COVID case numbers must drop in part of Tri-Cities to stay in Phase 3 reopening

The Tri-Cities area has 30 more confirmed cases of COVID-19, the Benton Franklin Health District reported on Tuesday.

That keeps the average number of new cases per day holding steady at 30 to 31 cases a day for the last 10 days.

Benton County is meeting new case rate requirements to stay in Phase 3 of reopening, but Franklin County will need to drop its new case rate by April 12 or it could revert to Phase 2.

Franklin County’s most recent case rate was 230 new cases per 100,000 people over two weeks, and it must drop below 200 to continue to be eligible for Phase 3. Case rates reported this month have ranged from 263 to 218.

The number of people hospitalized locally for treatment of COVID-19 dropped to 14, the health district reported on Tuesday.

When the Benton Franklin Health District began routinely reporting the number of COVID patients in Tri-Cities area hospitals about 11 months ago, 32 people were hospitalized. They number climbed to as high as 89 in late June.

The 14 patients hospitalized for COVID treatment on Tuesday accounted for just under 4% of all patients in the Richland, Kennewick, Pasco and Prosser hospitals.

The new confirmed cases of COVID-19 reported on Tuesday included 17 in Benton County and 13 in Franklin County.

The Tri-Cities area has had 26,085 cases confirmed with positive test results since the start of the pandemic, including 14,918 in Benton County and 11,167 in Franklin County.

A total of 303 residents of the bicounty area have died of COVID-19, or about one in every 1,000 residents.

Tri-Cities fairgrounds

More people are eligible for the COVID-19 vaccination starting Wednesday.

But as of noon Tuesday, the Benton County Fairgrounds had about 2,500 open appointments for the general public from Wednesday through Friday.

“Let’s keep Tri-Cities getting healthy with this vaccine,” said Ben Shearer with the Southeast Washington Interagency Incident Management Team. ”It is our chance to fight back with this disease ... and our chance to open up the Tri-Cities again.”

Most Saturday appointments have been claimed. Some additional hours at the site have been set aside only for educators and childcare providers.

Those eligible for the vaccine starting Wednesday are workers in agriculture, food processing, grocery stores, jails and other detention and correction centers, and public transit jobs. First responders not previously eligible may receive the vaccine starting Wednesday.

Women 16 or older who are pregnant and anyone 16 or older with a disability that puts them at high risk for a severe COVID-19 illness also will be allowed to get the COVID vaccine starting Wednesday.

Disabilities may include people who have cancer or are immune suppressed.

Determine if you are eligible at FindYourPhaseWA.org after it is updated Wednesday. If it concludes you are eligible, print a copy or take a screenshot to take to your appointment.

To get an appointment at the fairgrounds, go to prepmod.doh.wa.gov and click on “Find a Clinic.” On the next page scroll down to find appointments by date and location. Be sure to check all pages.

Registration for any open appointments also may be made by calling the Washington state COVID-19 Assistance Hotline at 800-525-0127 and pressing #.

If you don’t get an appointment, you can show up at the Tri-Cities fairgrounds on weekday afternoons or Saturday morning for a holding line that forms most days for any unused vaccine. You will still need to provide proof of eligibility.

The Washington state Department of Health also maintains a list by county of places that may have COVID-19 vaccine at www.covidvaccinewa.org.

Teachers, other educators and childcare workers already are eligible.

People 65 and older, certain people 50 and older in certain multigenerational households, healthcare workers, some family caregivers and workers at long-term care facilities for the elderly have been eligible since January.

Vaccination transportation

Ben Franklin Transit is helping more seniors and those with mobility issues receive a COVID-19 vaccination.

They may schedule Dial-A-Ride service to and from vaccination sites, even if they are not eligible for the service.

Dial-A-Ride, which picks people up at their homes and returns them there, cannot use the drive-thru site at the Benton County Fairgrounds because people must wait in their vehicles.

But it is offering service to vaccine appointments at the Tri-Cities Costco, the Richland and Kennewick Fred Meyer pharmacies, On Scene Medical Services in Kennewick, the Kennewick Safeway Pharmacy, the Trios Chavallo Complex in Kennewick, Tri-Cities Community Health in Pasco, West Pasco Pharmacy, Miramar Health Center in Pasco, Prosser Memorial Health, Valley Vista Medical Group in Prosser, Health First Urgent Care in Richland and the Kadlec Healthplex in Richland.

There also are bus stops near all those locations except in Prosser.

For Dial-A-Ride service, make an appointment one to seven days in advance by calling 509-735-0160 or 877-646-4287.

Ben Franklin Transit’s Connect, an on-demand service, is also expanding destination options with front-door drop-off at vaccine sites. Call 509-204-4189 to learn more or request a ride.

In addition, people with Medicaid — called Apple Health — can get a free ride to a COVID-19 vaccination site if they have no other way to get to an appointment and their Apple Health ID card is for ProviderOne services.

Residents of Benton and Franklin counties using Apple Health can call 509-248-6793 or 800-233-1624.

Washington state

The Washington state Department of Health reported 451 new cases of COVID-19 Monday and 12 deaths from the disease since Friday.

Statewide totals from the illness caused by the coronavirus are 350,506 cases and 5,135 deaths. Those numbers are up from 350,055 cases Sunday and 5,123 deaths Friday. The case total includes 20,613 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. 24, the date with the most recent complete data, 24 people with confirmed cases of COVID-19 were admitted to Washington state hospitals.

Preliminary reports indicate that average daily hospital admissions were stable at 32 in early March.

Out of the state’s total staffed intensive care unit beds (1,242) approximately 75% (931) were occupied by patients Sunday. Of those staffed ICU beds, 7.5% (93) held suspected and confirmed COVID-19 patients.

On Feb. 21, the most recent date with confirmed testing data, 21,162 specimens were collected statewide, with 3.3% testing positive.

The average positive test rate for the seven days prior was a downward trending 3.5%. More than 5.5 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 86,540 cases and 1,440 deaths. Pierce County is second in cases, with 40,028.

All counties in Washington have at least 100 cases. Only 11 of the state’s 39 counties have case counts of fewer than 1,000.

There have been more than 29.4 million confirmed coronavirus cases and 535,584 deaths from the virus in the United States as of Friday evening, according to Johns Hopkins University. The United States has the highest number of reported cases and deaths of any nation.

More than 2.65 million people have died from the disease worldwide. Global cases exceed 120 million.

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

This story was originally published March 16, 2021 at 2:00 PM.