COVID variant detections double in Washington state, with another new variant found

The number of cases of COVID-19 variants found in Washington state has doubled this week and includes the first case of a variant that was initially identified in South Africa.

However, no variant cases have yet been found in Eastern Washington, said Dr. Scott Lindquist, acting health officer for the Washington state Department of Health, at a Tuesday news conference.

“Yes, I do believe it is in Eastern Washington already,” he said. “We are just not sampling enough to detect it yet.”

About 2% of positive COVID tests in the state are genotyped to determine if they are a COVID variant of concern, he said.

That puts Washington state in the top five states in the nation for the percentage of tests genotyped, but it is not enough, he said. The goal is to increase that to 5% of positive tests.

“I do not think we are doing enough surveillance that is representative,” he said. “And the other concern is, ‘Is it representative of every community in Washington state? Is it representative of the east side of the state? Is it representative of high risk groups?’”

There has been significant genotyping done in Yakima County, he said.

COVID variant increase

As of last week 20 cases of the B.1.1.7 variant — the variant that was first identified in the United Kingdom — detected in Washington state.

The number nearly doubled this week to 49 cases.

In addition, the first case of the B.1.351 South African variant in the state was detected in King County.

The United Kingdom variant of COVID-19 is known to spread more quickly from person to person than the COVID-19 strain that has spread through the state for more than a year now, said Dr. Jeff Duchin, health officer for Seattle and King County.

“It also may cause more severe illness,” he said.

It’s not clear if the South African variant spreads more rapidly or causes more severe illness than other strains, but it does appear the level of immunity from earlier strains and the protection from vaccines is lower for the variant, Duchin said.

“The detection of these COVID-19 variants in our state reminds us that this pandemic is not over,” Lindquist said. “Despite the decrease in our case count, we are very concerned about the emergence of these variants and how it will affect future case counts.”

Because the United Kingdom strain spreads more easily, it’s vital that people continue to wear a mask outside the home, keep gatherings outside, stay home when sick or exposed to COVID, and get tested if they have symptoms or were exposed to someone who tested positive, said public health officials.

Tri-Cities COVID cases

Just 14 new cases of COVID-19 were reported in the Tri-Cities area on Tuesday.

There was no known reason for the low number of new cases, the Benton Franklin Health District said. However, snowy weather over the weekend might have discouraged some people from getting tested.

For the past three days new cases have averaged 39 per day, and last week new cases averaged 46 a day.

The low report on Tuesday brought the average number of cases per day per 100,000 people in the Tri-Cities area to 15 for the past seven days.

Washington state has had a downward trending case rate of 11 a day per 100,000 for the past seven days, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday.

The national rate for the same period was 19 per 100,000

Five states had lower rates than Washington. South Carolina has the highest rate in the United States at 40. Hawaii is the lowest at 3.

Hospital cases

The number of people hospitalized locally for treatment of COVID-19 dropped by one to 27 as of Tuesday, according to the Benton Franklin Health District.

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

The 27 COVID patients hospitalized as of Tuesday accounted for 7% of the 387 patients in the hospitals in Richland, Kennewick, Pasco and Prosser.

The percentage dropped below 10% last week for the first time since mid November.

The new cases announced on Tuesday — five in Benton County and nine in Franklin County — bring the total for the two counties since the start of the pandemic to 25,309.

Local residents who have died of complications of COVID-19 include 195 in Benton County and 91 in Franklin County.

The local health district announces recent deaths once a week, on Fridays.

COVID vaccine

In Benton and Franklin counties, 47,443 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been given and more than 10,000 people have been fully immunized with two doses.

Currently approved vaccines require two shots for maximum effectiveness.

According to the CDC, 1.47 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in Washington.

As of Monday, more than 1.61 million doses had been delivered to the state.

On the national level, 75.2 million doses have been distributed and 64.1 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 U.S. has now suffered 500,000 deaths from COVID-19 as the Washington state Department of Health reported 509 new cases of the disease Monday and 35 deaths since Friday.

Statewide totals from the illness caused by the coronavirus are 334,962 cases and 4,857 deaths. Those numbers are up from 334,453 cases Sunday and 4,822 deaths Friday. The case total includes 17,739 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 Feb. 3, the date with the most recent complete data, 55 people with confirmed cases of COVID-19 were admitted to Washington state hospitals.

Preliminary reports indicate that average daily hospital admissions were downward trending to 50 in mid-February.

Out of the state’s total staffed intensive care unit beds (1,196) approximately 77.2% (923) were occupied by patients Sunday. Of those staffed ICU beds, 10.1% (121) held suspected and confirmed COVID-19 patients.

Cases by county

King County continues to have the highest numbers in Washington, with 83,071 cases and 1,370 deaths, according to state data Monday. Pierce County is second in cases, with 37,454. Spokane County has the second-highest number of deaths, at 543.

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, including Columbia with 114 cases.

There have been more than 28.1 million confirmed coronavirus cases and 500,176 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 2.4 million people have died from the disease worldwide. Global cases exceed 111 million.

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

This story was originally published February 23, 2021 at 1:46 PM.