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COVID Deaths Drop but Tri-Cities Cases Still High

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.

A person in a hospital bed with a breathing tube.
(TNS) - New case rates of COVID-19 in the Tri-Cities area continue their dramatic fall.

But other data is not as good.

Ten more recent deaths due to complications of COVID-19 were reported this past week in the Tri-Cities area.

Public health workers continue to investigate significant numbers of outbreaks.

And even though the number of patients hospitalized for COVID-19 is dropping, hospitals are still stressed, in part due to a loss of staff, according to the monthly Unified Situation Report of the Benton Franklin Health District in cooperation with Benton and Franklin county emergency management.

The 10 deaths announced this past week put Benton and Franklin counties on track to match the higher number of COVID-19 deaths announced last month.

During the pandemic, a decrease in deaths has significantly lagged decreases in new cases, so Benton and Franklin counties could continue to see higher numbers of deaths for a while, said Dr. Amy Person, health officer for Benton and Franklin counties, at a Thursday news briefing.

Last month 43 recent deaths were announced, up from an average of 20 deaths a month from November through January.

The 10 deaths announced this past week included eight residents of Benton County — a woman and two men in their 60s; two men in their 70s; two women in their 80s and a woman in her 90s.

In Franklin County a woman in her 60s died and a man in his 80s died.

They bring total COVID-19 deaths since the start of the pandemic in the Tri-Cities area to 652, including 446 residents of Benton County and 206 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, 12,025 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 Friday.

Tri-Cities COVID cases

The number of confirmed new cases of COVID-19 in Benton and Franklin counties dropped 54% from from the previous week.

However, the Benton Franklin Health District still rated the COVID-19 transmission level in the Tri-Cities area as “high” at the end of the week.

The Benton Franklin Health District reported a case rate for Benton and Franklin counties combined of 139 cases per 100,000 people over seven days, 136 for Benton County and 146 for Franklin County.

A rate over 100 is considered high.

The Benton Franklin Health District moved this past week to a new metric of reporting new case rates based on the number of new cases per 100,000 people over seven days.

That matches the way the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention looks at cases, rather than the previous case rate reported in the Tri-Cities based on new cases over 14 days.

The Tri-Cities based health district has stopped reporting daily new cases on its “Roadmap to Recovery” COVID-19 dashboard, instead focusing the dashboard on data that public health officials say is more meaningful.

As more people use rapid home test kits for COVID-19, many new cases are not reported to public health officials.

Instead, the new dashboard now is more focused on providing hospital and deaths data that is more reflective of more severe cases and the impacts on the health care system, Dr. Person said.

Tri-Cities COVID hospitalizations

The new dashboard rates the impact of COVID-19 on health care services in Benton and Franklin counties as “medium.”

It reports that 52 people were patients at hospitals in the two counties for the primary reason of COVID-19 treatment on the most recent week for which data was available, Feb. 13-19.

That number includes both those admitted for COVID-19 treatment and those who came to the emergency room for COVID-19 treatment.

The number dropped 15% from the previous week.

The dashboard no longer gives the daily hospital census of COVID-19 patients in the Richland, Kennewick, Pasco and Prosser hospitals.

Kadlec Regional Medical Center reported on its Kadlec on Call podcast on Wednesday that 12 people were hospitalized there that day with COVID-19 and none were being treated in its intensive care unit.

That’s down from COVID-19 patient counts in the 70s with its ICU a third to a half-full with COVID-19 patients four to six weeks ago.

COVID outbreaks

The COVID-19 Unified Situation Report for the two counties issued this past week said the health district had 15 possible outbreaks of the disease being investigated in Tri-Cities area businesses, but no active confirmed outbreaks.

There were 15 outbreaks in long-term care facilities, such as nursing homes, with an additional facility on a watch list.

An additional possible outbreak was being investigated in a health care facility, but there were no outbreaks or outbreak investigations in schools or child care centers, according to the report.

COVID vaccinations

The percentage of people in Benton and Franklin counties fully vaccinated against COVID-19 crept up by less than 0.5% over the last week.

In Benton County 59% of people old enough to be vaccinated are fully vaccinated, up from 58.7% a week ago.

In Franklin County 55.6% of people 5 and older are fully vaccinated, up from 55.2% a week ago.

Statewide the percentage is 71.1%.

The percentage of people who have received an additional dose of a COVID-19 vaccine — a booster dose — includes 50.8% of those eligible in Benton County and 42.8% in Franklin County.

Across Washington state, 58% of people 12 and older have received a booster dose.

Dr. Person credited the decline in new case rates in the Tri-Cities to the number of people who currently have immunity to the coronavirus after being infected.

COVID masks

The requirement for wearing masks in most indoor settings in Washington state lifts just before midnight on March 11.

However, businesses can still choose to require customers to wear masks.

Masks also will continue to be required in hospitals, clinics, nursing homes and pharmacies.

The federal government also has yet to drop its requirement that they be worn on public transportation including buses and in taxis.

However, it has dropped its requirement that masks be worn on school buses, so students will no longer be required to wear them on school buses in Washington state after March 11, according to the Benton Franklin Health District.

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(c)2022 Tri-City Herald (Kennewick, Wash.)

Visit Tri-City Herald (Kennewick, Wash.) at www.tri-cityherald.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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Recovery
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