8 more die from COVID in Tri-Cities area. New cases average nearly 50 a day

Eight more Tri-Cities area residents have died of complications of COVID-19, the youngest a man in his 40s, the Benton Franklin Health District said on Friday.

All were residents of Benton County.

The local health district announces recent deaths every Friday.

The recent deaths bring the number of local residents who have died because of a coronavirus infection to 286 since the start of the pandemic.

They include 195 deaths for Benton County and 91 for Franklin County.

For the month to date, 21 deaths have been announced in both counties, keeping the Tri-Cities area at about a death per day.

In January, 32 COVID deaths were announced and in December 36 COVID deaths were announced.

The deaths announced this week include two women, one in her 60s and one in her 80s.

The men who died included a man in his 40s, a man in his 50s, two men in their 60s, a man in his 70s and a man in his 90s.

The Benton Franklin Health District verifies deaths were due to complications of COVID-19 by checking for a positive COVID test result and that COVID was listed as a primary cause of death on the death certificate.

Because of a change at the start of the year in state law covering privacy for death certificates, the health district no longer reports whether those who die from complications of COVID-19 were at risk of a severe case of the disease due to underlying conditions.

COVID cases

The Tri-Cities has 51 more cases of COVID-19, the Benton Franklin Health District said on Friday.

New cases this week, starting with the past weekend, averaged 46 per day.

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

It’s a rate of 15 new cases per 100,000 people on average per day for the week.

Washington had a daily case rate of almost 12 per 100,000 for seven days as of Thursday, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Five states were lower. South Carolina has the highest rate in the United States at 53. Hawaii is the lowest at 3.

The national rate for the same period was 23 per 100,000, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The new cases announced in the Tri-Cities area on Friday included 10 in Benton County and 41 in Franklin County.

Total confirmed cases since the start of the pandemic now total 25,178 in the Tri-Cities area, including 14,406 in Benton County and 10,772 in Franklin County.

The number of people hospitalized in Benton and Franklin counties for treatment of COVID-19 as of Friday was 36.

They accounted for 9% of the 391 patients in the Richland, Kennewick, Pasco and Prosser hospitals.

The state goal is less than 10% COVID patients to ensure hospital capacity.

This week was the first time that goal had been met since before Thanksgiving.

The number of long term care residents and staff who have tested positive for COVID-19 has increased by 20 this month for a total since the start of the pandemic of 823.

Washington state

The Washington state Department of Health reported 1,293 new cases of COVID-19 and 44 deaths Thursday.

Statewide totals from the illness caused by the coronavirus are 332,007 cases and 4,803 deaths. Those numbers are up from 330,715 cases and 4,759 deaths Wednesday. The case total includes 17,352 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. 30, the date with the most recent complete data, 62 people with confirmed cases of COVID-19 were admitted to Washington state hospitals.

Preliminary reports indicate that average daily hospital admissions were 62 in early February.

Out of the state’s total staffed intensive care unit beds (1,196) approximately 78.8% (942) were occupied by patients Thursday. 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 82,402 cases and 1,348 deaths. Pierce County is second in cases, with 37,309. Spokane County has the second-highest number of deaths, at 539.

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 492,999 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 2.4 million people have died from the disease worldwide. Global cases exceed 110 million.

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

This story was originally published February 19, 2021 at 2:26 PM.