Tri-Cities sees jump in people getting COVID vaccines. But 8 more deaths

A woman in her 20s was among the eight new Tri-Cities area deaths announced this week due to COVID-19.

Eight is was one of the highest numbers of recent weekly deaths in more than three months.

But in news more encouraging to public health officials, the percentage of the Benton and Franklin population fully vaccinated against the coronavirus increased by 1.5% over the last week.

Vaccination rates had been increasing by only 0.5% for several previous weeks.

“It is likely due to more people seeing others getting sick,” said Dr. Amy Person, health officer for Benton and Franklin counties, in a weekly update with the Benton Franklin Community Health Alliance.

“And even if they are not being hospitalized, they are having symptoms, they are not able to work, so they are being impacted,” she said.

Still, new cases remain high compared to other part of Washington state and the U.S.

Earlier this week, Franklin County had the 2nd highest new case rate in the nation and Benton County ranked 10th.

Whitman County, home to Washington State University Tri-Cities, ranked 5th, according to COVID-19 data updated daily by the New York Times.

By Friday Whitman County ranked 2nd in the nation, just behind the Nome, Alaska area, and Franklin County had dropped to 4th. Benton County had fallen to 41st place, with Douglas County, Wash., in 32nd place.

Tri-Cities deaths

The eight new deaths announced in the Benton Franklin Health District’s weekly update on Friday was the second highest tally since late October.

One week in December also had eight recent deaths and one week in January there were 12 deaths reported.

“We are still seeing a higher number of deaths,” Dr. Person said. “What is not quite clear is whether that is due to omicron or whether those are later deaths due to the delta variant.”

The delta variant of the coronavirus caused more serious illness than the current omicron variant that accounts for almost all new cases. But the omicron variant is more contagious, infecting more people.

The most recent deaths brought the tally for Benton and Franklin counties since the start of the pandemic to more than 600, at 607.

They include 415 deaths of Benton County residents and 192 of Franklin County residents.

Six of the most recent deaths were Benton County residents — a woman in her 20s, a man in his 40s, a man in his 60s and two women and a man in his 80s.

In Franklin County two people died — a woman in her 70s and a man in his 80s.

In January, a total of 21 Tri-Cities COVID deaths were announced, compared to 22 in December and 17 in November.

Deaths have declined significantly since the 80 announced in October when the delta variant had just peaked.

The majority of COVID deaths — 92% in 2021 in the Tri-Cities area — are in people who are not fully vaccinated.

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.

Statewide, 10,967 residents have died of complications of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic through Wednesday’s report of the Washington state Department of Health.

COVID vaccine

Vaccination rates remain low in the Tri-Cities compared to Washington state, despite a three-fold increase over the last week in the rate at which people are becoming vaccinated.

The Benton Franklin Health District recommends that even those who have had COVID-19 consider getting the vaccination.

“We’re seeing more data coming out that is confirming that even if you have had COVID, getting vaccinated will give you protection above and beyond that,” Dr. Person said.

The Washington state Department of Health has only recently begun providing vaccination rates for all people eligible for the shots, those ages 5 and older.

Statewide 70.1% of residents age 5 and older are vaccinated. That drops to 58.1% in Benton County and 54% in Franklin County.

The majority of children fair well with COVID, but not all, and parents should consider getting them vaccinated, said Heather Hill, infectious disease supervisor for the Benton Franklin Health District, speaking on the Kadlec on Call podcast.

Nationwide about 1,000 children have died of COVID since the start of the pandemic, she said.

“It is important to realize that kids do get severe disease,” she said. “They do get their own form of long COVID and then they can develop that multisystem inflammatory syndrome that can be very, very devastating on their internal organs. You do not know if your child is going to be the one.”

in 2020 and 2021, five children in Benton and Franklin counties were diagnosed with multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children, or MIS-C, shortly after having COVID-19. They were among 93 cases in the state of Washington.

Tri-Cities new cases

The number of new cases in the Tri-Cities area appeared to decline based on new case data posted by the Benton Franklin Health District over the past week.

However, public health officials lacked confidence in the data after the Washington state Department of Health said that its data system has slowed down due to the large number of cases of the omicron variant across the state.

The slowdown could cause delays in reporting new cases but also in catching duplicate cases, the Department of Health said.

Asked on social media if the wave of new cases due to the highly omicron variant had peaked, the Tri-Cities based health district said it was too soon to say.

Earlier predictions were that the omicron peak would not be reached for another couple of weeks.

The new case rate for Benton and Franklin counties combined as of Friday was 3,803 new cases per 100,000 people over two weeks, but not all cases may have been included in data at the end of the week.

Earlier in the week the case rate was 4,105.

COVID hospitalizations

The number of people hospitalized for COVID-19 treatment remains high at 82 patients in the Richland, Kennewick, Pasco and Prosser hospitals at the end of the week.

However, the week started with 89 patients, and during the peak of the delta variant wave the four hospitals were treating as many as 127 patients.

This week COVID-19 patients accounted for about one in five hospitalized patients.

Nursing homes and other long-term care homes in the Tri-Cities area are seeing outbreaks of COVID-19, according to public health officials.

The total number of cases reported, in both residents and staff, since the start of the pandemic has increased to 1,131, up about 100 since the start of the year.

This story was originally published February 5, 2022 at 11:26 AM.