Tri-Cities health district advice on COVID vaccine for young kids. More elderly die
Parents who are unsure about whether to get their young child or baby vaccinated against COVID-19, should talk with the child’s pediatrician, says the Benton Franklin District Health Department.
There have been cases of young children who become severely ill with COVID and cases of pneumonia in young children, said Heather Hill, infectious disease supervisor for the Benton Franklin Health District, speaking recently on the Kadlec on Call podcast.
Both the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines for young children “showed really good efficacy in stopping severe illness.”
It also could help prevent young children from infecting those most vulnerable to severe cases of COVID, such as elderly grandparents or great grandparents, although it will not prevent all cases of COVID in young children.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Saturday recommended the Moderna and Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines for ages 6 months to 4 years old.
The Food and Drug Administration approved the Pfizer vaccine for children ages 6 months to 4 years old. It is a three-dose series that is one-tenth the dose given to adults.
The FDA approved the Moderna vaccine for ages 6 months to 5 years. It is a two-dose series that is a quarter the dose given to adults.
The Pfizer vaccine already is approved for older children and the CDC is considering whether also to approve the Moderna vaccine for ages 6 to 17.
Tri-Cities COVID deaths
Tri-Cities area residents continue to die from complications of COVID-19.
The Benton Franklin Health District reported two more recent deaths this past week, a Benton County man in his 70s and a Benton County man in his 80s.
They bring COVID-19 deaths reported so far this month to six. In May, seven deaths were reported, down from eight in April.
The health district reports recent deaths once a week.
Deaths from COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic now total 690 for the Tri-Cities area. There have been 474 deaths of Benton County residents and 216 deaths of Franklin County residents.
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, 13,115 residents have died of complications of COVID since the start of the pandemic, including 69 in the past two weeks, according to data from the Washington state Department of Health.
Tri-Cities COVID cases
The latest new case rate for Benton and Franklin counties is 116 new cases per 100,000 people over a week. Benton County’s rate is 129 and Franklin County’s rate is 90.
New case rates remain far below previous peaks of the pandemic.
The reported rate of new COVID-19 cases in the Tri-Cities area remained fairly flat over the past week, despite a slight uptick reported early in the week that had disappeared by the report at the end of the week.
Benton County cases dropped slightly, which was enough for the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention to improved its COVID-19 community level rating from “medium” a week ago to “low” on Friday.
Franklin County has a lower new case rate than Benton County and has remained with a CDC rating of “low.”
The CDC ranks counties based on the number of new COVID-19 cases, hospital beds used by patients with COVID and hospital admissions for people with the disease.
Walla Walla, Ferry, Spokane and Asotin counties are the Eastern Washington counties now rated as “medium,” and Garfield County in Eastern Washington is the only county in the state rated as “high.”
Tri-Cities hospitalizations, vaccinations
More people are being hospitalized with COVID-19 in Benton and Franklin counties, with the rate of hospital beds occupied by patients with the disease up to 3.5%.
The month started with a report of 12 new hospitalizations of people for COVID-19 treatment over a week in the Richland, Kennewick, Pasco and Prosser hospitals, according to the most recent data then available.
That had increased to 21 in a week, according to the current data.
The genetic material from the coronavirus detected in wastewater collected from treatment plants in Kennewick, Pasco, Richland and West Richland was down slightly this week, but the overall trend since April has been an increase.
The percentage of people in the Tri-Cities area ages 5 and older completing their primary series of COVID-19 vaccinations increased slightly, but remain well below state rates, according to the latest weekly report.
In Benton County, the percentage increased by 0.2 point to 60.5% and in Franklin County the percentage increased by 0.1 point to 57.4%. Statewide the percentage is 72.6%
Test site closes
The free, walk-up COVID testing site on George Washington Way in Richland closed this week because of falling demand for testing.
“If the need arrives for more testing, the Richland COVID-19 Test Site could be re-established quickly,” UW Medicine said in a statement.
Tri-Cities area residents can continue to use the free drive-thru testing site at Columbia Basin College, 3110 W. Argent Road, Pasco.
It is open Friday through Tuesday from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. No insurance or identification is required, and test results are available in 12 to 36 hours.
This story was originally published June 18, 2022 at 12:07 PM.