More ‘wildcard’ COVID variants found in Tri-Cities area. They are more contagious

Two more COVID-19 variant cases have been detected in the Tri-Cities area, the Washington state Department of Health reported on Thursday.

They come as the public health officials have been cautiously optimistic about the declining number of new cases of COVID in the Tri-Cities, particularly in Benton County.

But variants remain a “wildcard” for COVID transmission, said Dr. Amy Person, health officer for Benton and Franklin counties.

She provided updates Thursday at a news media briefing and on the Tri-City Development Council’s Coffee with Karl webcast.

Benton County had the first United Kingdom Variant found in Eastern Washington last week.

A statewide report released Thursday said Benton County now has had two cases identified and Franklin County has had one case identified.

In addition, neighboring Yakima County had the first two cases of the South Africa Variant identified in Eastern Washington.

About 3% of COVID test samples that are positive across the state have been genotyped to determine the COVID-19 strain, which is a higher percentage than most states.

The South Africa Variant — named for where it was first identified — is of concern because vaccines approved for use in the United States may be less effective against it than the strain most commonly found here, according to the Yakima Health District.

The UK Variant is known to be more contagious than the common strain, according to the Benton Franklin Health District.

Public health officials are not sure whether more variants spreading in the state will cause new cases to increase significantly.

In some other countries where variants were identified, the variants became the dominant strain, Dr. Person said.

But in those countries variants began spreading before vaccines were widely available, she said.

That’s not the case in the Tri-Cities area, where 18% of Benton County residents and 12% of Franklin County residents have received at least a first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Washington state now has 146 cases of the UK Variant detected, eight cases of the South Africa Variant and two cases of the Brazil Variant.

A total of five cases of the UK Variant have been found in Eastern Washington, spread among Benton, Franklin, Spokane and Yakima counties.

King and Yakima have the only detected South Africa Variant cases in the state, and the only Brazil Variant cases have been in King County.

Genotyping for variants has increased in Benton County, making it one of seven counties in the state with the most genotyping of positive test samples over the last 60 days.

Franklin County is among the 12 counties with the most genotyping.

Tri-Cities COVID cases

Just 26 cases of COVID-19 were reported on Thursday in Benton and Franklin counties.

Benton County cases have dropped faster than Franklin County, rolling back the clock on the number of new daily cases there to late summer, said Dr. Amy Person, health officer for Benton and Franklin counties.

Franklin County will need to drop its number of new cases by April 12, or will have more restrictions reinstated on reopening.

All Washington state counties will move to Phase 3 of reopening on Monday, March 22, but could return to Phase 2 if they do not have low enough new case rates and COVID patients hospital admissions.

Benton County now is easily meeting new case rate requirements.

The new cases reported Thursday for both counties put the average daily new cases for the week to date — starting with the weekend — at just under 30 per day.

The average number of new cases per day has held steady over about the past two weeks, and is down from daily cases averaging in the 40s in previous recent weeks.

For the past seven days the Tri-Cities area has had 67 new cases per 100,000 people.

That compares to 62 new cases per 100,000 statewide over seven days, which is the fifth lowest new case rate in the nation, as reported Wednesday.

The national rate for the same period was 114 per 100,000, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. New Jersey has the highest rate in the United States at 287. Hawaii has the lowest at 25.

The new cases in the Tri-Cities area Thursday included 19 in Benton County and seven in Franklin County.

Cases confirmed by positive test results since the start of the pandemic total 26,145, including 14,957 in Benton County and 11,188 in Franklin County.

The number of people hospitalized locally for treatment of COVID-19 remained at 18 for the second day in a row, the Benton Franklin Health District reported on Thursday.

They accounted for just under 5% of all patients in the Richland, Kennewick, Pasco and Prosser hospitals.

The daily COVID patient case count in local hospitals has been as low as 14 this week, but remains much lower than the 74 patients hospitalized locally for COVID treatment on the last day of 2020.

The number of residents of Benton and Franklin counties who have died from complications of COVID-19 is 303.

The local health district reports deaths weekly, on Fridays.

Washington state

The Washington state Department of Health reported 896 new cases of COVID-19 Wednesday and seven deaths from the disease.

Statewide totals from the illness caused by the coronavirus are 352,012 cases and 5,156 deaths. Those numbers are up from 351,116 cases and 5,149 deaths Tuesday. The case total includes 20,903 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. 26, the date with the most recent complete data, 45 people with confirmed cases of COVID-19 were admitted to Washington state hospitals.

Preliminary reports indicate average daily hospital admissions were stable at 34 in early March.

Out of the state’s total staffed intensive care unit beds (1,228) approximately 76.3% (943) were occupied by patients Tuesday. Of those staffed ICU beds, 7.2% (89) held suspected and confirmed COVID-19 patients.

According to DOH data, King County continues to have the highest numbers in Washington, with 86,850 cases and 1,442 deaths.

Pierce County is second in cases, with 40,380, and in deaths at 590.

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 29.6 million confirmed coronavirus cases and 537,955 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 2.67 million people have died from the disease worldwide. Global cases exceed 121 million.

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

This story was originally published March 18, 2021 at 1:56 PM.