Tri-Cities has highest COVID death count in over 4 months, even as new cases decline

The Tri-Cities area had its highest COVID-19 death count this past week in more than four months.

The Benton Franklin Health District reported 17 recent deaths due to complications of COVID-19 on Friday.

The weekly death tally has not been as high since 23 deaths were announced on Oct. 15.

The 17 deaths announced Friday bring the number announced since the start of February to 43, more than double each of the past three months. However deaths are still significantly lower than in October when 80 deaths were announced as the delta variant had just peaked.

The high death count comes as the confirmed new case rate in the Tri-Cities is falling sharply.

“Though the data is trending the way we want it to, COVID is still potentially a very lethal virus and it still is continuing to kill people,” said Heather Hill, infectious disease supervisor for the Benton Franklin Health District, speaking on the Kadlec on Call podcast last week.

Most deaths in the Tri-Cities area have been in people who were not fully vaccinated, according to state and Tri-Cities area public health data.

The most recent deaths included 10 residents of Benton County, the youngest a woman in her 30s.

Other deaths of Benton County residents included a man in his 50s; four men in their 60s; a man and a woman in their 70s; and a man and a woman in their 80s.

The seven recent deaths in Franklin County included a woman in her 60s; two women and two men in their 70s; and two men in their 80s.

They bring the total COVID-19 death tally since the start of the pandemic to 438 in Benton County and 204 in Franklin County for a total of 642.

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, 11,732 residents have died of complications of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, according to the Washington state Department of Health data last updated on Wednesday.

Tri-Cities COVID cases

The new case rate for the Tri-Cities area dropped in half over the last week, according to data from the Benton Franklin Health District.

However, Hill cautioned that the confirmed case rate does not include the many cases of positive home tests, most of which are not reported to the Benton Franklin Health District.

The new case rate rate for Benton and Franklin counties combined on Friday was 550 new cases per 100,000 people over two weeks.

That was down from 1,195 the previous week and 2,555 the week before that.

Franklin County’s new case rate remains higher than Benton County’s, at 640 for Franklin County and 507 for Benton County.

The number of patients with COVID-19 at Tri-Cities area hospitals also continues to decline. The week started with 36 COVID-19 patients hospitalized and ended with 20.

Those patients accounted for just under 5% of the 412 patients in the Richland, Kennewick, Pasco and Prosser hospitals. At the start of the month 20% of patients had COVID-19.

In another promising trend, the percentage of positive test results at the free drive through test site at Columbia Basin College in Pasco dropped to 30%, down from 47% a month ago.

The percentage of positive test results at the free walk-up testing site off George Washington Way in Richland dropped to 27%, down from 45% a month ago.

However, new cases in nursing and other long-term care homes in the Tri-Cities area remain a concern for public health officials, Hill said.

In February, 79 cases of COVID-19 in employees or residents of the homes were reported.

Tri-Cities COVID vaccine

Most people who want to be vaccinated appear to have already gotten their shots.

The percentage of people ages 5 and older who are fully vaccinated barely budged over the past week in Benton County.

It increased from 58.6% to 58.7%, according to the Washington state Department of Health.

In Franklin County, the percentage increased by 0.3 points to 55.2%.

Statewide the percentage of people old enough to be vaccinated who were fully vaccinated increased by 0.2 points to 70.9% over the last week.

The Washington state Department of Health 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 26, 2022 at 5:00 AM.