More Tri-Citians hospitalized for COVID treatment, days before WA state reopening check

The rate of new COVID cases for the Tri-Cities area dropped on Wednesday, but more people were admitted to area hospitals for treatment of COVID-19.

Both are factors that Washington state officials will consider on Tuesday, May 18, when it decides whether Benton and Franklin counties may remain in Phase 3 of reopening or whether tighter restrictions on businesses will be required.

The Benton Franklin Health District announced 44 more COVID cases Wednesday.

It brings the new cases per day so far this week, starting with the weekend, to an average of 31 per day. Reports of new cases tend to rise through the work week as more test results are received.

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

The two-week rate of new cases for both Benton and Franklin counties dropped on Wednesday, continuing the general trend seen this month.

However, Franklin remains well above the 200 new cases per 100,000 people over two weeks that the state Department of Health has set as a goal to remain in Phase 3 of reopening.

The new case rate for Franklin County was 261 new cases per 100,000 over two weeks, according to the Benton Franklin Health District. It is down from 272 on Tuesday and 311 at the end of April.

The new case rate for Benton County was 181 new cases per 100,000, according to the local health district. It is down from 191 on Tuesday and 213 at the end of April.

Each county has to meet only one of the requirements, either for a new case rate below 200 or a low number of new hospital admissions for COVID-19 patients.

The local health district does not release the number of new patients admitted for COVID-19 treatment each day, but its data shows the total number of patients up from recent lows of eight patients in early April and 13 as recently as Monday.

On Wednesday hospitals in Benton and Franklin counties reported treating 20 patients for COVID-19.

They accounted for 4.9% of the 411 patients in the Richland, Kennewick, Pasco and Prosser hospitals.

The 44 new cases reported community-wide Wednesday include 30 in Benton County and 14 in Franklin County.

They bring total cases confirmed with positive test results since the start of the pandemic to 28,391 in the Tri-Cities area. Some 320 have died of the disease.

Washington state

The Washington state Department of Health reported 1,180 COVID-19 cases and seven deaths on Tuesday.

Statewide totals from the illness caused by the coronavirus are 416,930 and 5,593 deaths. Those numbers are up from 415,750 and 5,586 deaths on Monday. The case total includes 32,001 infections listed as probable.

According to DOH data, King County, with the state’s highest population, continues to have the highest numbers in Washington, with 105.690 cases and 1,538 deaths.

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 582,775 deaths from the virus in the United States as of Thursday, according to Johns Hopkins University. The United States has the highest total number of reported cases and deaths of any nation.

More than 3.3 million people have died from the disease worldwide. Global cases exceed 159 million.

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

This story was originally published May 12, 2021 at 12:57 PM.