Whitman County infections continue to explode

The Tri-Cities area had 100 more cases of confirmed COVID-19 reported over the past three days on Monday, but no new deaths.

That puts the new cases at an average of about 33 a day, in line with a drop in new cases of more than 50% since the start of July.

The Benton Franklin Health District does not update case and death numbers over the weekend, instead reporting data for three days on Mondays.

Benton County had 54 cases reported for a total of 4,159 since the start of the pandemic. Franklin County had 46 cases for a total of 3,944 cases. Total cases for the two counties come to 8,103 since March, with the local health district not tracking active versus recovered cases.

Benton County has had 307 confirmed cases over the past two weeks, a modest drop from the 330 cases reported over the previous two-week period.

Franklin County, however, has seen cases drop to 213 total over the past two weeks, down from 380 cases reported over the previous two-week period.

Benton, Franklin and three other counties still in modified Phase 1 of the state’s Safe Start reopening plan, received permission last week for more activities, including limited indoor dining, limited indoor church services and gatherings of up to five non-household members.

But the state is not allowing advances to additional full phases, instead focusing on getting new case numbers low enough to allow public schools to partially reopen. The goal is to get below 75 cases per 100,000 population, which is considered a high rate by the state.

For Benton County, that will require dropping from about 307 cases total in two weeks to about 150. For Franklin County, it will mean dropping from about 213 cases total in two weeks to about 72.

On Monday, 34 patients were hospitalized locally for treatment of COVID-19. Numbers have dropped into the 30s since Aug. 4. They have ranged from 89 people hospitalized locally for COVID-19 treatment at the start of July, to 28 as recently as April 27.

The 34 patients account for just under 11% of all patients at hospitals in Richland, Kennewick, Pasco and Prosser.

The number of deaths attributed to complications of COVID-19 in Benton and Franklin counties remain at 156, including 45 in Franklin County and 111 in Benton County.