It’s time to get a COVID booster, warn health experts. Another Tri-Cities death reported

Another elderly person has died of complications of COVID-19 in the Tri-Cities area as local public health officials say data show a continued decline in the virus in Benton and Franklin counties.

The most recent death, announced in the Benton Franklin Health District’s weekly report Thursday, was a Franklin County resident in her 80s.

Her death brings the tally of COVID deaths since the start of the pandemic to 728 in the Tri-Cities area, including 220 residents of Franklin County and 508 residents of Benton County.

In recent months, 11 or 12 recent deaths in the Tri-Cities area from COVID-19 have been reported each month. But so far in October only one death has been reported by the Benton Franklin Health District.

The COVID new case rate continues to drop, falling to 55 new confirmed cases per 100,000 residents of the two counties. That’s down from 116 a month ago.

But because so many people use home tests with positive results not reported to the state Department of Health, the new case rate does not include many cases.

Public health officials keep a closer watch on wastewater sampling results and hospital admissions to gauge the extent of the coronavirus in the Tri-Cities area.

A significant spike in the concentration of genetic material from the coronavirus in samples collected from untreated municipal wastewater in the Tri-Cities was reported Thursday, but public health officials say that appears to have been a one-day anomaly that has defied explanation.

There were 20 new hospital admissions for COVID-19 treatment in the Richland, Kennewick, Pasco and Prosser hospitals over the most recent week reported. A month ago 25 new patients were reported.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention rated the COVID-19 community level in both Benton and Franklin counties as “low” for the fourth week in a row.

Walla Walla and Columbia counties were the only counties in the state to be rated as “medium,” with the other 37 counties all rated as “low.”

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.

Vaccination boosters urged

Although COVID-19 trends are improving in the Tri-Cities, public health officials remain concerned that the illness could increase just as colds and flu do during the fall and winter seasons.

The best way to prevent hospitalization or death due to COVID-19 — particularly for elderly people and those with underlying health conditions — is to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and get the new bivalent booster that targets the current omicron variant of the virus, according to public health officials.

The Washington state Department of Health expects the new booster shot to soon be available for children ages 5 and older, following recommendations from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the CDC and the Western States Scientific Safety Review Workgroup.

Now it is available only for people ages 12 and older.

Pediatric doses of the new COVID-19 booster should begin arriving in the Tri-Cities the week of Oct. 17, with possibly limited availability for a couple of weeks.