December Tri-Cities COVID-19 deaths already surpass all of November
Four Tri-Cities residents died this week due to COVID-19, the Benton-Franklin Health District reported.
A man in his 30s and a woman in her 40s died in Franklin County. A man and a woman, both in their 50s, died in Benton County, according to data updated through Friday afternoon.
That brings the total number of COVID-related deaths this month to 19, surpassing the entire month of November, which saw 17 COVID deaths.
Hospitalizations remained level last week at 15 — the lowest numbers since June, according to health department records.
While concerns over a new spike fueled by the Omicron variant begin to build, COVID-19 deaths remain far below the 80 in October and 64 in September.
Four cases of the Omicron variant were confirmed in Tri-Cities patients on Thursday evening. Dr. Amy Person said two of those cases were breakthroughs in which the patients had been vaccinated, but not yet received a booster.
The travel history of those patients is still under investigation.
Dr. Person said it’s up to Tri-Cities residents to prevent another surge by practicing safety measures such as social distancing, good hand hygiene, wearing masks and getting vaccinated and boosted if eligible.
To date there have been 392 confirmed COVID-19 related deaths in Benton County and 183 in Franklin County.
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.
Since the Dec. 10 update, the Benton and Franklin counties cumulative case count has increased by 167 to 49,540.
Holiday concerns
Benton-Franklin County Health Officer Dr. Amy Person told the Benton Franklin County Community Health Alliance this week that the area did not see a major increase in cases from the Thanksgiving holiday.
“We actually did pretty well (after Thanksgiving). We did see a slight uptick in cases in Benton County, but it wasn’t significant,” Dr. Person said. “Franklin County cases actually stayed pretty stable. The bigger question would be, ‘Is the arrival of the Omicron variant going to change that?’”
Dr. Person said the best defense against infection is getting vaccinated, and that it is not too late to begin the process.
“We know that just having those first two doses of the mRNA vaccine like Moderna and Pfizer, or a single like Johnson and Johnson doesn’t give us the fullest protection against these new variants. But the booster doses, those appear to boost our antibodies and significantly boost our protection,” she said.
“So that is, number one, what everyone needs to do. If you are 16 or older, and you’ve completed your primary series, get your booster so you can maximize your protection,” she said.
