February a bad month for COVID deaths in Tri-Cities, even as new case rates fall

The deaths attributed to COVID-19 continue to mount in the Tri-Cities area, even as the number of new known cases of the disease are rapidly declining.

On Friday the Benton Franklin Health District announced nine more recent deaths due to complications of COVID.

They bring deaths announced so far this month to 26 — more than each of the previous three months.

Tri-Cities area deaths due to COVID-19 are announced once a week, usually on Fridays.

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.

Most deaths in the Tri-Cities area have been in people who were not fully vaccinated.

The most recent deaths of Benton County residents include a woman in her 50s, a woman in her 70s, a woman and two men in their 80s and two women in their 90s.

Two Franklin County residents died, a woman and a man in their 80s.

The most recent deaths attributed to COVID-19 bring the Tri-Cities area total since the start of the pandemic to 625, including 427 residents of Benton County and 198 residents of Franklin County.

In the Tri-Cities, 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, 11,615 residents have died of complications of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, according to the Washington state Department of Health on Friday.

Tri-Cities COVID cases

“Case rates are dropping and they are dropping rapidly,” said Dr. Amy Person, health officer for Benton and Franklin counties, in a weekly interview with the Benton Franklin Community Health Alliance.

On Friday, the combined case rate for Benton and Franklin counties was 1,195 new cases per 100,000 people over the last two weeks.

That’s down from a case rate of 2,555 a week ago and 4,105 at the first of this month.

Public health officials caution that some of the decline may be due to the increased use of home test kits with results not required to be reported to the Benton Franklin Health District.

The Tri-Cities based district asks that people voluntarily report positive test results to help provide information about the status of COVID in the community. The district has posed a two-question form at bit.ly/BFtestreport.

Despite the rapid drop in new cases, the case rate still remains just above previous peaks of the pandemic in the Tr-Cities area.

Hospital COVID cases

The number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 in Benton and Franklin counties declined to 38 on Friday, the first time the total has been below 40 since mid-January.

The 38 patients accounted for 9% of all people being treated in the Richland, Kennewick, Pasco and Prosser hospitals. That is down from 19% about a month ago.

The elderly continue to be hit hard by COVID-19, particularly those most vulnerable to infection in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities.

The number of cases in staff or residents in Benton and Franklin county long-term care homes has increased by 149 since the end of 2021. There have been 1,179 cases in long-term care facilities since the start of the pandemic.

Tri-Cities COVID vaccine

The percentage of people who are old enough to be vaccinated against COVID-19 and are fully vaccinated increased only slightly over the last week in the Tri-Cities area.

In Benton County, the percentage of residents age 5 and older fully vaccinated increased from 58.4% to 58.6% over the past week. In Franklin County, the rate of increase was higher, from 54.4% to 54.9%.

Statewide, 70.7% of all residents age 5 and older are fully vaccinated, according to the Washington state Department of Health.

It considers people fully vaccinated if they have had two doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine or one dose of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine.

But additional booster shots are recommended for those 12 and older by the Washington state Department of Health and the Centers for Disease Control.

This story was originally published February 19, 2022 at 5:00 AM.