New COVID case numbers continue to drop in Tri-Cities, but remain high

The number of new cases of COVID-19 has continued on a downward slide this week in the Tri-Cities area, but numbers of cases remain close to those at the start of the year before the vaccine was widely available.

In a change from the start of the year the more contagious delta variant now accounts for most cases of COVID-19 in Washington state, including in the Tri-Cities area.

The percentage of vaccinated residents also continues to lag the state by 12 percentage points in Benton County and 17 percentage points in Franklin County.

In Benton County, 47% of all residents are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, in Franklin County 42% of all residents are fully vaccinated and in Washington state 59% of all residents are fully vaccinated.

The Benton Franklin Health District has reported an average of 107 new confirmed cases a day so far this week, starting with the weekend.

That’s down from an average of 127 new COVID-19 cases per day last week and 175 the week before.

The case rate over two weeks has dropped to 656 new cases per 100,000 people in Benton County and 769 new cases per 100,000 people in Franklin County.

That’s down from a new case rate of 837 in Benton County and 1,058 in Franklin County at the end of September.

At the start of January the two-week case rate was 562 for Benton County and 711 for Franklin County.

The number of people hospitalized for treatment of COVID-19 in Benton and Franklin counties increased to 66 on Wednesday, up from 59 the day before.

However, it is far below the high of 127 COVID-19 patients reported a month ago.

The 66 COVID-19 patients reported Wednesday accounted for 16% of the 408 people in the Richland, Kennewick, Pasco and Prosser hospitals.

This story was originally published October 13, 2021 at 12:57 PM.