New COVID cases continue dropping, just not for all of Tri-Cities

The Tri-Cities area has 94 more cases of COVID-19 confirmed, the Benton Franklin Health District reported Monday.

That’s an average of 31 per day since it last reported new cases on Friday.

Both of the previous two weekends, new cases averaged 39 per day.

The average number of new cases per day last week was 45, as the drop in new cases has started to plateau, particularly in Franklin County.

For the week before last, new cases averaged 43 per day. The Tri-Cities had seen a steady weekly drop of average daily new cases from 94 to 76 to 64 to 46 and then 43.

For the past three days, Franklin County, which has about half as many people as Benton County, had 39 new cases. Benton County had 55 new cases.

New case rates figured by the Washington state Department of Health over two weeks were up for Franklin County, as reported on Monday.

Franklin County had 249 new cases confirmed per 100,000 people over the two weeks ending March 1. There is a lag in the weeks reported because new positive test results are backdated to when the test sample was collected.

The case rate of 249 was higher than reported since last Tuesday, but still significantly below case rates that topped 1,200 during the winter holiday season.

Franklin County has more agriculture and food processing workers who are at risk due to their working conditions, than Benton County.

Benton County had 167 new cases confirmed per 100,000 over the two weeks ending March 1, down from case rates that were close to 800 during the winter holiday season.

Hospitalizations

The number of people hospitalized locally for treatment of COVID-19 was up two from Friday, as reported on Monday.

The Benton Franklin Health District reported 17 COVID patients at hospitals in Benton and Franklin counties on Monday.

It is a dramatic drop from the 42 COVID hospital patients a month ago.

The 17 patients on Monday accounted for just under 5% of the 364 patients at the Richland, Kennewick, Pasco and Prosser hospitals.

That is well within the Washington state Department of Health recommendation that less than 10% of all hospital patients should be COVID patients to ensure adequate hospital capacity.

The total number of Tri-Cities residents who have died from complications of being infected with the coronavirus since the start of the pandemic is 292, including 198 in Benton County and 94 in Franklin County.

The Benton Franklin Health District, which updates COVID deaths weekly, reported five new recent deaths on Friday.

The new cases reported Monday bring the total cases confirmed with positive COVID test results since the start of the pandemic to 25,844. They include 14,789 in Benton County and 11,055 in Franklin County.