Benton County new COVID case rate jumps above state reopening standard
The new COVID-19 case rate for Benton County jumped on Wednesday to above a limit set by the Washington state Department of Health.
Now both Benton and Franklin counties are exceeding new COVID-19 case rates set by the state as it prepares to evaluate on Monday whether each can stay in Phase 3 of reopening.
Each county must meet either a new case rate limit or have a low number of new COVID hospital patients to avoid dropping back to Phase 2 of reopening.
Under Phase 2, fewer people are allowed in restaurants, theaters and gyms.
The state requirement for new cases is fewer than 200 per 100,000 people over two weeks.
Benton County exceeded that limit Wednesday for the first time since February.
It has a new case rate of 209 new cases per 100,000 over two weeks, the Benton Franklin Health District reported. It is up from a new case rate of 197 reported on Tuesday.
Franklin County had a new case rate of 304 cases per 100,000 over two weeks. It is the highest case rate since late February.
The COVID hospitalization standard to remain in Phase 3 of reopening is fewer than about 10 new COVID hospitalizations in a week for Benton County and fewer than about five for Franklin County.
The Benton Franklin Health District announces total local hospital patients being treated for COVID, rather than newIy admitted COVID patients, each weekday.
On Wednesday it reported that the number of local hospital COVID patients had dropped by two to 23.
For most of the month the number of COVID patients hospitalized in Benton and Franklin counties has been in the teens and occasionally lower.
The 23 COVID patients Wednesday accounted for 6% of the 383 patients at the Richland, Kennewick, Pasco and Prosser hospitals.
Tri-Cities COVID cases
As of Wednesday the Tri-Cities has 76 new confirmed cases of COVID-19, according to the Benton Franklin Health District.
It brings the average number of cases per day this week, starting with the weekend, to 52.
That is just below the average of 54 new cases per day last week, but the number of new cases tends to climb through the work week.
The new cases reported Wednesday included 31 in Benton County and 15 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 27,858.
They include 15,991 cases in Benton County and 11,867 in Franklin County.
The Tri-Cities area has had 313 deaths due to complications of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, including 211 Benton County residents and 102 Franklin County residents.
Washington cases
The Washington state Department of Health on Tuesday reported 1,091 new COVID-19 cases. The department also reported 12 new deaths associated with the disease caused by the coronavirus.
Statewide totals from the illness caused by the coronavirus are 398,509 cases and 5,462 deaths. Those numbers are up from 397,417 and 5,450 deaths deaths as of Monday. The case total includes 29,028 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.
Debbie Cockrell of The (Tacoma) News Tribune contributed to this report.
This story was originally published April 28, 2021 at 1:06 PM.