COVID numbers trending the wrong direction in Tri-Cities. More deaths reported
Two more people have died of complications of COVID-19 in the Tri-Cities area, according to the Benton Franklin Health District.
The rate of known new cases is increasing.
Other indicators, such as checks of city wastewater and demand for tests at community test sites, also show that COVID-19 may be infecting more people.
However, the increases are modest and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention rates community levels for both Benton and Franklin counties as “low.”
The rating is determined by hospital beds being used, hospital admissions and the total number of known new COVID-19 cases.
The new case rates remain far below previous peaks of the pandemic.
The newly released monthly Unified Situation Report of the Tri-Cities based health district and the Benton and Franklin counties emergency management listed no outbreaks in businesses, healthcare settings or childcare centers.
However, there was one school outbreak and four outbreaks in long-term care facilities, such as nursing homes, with another on a watch list.
Public health officials are urging people 50 and older to consider getting their first and second vaccine booster shots after seeing severe illnesses in elderly people who only received their initial vaccinations.
Tri-Cities COVID deaths
The two people who died recently of COVID-19 were Benton County men, one in his 50s and the other in his 80s.
They put the Tri-Cities area on track in May to match death numbers for April, when eight COVID-19 deaths were reported. The health district announces the deaths once a week, usually on Thursdays.
In March, 27 recent deaths were reported and there were 43 deaths in February, up from 21 in January.
The total deaths from complications of COVID-19 in the Tri-Cities area since the start of the pandemic number 679. They include 466 residents of Benton County and 213 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, 12,716 residents have died of complications of COVID since the start of the pandemic, an increase of just 13 deaths in the last week, according to data from the Washington state Department of Health.
Tri-Cities cases, hospitalizations
The upward trend in new cases and hospitalizations follows a similar increase weeks ago in the Puget Sound area of Washington state.
The new case rate for Benton and Franklin counties has increased to 43 new cases per 100,000 people in seven days, up from 27 reported a week ago.
The free drive-thru testing site at Columbia Basin College in Pasco has seen more people showing up for testing and the rate of positive tests has increased to 11%. That’s up from 5% reported a month ago.
The percentage of patients in Benton and Franklin county hospitals also is trending up, but very slightly.
A week ago 1% of patients in the hospitals in Richland, Kennewick, Pasco and Prosser had COVID-19. That has increased to 1.5%.
The increase in new COVID-19 admissions per 100,000 population is higher for Washington state, with the rate of admissions increase from 2.3 per 100,000 in a week to 3.7 over the most recent approximately two weeks of data.
Public health officials are keeping an eye on the increasing amount of genetic material from the virus detected om wastewater samples collected in Richland, Kennewick, Pasco and West Richland.
Trends tracked since fall show an increase in hospital admissions after a dramatic increase in genetic material in samples of wastewater.