Franklin County has 2nd lowest COVID vaccination rate in WA. Here’s why

Franklin County ranks second lowest among counties in the state for the percentage of population vaccinated against COVID-19, says Dr. Amy Person, health officer for Benton and Franklin counties.

But there is hope that having more people newly eligible for the vaccine this week will help Franklin County catch up, she said.

She spoke at a Wednesday Benton-Franklin Health District Board meeting, saying Franklin County is at risk of slipping back to Phase 2 of reopening because of its high number of new cases per 100,000 people.

Getting the county’s vaccination rate up is one thing that could help lower its number of new cases, she said.

“Percent vaccinated is related to how easily infection can spread in a county, so with the higher rate we see in Franklin County, this is an area of growing concern,” she said.

Current thinking by public health officials is that about 70% of a population needs to be vaccinated or immune to reach herd immunity for COVID-19.

In Benton County 18% of residents have received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine and 12% are fully vaccinated, Dr. Person said. More people have been vaccinated that are known to have been infected since the start of the pandemic.

In Franklin County 12% of residents have their first dose and just 7% are fully vaccinated, she said. More people are known to have been infected than vaccinated so far.

The low rate of vaccination may be due in part to the focus early in 2021 on getting people ages 65 and older vaccinated.

In Benton County 15% of the population is 65 and older. That drops to 9% in Franklin County.

But other factors also may be limiting the vaccination rate in Franklin County.

“We know there are issues of access as well as attitudes that have been barriers in getting vaccinated,” she said.

But with the more people in Washington state eligible for the vaccine starting on Wednesday this week, a larger percentage of Franklin County residents now qualify to receive the vaccine.

30,000 more eligible

About 13% of the residents of Franklin County are newly eligible for the vaccine, compared to 9% of residents of Benton County.

Among those eligible as of Wednesday are workers in food processing and agriculture, both important industries for Franklin counties.

Other newly eligible workers include those in grocery stores; those who work in prisons, jails or related court settings; staff in homeless or domestic violence shelters; and workers with public transit jobs. More emergency responders also are eligible.

In addition, women who are pregnant and people with a disability that could them at a high risk for severe COVID-19 illness — ranging from Down Syndrome to blindness or deafness — also are newly eligible.

To check on eligibility, answer the questions at Washington state’s FindYourPhaseWA.org.

With about 30,000 more residents of Benton and Franklin counties eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine on Wednesday, the drive-thru vaccination clinic at the Tri-Cities fairgrounds stayed open until 5 p.m. and gave 1,528 shots of the vaccine, about twice as many as on Tuesday.

Appointments remain available on Thursday and Friday of this week and appointments for next week could be posted as soon as Friday afternoon.

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.

Many pharmacies and the Richland Veterans Administration clinic also have the vaccine. Kadlec has a COVID vaccine clinic planned Saturday for first doses of the vaccine by appointment. More information is posted on its Facebook page.

COVID vaccine challenges

Getting those newly eligible for the vaccine to get their shot is more challenging, said Heather Hill, infectious disease supervisor for the Benton Franklin Health District, speaking on the Kadlec on Call podcast Wednesday evening.

“Our senior population, our elderly population, they were scared of COVID,” she said. “They saw their friends and family die. It emotionally hit them very, very hard.”

Younger people may believe they will not become seriously ill if infected with the coronavirus, so may not want to bother with getting the vaccine, she said.

But getting as many people vaccinated as possible is needed to stop the spread of the virus, Hill said.

There also may be issues with the hours people work, with lack of transportation, with speaking English and with cultural barriers that are keeping some people from being vaccinated, she said.

“Especially for us in the Mid-Columbia, we remember back to last summer how COVID disease hit our farm worker population so hard,” she said.

It was not only bad for workers but was tough financially on the ag industry.

“One thing we really want to focus on this year as that population is increasing and our agriculture businesses are getting busy again, we need to get those people vaccinated,” Hill said.

In some cases, agriculture workers may come to the mass vaccination clinic at the Kennewick fairgrounds, but there may also be options to take the vaccine to more rural areas, she said.

The Benton Franklin Health District is working with clinics and trusted leaders in ethnic and racial communities to make sure that people are able to make an informed choice about vaccination, Dr. Person said.

More workers vaccinated also means less disruption for businesses, because fewer people are off work, she said.

People who are vaccinated and then come in close contact with a person who has COVID-19 do not have to quarantine if they have no symptoms, she said.

Phase 3 reopening

All counties in Washington state automatically move to Phase 3 of reopening Monday, March 22.

Among changes will be increasing indoor restaurant dining and drinking capacity to 50% and allowing table sizes of up to 10 people.

But to remain in Phase 3 — rather than dropping back to Phase 2 during a new evaluation on April 12 — each county in the state must have fewer than 200 new cases total per 100,000 people over two weeks.

Benton County easily is meeting that requirement with 131 new cases per 100,000 people in its case rate announced Thursday.

But Franklin County still had a rate of 230 new COVID cases per 100,000 over two weeks. Its case rate has plateaued after dropping at the first of the year, and has ranged from 263 to 218 this month.

Knowing now that Franklin County is at risk of returning to Phase 2 will give the county a chance to change its trajectory, Dr. Person said.

That can be accomplished by increasing the number of people vaccinated to decrease the spread of the coronavirus.

There is growing evidence across the world that vaccinations decrease transmission, she said. She cited Israel, where close to 70% of people have been vaccinated and the number of hospitalized patients and transmission of the coronavirus has dropped sharply.

Counties also must have a limited number of new hospital patients admitted for COVID-19 treatment to remain in Phase 3 of reopening.

While that data for Benton and Franklin counties were not immediately available, the number of COVID patients in all Tri-Cities area hospitals combined has been dropping.

This story was originally published March 18, 2021 at 5:00 AM.