Tri-Cities COVID cases climb in both counties. 65 new cases Wednesday
The Tri-Cities area has 65 new confirmed cases of COVID-19, the Benton Franklin Health District announced Wednesday.
It brings the new cases for the week to date — starting with the weekend — to an average of 65 each day.
That exceeds the average 48 Tri-Cities area cases per day reported last week, and 34 new cases per day reported the week before.
Two-week new case rates also continue to rise for both Benton and Franklin counties.
Benton County has had 178 new cases per 100,000 people in two weeks, according to the latest rate calculated by the Benton Franklin Health District.
That is up from a new case rate of 128 at the first of the month.
Franklin County has had 230 new cases per 100,000 people in two weeks, according to the local health district.
That is up from a new case rate of 170 at the first of the month.
Counties must have either a case rate below 200 or a low rate of new COVID-19 hospital patients to remain in Phase 3 of reopening when the Washington state Department of Health makes its next assessment on May 3.
The new cases reported on Wednesday included 29 in Benton County and 36 in Franklin County, which has about half as many people.
They bring total cases confirmed with positive test results since the start of the pandemic to 27,466.
They include 15,760 cases in Benton County and 11,706 in Franklin County.
The number of people hospitalized locally for COVID-19 treatment dropped by one to 17 on Wednesday.
The number of local COVID-19 patients has remained in the teens after falling to only eight patients on April 7, down from 22 patients at the start of the month.
The 17 patients on Wednesday accounted for 4.3% of the 396 patients in the Richland, Kennewick, Pasco and Prosser hospitals.
There have been 310 local deaths from complications of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, including 210 in Benton County and 100 in Franklin County.
Recent deaths are reported once a week, on Fridays.
Washington state
The Washington state Department of Health reported 1,725 new COVID-19 cases and seven deaths Tuesday.
Statewide totals from the illness caused by the coronavirus are 388,817 and 5,407 deaths. Those numbers are up from 386,993 cases and 5,394 deaths Monday. The case total includes 27,614 infections 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 April 8, the date with the most recent complete data, 53 people with confirmed cases of COVID-19 were admitted to Washington state hospitals.
Preliminary reports indicate average daily hospital admissions were increasing at 50 in mid-April.
Out of the state’s total staffed intensive care unit beds (1,260) approximately 77.9% (982) were occupied by patients Monday. Of those staffed ICU beds, 16.1% (203) held suspected and confirmed COVID-19 patients — a steep increase from Sunday.
According to DOH data, King County, with the state’s highest population, continues to have the highest numbers in Washington, with 97,712 cases and 1,501 deaths.
Pierce County, second in population, is second in cases, with 46,602, and has the second-highest number of deaths, at 634.
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 31.7 million confirmed coronavirus cases and 568,284 deaths from the virus in the United States as of Tuesday, according to Johns Hopkins University. The United States has the highest total number of reported cases and deaths of any nation.
More than 3.03 million people have died from the disease worldwide. Global cases exceed 142 million.
Craig Sailor with The (Tacoma) News Tribune contributed to this report.
This story was originally published April 21, 2021 at 1:34 PM.