Tri-Cities doctors sound alarm over COVID. Cases, hospital use up dramatically

The highly transmissible Delta variant of COVID-19 is dramatically increasing the spread of the coronavirus through the Tri-Cities as vaccine rates remain low, say officials at the Benton Franklin Health District.

The number of new confirmed daily COVID cases in the Tri-Cities area doubled in the last week to a rate of new cases not seen since February 2021, said Heather Hill, infectious disease supervisor for the Benton Franklin Health District, speaking on the Kadlec on Call podcast.

Now Benton and Franklin counties have among the highest new case rates not only in Washington state but for the West Coast, said Dr. Amy Person, health officer for Benton and Franklin counties, at a media briefing Thursday.

Within just a couple of weeks the Delta variant has increased to become the predominant circulating strain in the Tri-Cities area, she said.

“A single person who’s infected is no longer just infecting one or two of the many people they may be around,” Dr. Person said. “That number is increasing to four or 10.”

As a result, health district officials are seeing more infections within households and are investigating more outbreaks and seeing a larger number of cases per outbreak, she said.

The rate of new cases has risen particularly quickly in Benton County.

There the latest rate calculated is 190 new cases per 100,000 people over two weeks, up from 119 a month ago.

In Franklin County the rate is 176 cases per 100,000 over two weeks, Dr. Person said.

The rising case rate is driven by adults ages 20 to 39 years old, but the case rates in those younger also is increasing, she said.

At the same time that case rates are quickly rising, the number of people getting vaccinated against COVID-19 has slowed dramatically, Dr. Person said.

In Benton County just under 39% of all people are fully vaccinated and in Franklin County that drops to 31%. Across Washington state just over 51% of people are fully vaccinated.

The Centers for Disease Control has found that most areas with new case rates above 100 per 100,000 the rate of vaccination will be below 40%, Dr. Person said.

Vaccine hesitancy

“We are certainly seeing that reflected in Benton and Franklin counties, as well,” she said. “And this will continue to be the picture that disease rates and infection transmission will be propagated to people who are not vaccinated.”

Public health officials believe those who have not gotten vaccinated yet are most likely to trust information from their family or from their doctor or other primary health care provider, she said.

The Benton Franklin Health District has been working to get more doctor’s offices and clinics to provide the COVID-19 vaccine, which along with pharmacies will become the primary locations for vaccinations starting next week.

“It’s important to use those resources and return vaccinations back to the places that people are comfortable getting their vaccines,” Dr. Person said.

The COVID-19 drive-thru testing site at Columbia Basin College will continue to provide free testing 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Fridays through Tuesdays at 3110 W. Argent Road, Pasco. But it will no longer offer vaccinations after this weekend.

The health district also will no longer be organizing pop-up clinics across Benton and Franklin counties after this weekend.

About 97% of people who are vaccinated do not get COVID-19, Hill said. It also decreases the severity of the disease for those who are infected even after being fully vaccinated.

Hospitals busier

The rate of positive results for COVID-19 tests locally and the rising number of hospitalized patients reflect the growing new case rate in the Tri-Cities area.

At the CBC drive-thru testing site the rate of positive test results has been creeping up and now stands at 15%, Hill said.

For all of Washington state the most recent data is for the week through July 5, when the rate of positive tests was just under 3%.

The number of people hospitalized in Benton and Franklin counties for COVID-19 treatment jumped into the 30s this week, according to Benton Franklin Health District data. It was 36 on Thursday.

Hospital case counts have been in the 20s for most days this summer, up from counts typically in the teens in the spring.

Kadlec Regional Medical Center in Richland has seen its COVID-19 patient admissions double in the last seven to 10 days, said Dr. Kevin Pieper, chief medical officer for Kadlec Health System, speaking Wednesday on the Kadlec on Call podcast.

“Even more concerning is we’ve seen the number of patients who actually need intensive care or ventilator support go up significantly,” he said. “That has gone from just a small handful to several times more than that.”

The vaccination rate is too low in the Tri-Cities area to keep the spread of the coronavirus low and the low vaccination rate also gives the coronavirus more opportunities to mutate to forms that the vaccine will not work against, he said.

“That’s why herd immunity is so important,” he said. “When you have herd immunity, you are still going to have outbreaks but they’re usually contained. And we are seeing positivity numbers that tell us COVID is not contained within our community.”

Vaccine rate ‘frustrating’

The low vaccination rate is “frustrating for everyone providing care because we have a solution to (COVID) and that’s to get vaccinated,” he said. “Obviously there is a large divide how people feel about the vaccine, but not hitting those herd immunity numbers as a community puts all of the community at risk.”

If people have questions about the vaccine, they should talk with their doctor rather than trying to do their own research online and through social media, he said.

Dr. Person is confident the Tri-Cities area can overcome vaccine hesitancy.

She pointed to the work done when an assessment in 1995 showed that the childhood vaccination rate was just 43% for 2 year olds. But a concerted effort in the community led to a doubling of that rate, she said.

“Our goal is really to ensure that there is accurate information about vaccine available so that when people are ready to make their choice to be vaccinated, they know what their options are,” she said.

This story was originally published July 15, 2021 at 12:07 PM.