United States at 56. Hawaii has the lowest at just under 4.

Hospital patients

The percentage of patients being treated for COVID-19 at area hospitals remained below 10% for a second day.

The patient count, as reported Thursday, increased by two to 38. But that still came to just under 10% of the 384 patients in hospitals in Richland, Kennewick, Pasco and Prosser.

The state Department of Health looks for less than 10% COVID patients to ensure adequate hospital capacity.

The COVID patient census was as high as 89 patients for Benton and Franklin county hospitals in late June.

The new COVID-19 cases reported in the two counties Thursday bring the total since the start of the pandemic to 25,127, including 278 local residents who died of complications of COVID-19.

There have been 14,396 cases in Benton County and 10,731 in Franklin County confirmed with positive test results.

COVID testing

The drive-thru testing site at Columbia Basin College in Pasco is reporting about 15% of test results over the past two weeks have been positive for COVID-19, according to the Benton Franklin Health District.

That’s a drop of 1% from the previous two weeks.

The Pasco testing site was collecting samples to test from about 500 people a day, before the snowy weather hit late last week.

“Testing is important. It helps slow the spread of new illness,” said Rick Dawson, senior manager at the Benton Franklin Health District, at the district board meeting this week.

On Jan. 28, the most recent date with confirmed testing data for the entire state, 20,480 specimens were collected statewide, with just under 6% testing positive.

COVID vaccines

More that 42,500 COVID-19 shots have been administered in Benton and Franklin counties as of Wednesday, and 7,950 people have had to doses of the vaccine to be fully immunized, according to the Washington state Department of Health.

Currently approved vaccines require two shots for maximum effectiveness.

More than 1.2 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in Washington, with close to 310,000 people fully vaccinated. Washington’s population is estimated at about 7.6 million, according to U.S. Census figures from July 2019.

As of Tuesday, more than 1.5 million doses had been delivered to the state.

Washington state is in phase 1B tier 1 of vaccinations. That phase adds anyone 65 years and older and certain people 50 years and older living in multigenerational households.

On the national level, 72.4 million doses have been distributed and 56.2 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 1,055 new cases of COVID-19 and 50 deaths Wednesday.

Statewide totals from the illness caused by the coronavirus are 330,807 cases and 4,759 deaths. Those numbers are up from 329,752 cases and 4,709 deaths Tuesday. The case total includes 17,174 cases listed as probable. DOH revises previous case and death counts daily.

As of Jan. 29, the date with the most recent complete data, 76 people with confirmed cases of COVID-19 were admitted to Washington state hospitals.

Preliminary reports indicate average daily hospital admissions were 63 in early February.

Out of the state’s total staffed intensive care unit beds (1,189), approximately 78.2% (930) were occupied by patients Wednesday. Of those staffed ICU beds, 11.5% (137) 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 82,201 cases and 1,329 deaths. Pierce County is second in cases, with 36,870. Spokane County has the second-highest number of deaths at 536.

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 27.8 million confirmed coronavirus cases and 490,394 deaths from the virus in the United States as of Wednesday 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 18, 2021 at 2:52 PM.