COVID cases up in Tri-Cities and even higher in WA. Here’s how rates compare for kids

The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases is increasing in the Tri-Cities area, but not at the rate as much of the rest of Washington state.

“Surprisingly, we may be in a somewhat better place than the rest of the state, which is unusual for Benton and Franklin counties,” said Dr. Amy Person, health officer for the two counties, on the latest Kadlec on Call podcast.

Nevertheless, deaths continue to be reported in the Tri-Cities area from the disease, but at lower rates than earlier this year.

The latest death, reported Thursday, was a Benton County woman in her 70s.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now lists 16 of Washington state’s 39 counties, including Walla Walla County, as having increased to “medium” levels of community transmission of COVID-19.

But Benton and Franklin counties remain rated as having “low” levels of community transmission.

The rating is based on each county’s rate of new cases, new COVID-19 hospital admissions and the percent of hospital beds being used by COVID patients.

The increase in statewide cases is not close to the peaks of the delta or the initial omicron variants, but is still concerning, said Dr. Umair Shah, Washington state Department of Health.

Cases are under counted now that many people use at-home test kits with most of those results not reported to the Department of Health.

Not just cases, but hospitalizations also are increasing statewide, but not deaths, he said.

He is recommending that people in crowded indoor spaces wear masks, preferably N95 masks. Masks also are recommended for people at high risk of a severe case of COVID or who live with a person at high risk.

However, the state is not issuing new mask mandates, said Lacy Fehrenbach, Washington state Department of Health deputy secretary for prevention and health.

COVID-19 response has become a matter of individuals assessing their own risk and making choices about holiday travel, where they spend time in public and protective measures they choose to take, Person said.

She anticipates cases may increase due to Memorial Day weekend gatherings “but we are not going into the holidays with that undercurrent of fear that we will see hospitalizations or deaths exploding,” she said.

Tri-Cities COVID deaths

The recent COVID-19 death reported this past week brings deaths reported in May to seven.

That’s slightly better than the eight deaths reported in April and far below the 27 deaths reported in March and 43 in February.

The Benton Franklin Health District reports deaths once a week.

Since the start of the pandemic 684 residents of the Tri-Cities area have died of complications of COVID-19, including 470 in Benton County and 214 in 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, 12,919 residents have died of complications of COVID since the start of the pandemic, including 56 deaths reported in the last week down from 72 the week before, according to data from the Washington state Department of Health.

Tri-Cities cases, hospitalizations

The Educational Service District that includes the Tri-Cities area has the second lowest case rate among the nine districts in the state for first two weeks of May, the latest data available.

Educational Service District 123, which stretches from Benton and Franklin counties along the Oregon border to Idaho, had a new case rate of 104 cases per 100,000 children, with new cases fairly evenly spread across age groups.

The Puget Sound Educational Service District had a case rate more than five times as high at 599. The district that includes Yakima had the lowest rate at 71.

The new case rate in Benton and Franklin counties for all age groups has increased to 81 new cases per 100,000 people over one week, as opposed to the two week case rate reported for students.

A week ago the case rate for all ages was 56 new cases per 100,000 per two weeks.

The Benton County case rate has been higher than the Franklin County case rate for the past two weeks. Most recently the Benton County case rate was 87, compared to the Franklin County case rate of 68.

The Tri-Cities area rate of hospitalization has remained fairly steady for the past two months. There were nine patients admitted to hospitals in Richland, Kennewick, Pasco and Prosser for COVID-19 treatment in the most recent week for which data was available, May 13-19.

However, wastewater testing in the Tri-Cities shows an increase in genetic material from the coronavirus detected in sewage, an indication that new cases are increasing.