Franklin County still above WA state reopening levels with a week to go

The number of new COVID-19 cases continue to drop in the Tri-Cities as reported by health officials on Tuesday.

However, Franklin County remains far from meeting one of the goals of the Washington state Department of Health to remain in Phase 3 of reopening. The state is scheduled to re-evaluate each county on May 18.

On Tuesday the Benton Franklin Health District reported 34 new confirmed cases in both counties, bringing the average number of new cases for the week so far, starting with the weekend, to 28 per day.

Last week an average of 39 new cases per day were reported in the Tri-Cities area, down from an average of 52 per day the previous week.

However, new cases tend to rise through the work week as more test results come back.

Public health officials are watching closely to see if the downward trend for the fourth wave of COVID-19 continues.

A post-Mother’s Day jump in new cases is possible, with graduation and end-of-school celebrations also contributing to a possible increased spread of the coronavirus.

The Washington state Department of Health wants to see fewer than 200 cases per 100,000 people over two weeks when it evaluates counties for possible changes in reopening phases.

It also wants to see a low number of hospital admissions for COVID-19 treatment, with counties required to meet one or the other of the standards.

Franklin County has well above a case rate of 200, with 272 new cases per 100,000 over two weeks, according to the local health district on Tuesday.

However, its case rate is moving in the right direction, down from 277 on Monday and from 320 a week ago.

Benton County had 191 new cases per 100,000 over two weeks, the Benton Franklin Health District said Tuesday. That’s up from a case rate of 187 on Monday, but down from 213 at the end of April.

Local hospitals were treating 16 patients for COVID-19 as of Tuesday, up from 13 on Monday.

However, the number of COVID-19 patients had been as high as 32 just six days earlier.

The 16 COVID patients on Tuesday accounted for 4.1% of the 389 patients at the Richland, Pasco, Kennewick and Prosser hospitals.

The 34 new cases reported community-wide Tuesday to include 25 in Benton County and nine in Franklin County.

They bring total cases confirmed with positive test results since the start of the pandemic to 28,347 in the Tri-Cities area.

They include 16,297 cases reported in Benton County and 12,050 in Franklin County.

Since the start of the pandemic 320 Tri-Cities area residents have died from complications of COVID-19, including 215 Benton County residents and 105 Franklin County residents.

Washington state

The Washington state Department of Health reported 1,725 new COVID-19 cases and 22 deaths on Monday.

Statewide totals from the illness caused by the coronavirus are 415,705 and 5,586 deaths. Those numbers are up from 413,980 cases and 5,564 deaths as of Saturday. The case total includes 31,606 infections listed as probable.

Washington’s population is estimated at about 7.6 million, according to U.S. Census figures from July 2019.

King County, with the state’s highest population, continues to have the highest numbers in Washington, with 105,423 cases and 1,535 deaths. Pierce County, second in population, is second in cases, with 51,305, and has the second-highest number of deaths, at 660.

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 32.7 million confirmed coronavirus cases and 582,099 deaths from the virus in the United States as of Monday, according to Johns Hopkins University. The United States has the highest total number of reported cases and deaths of any nation.

More than 3.2 million people have died from the disease worldwide. Global cases exceed 158 million.

Lauren Kirschman of The (Tacoma) News Tribune contributed to this report.

This story was originally published May 11, 2021 at 12:48 PM.