Tri-Cities hospitals treating fewest COVID patients since June, but death toll rising

The Tri-Cities area had seven more residents die due to COVID-19, the youngest a woman in her 40s, the Benton Franklin Health District reported this week.

But the number of people hospitalized for treatment of COVID-19 in Benton and Franklin counties dropped to 19 — the lowest count since June, according to Tri-City Herald records.

The latest deaths bring those announced so far this month for the two-county region to 15, compared with 17 for all of November.

The death toll is still down significantly from 80 reported in October and 64 in September, not including a summer backlog of 22 deaths not reported until that month.

The seven people who died most recently of COVID complications all lived in Benton County. They included a woman in her 40s, a woman and two men in their 70s, a woman and a man in their 80s and a man in his 90s.

They bring total deaths since the start of the pandemic in Benton and Franklin counties to 571, including 390 deaths of Benton County residents and 181 deaths of Franklin County residents.

Local public health officials verify that 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.

It can take several weeks for the district to receive and reconcile death information due to the reporting processes of medical facilities and coroner offices and the process of issuing and releasing death certificates.

Tri-Cities cases

The number of new cases due to COVID dropped dropped to 36 on average per day. That’s down from 38 new cases per day reported the previous week.

The downward trend in cases has slowed and may be plateauing, said Heather Hill, infectious disease supervisor for the Benton Franklin Health District, speaking on the Kadlec on Call podcast Wednesday.

“That certainly has us concerned because we would like to see it continue to drop much faster,” she said. “But at least we haven’t seen a spike like we have in past years, like the past Thanksgiving-Christmas time.”

The 256 new cases reported this past week for Benton and Franklin counties puts them on track to reach 50,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 by the end of the year.

Currently the two counties have had 49,373 confirmed cases since the start of the pandemic, including 30,087 in Benton County and 19,286 in Franklin County, which has slightly less than half as many people.

The week ended with a new case rate of 163 new cases per 100,000 people for both counties over the past 14 days, up from a recent low case rate of 149 reported earlier in the week.

As of Friday, Benton County had a case rate of 158 and Franklin County had a case rate of 173.

The 19 people hospitalized for COVID-19 treatment at the end of the week accounted for just under 5% of all patients in the Richland, Kennewick, Pasco and Prosser hospitals.

Tri-Cities vaccinations

No cases of the omicron variant have been reported yet in the Tri-Cities area, but cases have been reported elsewhere in Washington state.

The variant of the coronavirus is more infectious than the delta variant that now accounts for most cases in the Tri-Cities area, said Dr. Amy Person, health officer for Benton and Franklin counties.

But there is some early evidence to suggest that omicron may not cause as severe an illness, she said in comments Wednesday to the Benton Franklin Community Health Alliance.

A booster dose of the COVID-19 vaccine will help stave off either the omicron or delta variant as immunity wanes over time, she said.

About 36,000 people in Benton and Franklin counties have received booster doses — either a third dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine or a second dose of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine.

That is up about 6,000 from a week ago, according to data from the Washington state Department of Health.

Booster doses of the Pfizer vaccine have just been approved for teens ages 16 and 17 in Washington state and are recommended by the state Department of Health. Previously, they were only available for adults.

“Ensuring booster doses are available to as many people as possible will add an extra layer of protection across our communities this winter, help keep families healthy as we gather this holiday season, and increase immunity as the omicron variant spreads worldwide,” said Dr. Umair Shah, state secretary of health.

The number of people vaccinated against COVID-19 in the Tri-Cities area continues to lag the state.

Some 62% of all people in Washington state are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, not counting booster doses. But in Benton County that drops to 51% and in Franklin County 46%, which is little changed from a week ago.

Washington deaths

In all of Washington state, 9,535 deaths due to the coronavirus have been reported since the start of the pandemic through midday Friday, with 155 of those deaths reported in the last week.

Of the people who have died statewide, 806 were known to be vaccinated against COVID, according to the latest Washington state Department of Health report issued Dec. 1 on vaccination breakthrough cases. They ranged in age from 32 to 103, with a median age of 79.

At least 291 of them were residents, or possibly staff or visitors, at long-term care facilities.

Information on deaths from breakthrough cases in the Tri-Cities is available only through September, when 16 fully vaccinated Tri-Cities area residents had died.

The other 194 deaths since January, when the vaccine became widely available, through September were in unvaccinated people.

No deaths due to the vaccine have been reported by medical officials in the Tri-Cities area.

About 27% of recent confirmed or probable cases of COVID-19 in the state of Washington have been in vaccinated people, according to data from the state Department of Health.

The number of breakthrough cases has declined along with the overall drop in new cases.

The percentage of breakthrough cases has increased a few percentage points since mid September, reflecting the growing percentage of people vaccinated, COVID variants and possible waning immunity, according to the agency.

The vaccine continues to do a good job of preventing cases severe enough to require hospitalization or cause death, according to public health officials.

This story was originally published December 11, 2021 at 5:00 AM.