First 2 cases of South Africa Variant detected in Tri-Cities

The new COVID case rate for Benton County is the lowest in the last week, a possible sign that new cases may have plateaued there.

However, Franklin County’s case rate remains higher than it was a week ago.

Hospitals in Benton and Franklin counties continue to treat higher numbers of COVID patients, with four times as many patients reported on Wednesday as four weeks ago.

That is not entirely unexpected as increased hospital use typically lags reports of increased new case numbers.

But hospitalized patients tend to be younger than those treated at area hospitals earlier in the pandemic, after many people 65 and older at high risk of a serious case of COVID-19 have been vaccinated.

“There are still young adults and middle-aged adults that are being severely affected,” said Dr. Amy Person, speaking to the Benton Franklin County Health Alliance.

“The biggest challenge, too, with COVID is that this is still a relatively new, illness, so we still don’t know what’s going to happen with people who’ve had more complications,” Dr. Person said. “Will they still have health problems, a year from now, 10 years from now? Is this going to affect them throughout the remainder of their life?”

More COVID variants

Both Benton and Franklin counties have more cases of COVID variants detected, which are more easily spread.

The Washington state Department of Health reported Wednesday the first two cases of the South Africa Variant detected in the Tri-Cities area. One case was in Benton County and one was in Franklin County.

Just six other of the state’s 39 counties have had known cases of the variant first detected in South Africa.

The South Africa Variant concerns public health officials because it is believed to be 50% more contagious than the strain most common in the United States when the pandemic started.

Benton and Franklin counties now have a total of 389 cases detected of the five variants that concern public health officials, or about 8% of the variant cases in the state.

A sampling of positive test samples from across the state are genotyped to check for variants of the coronavirus.

Since the start of the year about 4% of all samples statewide have been checked for variants, with that increasing to 13% in March.

In addition to the South Africa Variant, the Tri-Cities area has had 109 cases of the United Kingdom Variant detected, 44 cases of the Brazil Variant detected and 234 cases of two different California variants.

The United Kingdom Variant, like the South Africa Variant, is believed to be about 50% more contagious than the initial strain that spread across Washington state. It also may cause more severe illnesses, based on hospitalization and fatality rates, according to the Washington state Department of Health.

The two California variants are about 20% more contagious, according to the state’s weekly variant report. The report did not give an estimate on the transmission rate of the Brazil Variant.

Tri-Cities COVID cases

The Tri-Cities has 46 new confirmed cases of COVID-19, as reported Wednesday by the Benton Franklin Health District.

It brings the average number of cases this week, starting with the weekend, to 40 per day.

Last week new cases in the Tri-Cities area averaged 52 per day, just below the average of 54 new cases a day the previous week.

The number of new cases reported by the Benton Franklin Health District tends to rise through the work week as more test results are reported. But the number of new cases still are down for the start of this week compared to the start of the previous week.

The latest case rate reported for Benton County is 201 new cases per 100,000 residents over two weeks, which is just above the goal set by the Washington state Department of Health.

The county has nearly two weeks to drop the case rate to the state goal of below 200 before the next assessment of case rates is made to determine if Benton County may remain in Phase 3 of reopening.

Franklin County’s latest case rate is 317 new cases per 100,000 people over two weeks, up from 304 a week ago.

The local health district reported 32 patients hospitalized locally for COVID-19 treatment as of Wednesday, up three from the day before.

The state also will consider the number of new hospital patients being treated for COVID when it next considers whether the two counties can remain in Phase 3 of reopening.

The 32 patients were up from a recent low of eight patients four weeks ago.

They patients accounted for 8.2% of all patients at the Richland, Kennewick, Pasco and Prosser hospitals.

The 46 new cases reported on Wednesday include 30 in Benton County and 16 in Franklin County.

They bring total cases confirmed with positive test results since the start of the pandemic to 28,159 in the Tri-Cities area.

They include 16,178 cases reported in Benton County and 11,981 in Franklin County.

Since the start of the pandemic 318 Tri-Cities area residents who have died from complications of COVID-19, including 214 residents of Benton County and 104 of Franklin County.

Washington state

The Washington state Department of Health on Tuesday reported 1,424 new COVID-19 cases and 21 deaths

Statewide totals from the illness caused by the coronavirus are 408,607 cases and 5,528 deaths. The case total includes 30,382 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.

The (Tacoma) News Tribune contributed to this report.

This story was originally published May 5, 2021 at 1:22 PM.