30-year-old among 3 recent Tri-Cities area deaths due to COVID

Three more Tri-Cities area residents have died from complications of COVID-19, the youngest a man in his 30s, the Benton Franklin Health District announced Friday.

The recent deaths bring total deaths so far this month due to the coronavirus to 10 people.

There were 12 deaths in June and nine in May. The local health district announces recent deaths once a week, on Fridays.

The most recent deaths were all Benton County residents and included a woman in her 60s, a woman in her 40s and a man in his 30s.

The man was among the five youngest residents of Benton and Franklin counties to die of complications of COVID-19.

Tri-Cities area COVID-19 deaths since the start of the pandemic include 138 people who were 80 or older; 95 in their 70s; and 71 in their 60s.

Also, there have been deaths of 28 people in their 50s; 12 in their 40s; two in their 30s; one in their 20s; and two people younger than 20.

Since the start of the pandemic, 349 Tri-Cities area residents have died from the coronavirus, including 233 Benton County residents and 116 Franklin County residents.

Local public health officials verify that the deaths are due to COVID complications by checking for a positive test result and that a coronavirus infection was named as a primary cause of death on the death certificate.

In all of Washington state, 6,078 deaths due to the coronavirus have been reported since the start of the pandemic.

Of the people who have died statewide, just 48 were known to be vaccinated against COVID and at least 29 of those lived in long-term care facilities for the elderly, according to the latest state report issued July 21 on vaccination breakthrough cases.

A total of 3,446 Washington residents who were fully vaccinated later developed “breakthrough” cases of COVID-19, according to the report.

In Benton and Franklin counties, about 3% to 4% of current cases appear to be in fully vaccinated people, according to the Benton Franklin Health District.

Tri-Cities COVID cases

The number of new daily COVID-19 cases are on the rise in the Tri-Cities, as the state of Washington is in its fifth wave of the pandemic.

Benton and Franklin Health District officials blame the Delta variant of the virus, which spreads much more easily than the original strain from person to person, and the number of Tri-Cities area people who are not vaccinated.

The local health district ended the week without an update on new cases due to technical issues that delayed data from the Washington state Department of Health.

But for the first six days of the week, starting with the past weekend, the number of new confirmed cases reported averaged 120 a day in Benton and Franklin counties.

The number was boosted by a spike to 318 new cases reported Thursday, with 236 of them reported in Benton County.

The Benton Franklin Health District reported that a backlog of cases had been loaded into its reporting system.

Without the Thursday spike in cases, average daily cases for the week, starting with the weekend, stood at an average of 80 per day.

Last week new cases averaged 59 per day, up from 46 the previous week and 32 the week before that.

Statewide 466,235 total cases of COVID-19 have been reported since the start of the pandemic.

In the Tri-Cities area as of Thursday 31,256 cases of COVID-19 had been confirmed with positive test results, including 18,237 in Benton County and 13,019 in Franklin County.

Hospitalization, testing

The local health district on Friday reported 46 people hospitalized locally for treatment of COVID-19.

The number of hospitalized people in the Tri-Cities area over the week ranged from 46 to 54.

The 46 people being treated at the end of the week for COVID-19 accounted for 12% of the Richland, Kennewick, Pasco and Prosser hospital patients.

The Benton Franklin Health District reported that from July 4-17, the most recent data available, 18% of tests for COVID-19 at the Columbia Basin College drive-thru test site in Pasco were positive.

The Washington state Department of Health reported just under 5% of all test results in the state were positive for the week ending July 14, the most recent data available.

COVID vaccination rates

COVID vaccination rates continue to lag the statewide rates in Benton County by 13 to 16 percentage points and 20 to 22 percentage points in Franklin County.

Percentages vary based on whether people have been fully vaccinated or just have an initial shot of brands that require two doses to be fully effective.

In Washington state 52% of all people are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to the Washington state Department of Health. The percentage does not include some people who were vaccinated through federal agencies, such as the Veterans Administration.

In Benton County 39% of all people are fully vaccinated and in Franklin County 32% are fully vaccinated.

In the state 61% of people eligible to be vaccinated — those ages 12 and older — were fully protected.

In Benton County, 47% of people ages 12 and older and in Franklin County 40% of people ages 12 and older are fully vaccinated, according to the Washington state Department of Health.

This story was originally published July 24, 2021 at 5:00 AM.