Drop in COVID cases stalls. Will Franklin County businesses be able to stay in Phase 3?
The Tri-Cities area has 47 new confirmed cases of COVID-19, stalling the decline in new cases seen earlier this year.
The new infections reported Wednesday by the Benton Franklin Health District — 23 in Benton County and 24 in Franklin County — put the average number of new cases since the weekend at an average of 32 each day.
That matches the average per day reported last week, with new daily cases plateauing at 31 daily for the three weeks.
Benton County still appears to be able to easily meet the case rate required to remain in Phase 3 of reopening when the state next evaluates two-week case rates on April 12.
But Franklin County remains close enough to the limit of under 200 cases per 100,000 people over two weeks that it could be at risk of dropping back to Phase 2 if it has a modest increase in new cases.
Its latest case rate is 172 new cases per 100,000 as figured for the two weeks ending March 24. Its reported case rates have been up and down from 172 to 187 over the past week.
The case rate considered by Washington state lags the new cases reported by the local health district because the case rate is backdated to when test samples that tested positive were collected.
The Benton County’s new case rate on Wednesday was 120 new cases per 100,000 for the two weeks ending March 24.
Hospitalizations
The Benton Franklin Health District said local hospitals reported 17 patients being treated for COVID-19 as of Wednesday, which was unchanged from the day before.
That’s down from 22 at the first of March and 49 at the first of February, as more people have been vaccinated against the coronavirus.
The 17 local COVID patients as of Wednesday accounted for 4% of the 420 patients in the Richland, Kennewick, Pasco and Prosser hospitals.
The Tri-Cities area has had 26,558 COVID-19 cases confirmed with positive test results since the start of the pandemic. They include 15,206 cases in Benton County and 11,352 cases in Franklin County.
The Tri-Cities area has had 306 residents die of complications of COVID-19, including 207 in Benton County and 99 in Franklin County. New deaths are reported on Fridays.
Nursing home cases
Just six new COVID-19 cases in nursing homes and other long-term care facility residents and staff in Benton and Franklin counties were reported in March in Benton and Franklin counties.
There have been 832 cases of COVID-19 in group homes for the elderly since the start of the pandemic, with about 75% of initial Tri-Cities area deaths in residents of Tri-Cities facilities for the elderly.
Nursing homes have seen a 96% decline nationwide in new COVID cases among residents since the peak during the week of Dec. 20, when there were more than 30,000 new resident cases, according to the American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living.
In addition, COVID related deaths in nursing homes declined by 9% since Dec. 20 after initial COVID vaccine allocations prioritized nursing homes.
“We are not out of the woods yet, but these numbers are incredibly encouraging and a major morale booster for frontline caregivers who have been working tirelessly for more than a year to protect our residents,” said Mark Parkinson, president and CEO of AHCA/NCAL.
Washington state
The Washington state Department of Health reported 853 new cases of COVID-19 and 11 deaths on Tuesday.
Pierce County reported 68 cases Tuesday and four new deaths. Pierce County has a total of 510 deaths likely caused by COVID-19, according to the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department.
Statewide totals from the illness caused by the coronavirus are 363,235 cases and 5,237 deaths. Those numbers are up from 362,382 cases and 5,226 deaths Monday. The case total includes 22,864 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 March 10, the date with the most recent complete data, 37 people with confirmed cases of COVID-19 were admitted to Washington state hospitals.
Preliminary reports indicate average daily hospital admissions were slightly moving up at 38 in mid-March.
Out of the state’s total staffed intensive care unit beds (1,220) about 74.3% (906) were occupied by patients Monday. Of those staffed ICU beds, 8.9% (109) held suspected and confirmed COVID-19 patients. That number is trending up.
On March 10, the most recent date with confirmed testing data, 20,005 specimens were collected statewide, with 3.3% testing positive.
The average positive test rate for the seven days prior was a stable 3.3%. More than 5.8 million tests have been conducted in Washington.
The Benton Franklin Health District reports that about 9% of tests at the free COVID testing site at Columbia Basin College in Pasco are currently getting positive results.
County numbers
According to DOH data, King County continues to have the highest numbers in Washington, with 90,333 cases and 1,464 deaths.
Pierce County is second in cases, with 42,305, has the second-highest number of deaths, at 606.
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 30.3 million confirmed coronavirus cases and 550,930 deaths from the virus in the United States as of Tuesday, according to Johns Hopkins University. The United States has the highest number of reported cases and deaths of any nation.
More than 2.8 million people have died from the disease worldwide. Global cases exceed 128 million.
Craig Sailor of The (Tacoma) News Tribune contributed to this report.
This story was originally published March 31, 2021 at 2:04 PM.