Tri-Cities not catching up with the rest of WA state on COVID vaccinations
The Tri-Cities area is not catching up to Washington state rates of COVID-19 vaccination, according to data from the state Department of Health.
In most of the ways the state figures vaccination rates — whether by age or by people partly or fully vaccinated — Benton County tends to lag the state by 12 to 14 percentage points and Franklin County lags by 19 to 22 percentage points.
That holds true for the total percentage of all people eligible for the vaccine — those ages 12 and older — a grouping for which the Washington state Department of Health recently has begun releasing county-level data.
In the state 55% of people ages 12 and older have been fully immunized against the disease, either with the single dose of Johnson & Johnson vaccine needed or two doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines.
But the percentage drops to 42% for Benton County and 35% for Franklin County.
Overall 47% of Washington state residents of all ages are fully vaccinated, but that drops to 35% in Benton County and 28% in Franklin County.
Gov. Jay Inslee plans to reopen the state, with a few exceptions, on June 30. But he said he will open it earlier if 70% of the state’s population ages 16 and older have had at least one dose of the vaccine by then.
Although the vaccine is approved for people as young as 12, the governor chose the age of 16 because older teens have been approved to receive the vaccine longer.
The state Department of Health reports that 65% of people ages 16 and older have received at least one dose of the vaccine. But that drops to 51% in Benton County and 44% in Franklin County.
Tri-Cities cases
The Tri-Cities had 32 new confirmed COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, according to the Benton Franklin Health District.
They brought the average new daily cases for the week so far, starting with the weekend, to 25.
Last week new confirmed COVID-19 cases averaged 26 per day, up from 23 per day the last two weeks of May.
The slight increase in cases may be due to a spread of infection on Memorial Day weekend, according to public health officials.
The percentage of positive test results at the CBC drive-thru free testing site continues to be higher than statewide. Almost 8% of test results for the site were positive for May 24 to June 4.
On June 5, the most recent date with confirmed testing data for Washington state, 9,010 specimens were collected statewide, with 3.5% testing positive.
Area hospitals reported a total of 22 patients being treated for COVID-19 as of Tuesday, according to the local health district.
The number of hospitalized COVID patient in Benton and Franklin counties has ranged from 21 to 27 each day this month, up from counts in the teens at the end of May.
The 22 COVID-19 patients as of Tuesday accounted for 5.7% of the 384 patients at the Richland, Kennewick, Pasco and Prosser hospitals.
The Tri-Cities area has had a total of 29,286 cases of COVID-19 confirmed with positive test results since the start of the pandemic.
The include 16,911 cases in Benton County residents and 12,375 cases in Franklin County residents.
A total of 333 deaths due to COVID-19 have been reported in the two counties.
COVID vaccine available
Free COVID-19 vaccine shots will be given at four pop-up clinics in Pasco and Richland this week to people 12 and older.
Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccine will be available at these times and places:
▪ 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesday at Christ the King Church, 1111 Stevens Dr., Richland.
▪ 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. Thursday at the Thunderbird motel, 414 W. Columbia St., Pasco.
▪ 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday at Juneteenth at the Park, Kurtzman Park, 331 S. Wehe Ave., Pasco.
▪ 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday at St. Patrick’s Church, 1320 Henry St., Suite D, Pasco.
In addition, the COVID drive-thru testing site at Columbia Basin College, 3110 W. Argent Road, Pasco, is open for free vaccinations Fridays through Sundays from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Visa gift cards worth $50 are being given out to those who get vaccinated this month at the CBC site, while supplies last.
Washington state
The Washington state Department of Health reported 556 new COVID-19 cases on Monday.
Statewide totals from the illness caused by the coronavirus are 444,722 and 5,782 deaths. Those numbers were 444,166 cases and 5,815 deaths as of Saturday. Monday’s totals include 31 fewer deaths than reported Friday. Local health jurisdictions reconciled these deaths as not related to COVID-19. The case total includes 35,723 infections listed as probable.
Washington’s population is estimated at about 7.6 million, according to U.S. Census figures from July 2019.
For the past seven days, Washington has had a case rate of 51.8 per 100,000 people.
The national rate for the same period was 25.8 per 100,000, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
According to DOH data, King County, with the state’s highest population, continues to have the highest numbers in Washington, with 111,137 cases and 1,614 deaths. Pierce County, second in population, is second in cases, with 56,300 and has the second-highest number of deaths, at 629.
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 33.4 million confirmed coronavirus cases and 599,961 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 3.8 million people have died from the disease worldwide. Global cases exceed 176.1 million.
Lauren Kirschman with The (Tacoma) News Tribune contributed to this article.
This story was originally published June 15, 2021 at 12:54 PM.