COVID cases on the decline in Tri-Cities. Health officials question how long it will last

The amount of COVID-19 circulating in the Tri-Cities area appears to continue to diminish by most metrics, but people are still dying from the disease and public health officials are keeping a close watch on the data.

“Right now it is quiet. But (with) winter things change,” said Heather Hill, infectious disease supervisor for the Benton Franklin Health District, speaking this week on the Kadlec on Call podcast.

Public health officials are concerned that trends could reverse during the fall and winter months, with a seasonal spike in cases just as there typically is in influenza and has been seen in the COVID-19 pandemic in the past two winters.

This past week two more deaths from COVID-19 were reported in the Tri-Cities area, bringing the total since the start of the pandemic to 727.

They were both Benton County residents — a man in his 50s and a woman in her 80s.

They bring total Tri-Cities area deaths announced in September from complications of COVID-19 to 11. Just three of those deaths were in people younger than 70.

Eleven deaths also were reported in August and 12 in July in Benton and Franklin counties.

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 health 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.

Tri-Cities COVID cases, hospitalizations

Other metrics were showing more improvement.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention rated the COVID-19 community transmission for both counties as “low” in its weekly rating on Thursday for the second week in a row.

They are among 36 counties in Washington state with a rating of “low.” Lincoln, Garfield and Pacific counties are rated as “medium.”

When ratings are “low,” the CDC makes no masking recommendations.

The CDC bases its COVID-19 community level ratings not only on new case rates, but also hospital beds used by patients with COVID and hospital admissions for people with the disease.

The percentage of positive COVID-19 test results at the free drive-thru clinic at Columbia Basin College off Argent Road in Pasco also is down.

About 26% of tests are coming back positive, compared to 36% reported in August.

September ended with a new case rate of 98 new COVID-19 cases confirmed over a week per 100,000 residents of Benton and Franklin counties.

That is down from a new case rate of 136 at the end of August.

The number of people hospitalized for COVID-19 each week has had ups and downs through the month, but the last report was 21 people hospitalized in a week at the Richland, Kennewick, Pasco and Prosser hospitals. That is down from 28 the last week of August.

One of the most accurate ways of assessing the prevalence of the coronavirus is the weekly check of untreated municipal wastewater in the Tri-Cities.

The most recent concentration reported is about the same as four weeks ago for samples collected from Richland, Kennewick, Pasco and West Richland. It is about half the concentration reported during the winter omicron peak.