Tri-Cities turns the clock back to late summer on number of new COVID cases

Just 27 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 were reported in the Tri-Cities area on Wednesday by the Benton Franklin Health District.

It brings the average number of daily cases so far this week — starting with the weekend — to 30.

That’s down from 45 last week, with new confirmed cases dropping steadily in previous weeks from an average of 94 per day to 76 to 64 to 46 and then 43 before increasing slightly last week.

New daily cases were close to the new number of confirmed cases so far this week in late August and September.

New cases were getting close to their low then after an initial peak in the summer and before a winter peak. Cold weather and the winter holidays had more people gathering indoors and spreading the coronavirus.

The latest new case rate announced for Benton County is 155 new cases confirmed per 100,000 people for the two weeks ending March 3. That is down from a case rate of 562 at the start of 2021.

There is a lag in the weeks reported because new positive test results are backdated to when the test sample was collected.

The latest new case rate announced for Franklin County is 244 new cases confirmed per 100,000 people for the two weeks ending March 3. That is down from a case rate of 711 at the start of 2021.

COVID hospital patients

The number of people hospitalized locally for treatment of COVID-19 as of Wednesday was 15, unchanged from the day before.

They represented just under 4% of the 387 patients in the Richland, Kennewick, Pasco and Prosser hospitals.

The hospitals in Benton and Franklin counties have met the state goal of less than 10% COVID patients to ensure adequate capacity for three weeks.

In late August the number of patients hospitalized locally for COVID treatment was running in the 30s most days.

The new cases reported on Wednesday included 20 in Benton County and 7 in Franklin County.

Since the start of the pandemic, the Tri-Cities area has had 25,901 COVID-19 cases confirmed with positive test results, including 14,827 in Benton County and 11,074 in Franklin County.

The number of Tri-Cities residents who have died from complications of COVID-19 is 292, including 198 in Benton County and 94 in Franklin County.

The Benton Franklin Health District reports recent deaths due to COVID once a week, on Fridays.

Washington state

The Washington state Department of Health reported 665 new cases of COVID-19 Tuesday and 14 deaths from the disease.

Statewide totals from the illness caused by the coronavirus are 346,403 cases and 5,077 deaths. Those numbers are up from 345,738 cases and 5,063 deaths Monday. The case total includes 19,999 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. 18, the date with the most recent complete data, 34 people with confirmed cases of COVID-19 were admitted to Washington state hospitals.

Preliminary reports indicate that average daily hospital admissions were trending downward toward 34 in late February.

Out of the state’s total staffed intensive care unit beds (1,243) approximately 71.4% (887) were occupied by patients Monday. Of those staffed ICU beds, 6.9% (86) held suspected and confirmed COVID-19 patients.

On Feb. 18, the most recent date with confirmed testing data, 19,038 specimens were collected statewide, with a stable 3.8% testing positive.

The average positive test rate for the seven days prior was 3.9%. More than 5.4 million tests have been conducted in Washington.

Cases by county

According to DOH data, King County continues to have the highest numbers in Washington, with 85,417 cases and 1,427 deaths. Pierce County is second in cases, with 39,367. Spokane County has the second-highest number of deaths, at 577.

Following Pierce for number of cases are 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 29 million confirmed coronavirus cases and 527,612 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 2.6 million people have died from the disease worldwide. Global cases exceed 117 million.

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