Benton & Franklin Counties
General Situation/Overview:
On January 21, 2020, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Washington State Department of Health announced the first case of 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) in the United States and in Washington State. As of 3/19/2020 a 24, 48, 72-hour planning projection of the response is being done daily. Friday’s planning projection will encompass Saturday and Sunday, then resume normal planning projections on Monday.
Benton and Franklin County At-A-Glance
Total Case Count 2/3/2021 Benton Franklin
Confirmed* 13897 10362
Deaths** 177 88
*Confirmed: positive test result. **Deaths Due to changes in the Vital Statistics Law (RCW 70.58A) that support increased
security on personal information, access to data for death records is more limited. BFHD will report deaths weekly on Friday’s.
* this number shows a reduction from last week due to cases with address issues that were defaulted to the BFHD address in
Kennewick being reassigned to the correct city/county
HEALTHY WASHINGTON ROADMAP TO RECOVERY
Governor Inslee announces metric changes to Health Washington Roadmap to Recovery – Jan 28th
https://medium.com/wagovernor/inslee-announces-metric-changes-to-healthy-washington-roadmap-to-recovery-
36ddf02c88ca
Inslee (wa.gov)
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City Case Count 2/3/2021 April OFM Population # of Cases Pasco 77,100 9177 Mesa 495 293
Connell 5,500 529
Kahlotus 165 17
# Hospitalized Patients
Case Locations of Interest 2/3/2021
# of Cases
Long Term Care Residents and Staff 808
Please visit Washington State Department of Corrections site for current case counts at Coyote
Ridge Corrections Center. ( https://www.doc.wa.gov/corrections/covid-19/data.htm )
OUTBREAK MITIGATION & DATA: Identify the COVID-19 spread, including clusters; track any lab confirmed cases and
determine potential exposures. Identify the spread of COVID-19 in long-term care and community living facilities and provide
infection control guidance and resources to those facilities. Input data from Epi into existing systems; WDRS and Redcap
surveys.
Active Outbreaks in the community: these outbreaks meet the definition of an outbreak according to DOH
o General Business Community – 22 with 12 pending investigations
o Long Term Care Facilities – 10 with 2 pending investigations
o HealthCare Settings – 2 with 0 pending investigations
o Childcare Settings –0 with 1 pending investigation
o Schools – 1 with 1 pending investigations
There has been a re-classification of the outbreak definition in a school setting to reflect only those outbreaks that
involve student classroom/learning environment transmission. BFHD has received clarification from DOH that this
includes outbreaks in kitchen/cafeteria staff or transportation staff (bus drivers) that may affect students.
BFHD received an N-95 Mask Fit test kit from DOH for use by our Long-Term Care facilities. DOH had previously
provided training/train-the-trainer session with our LTC’s for mask fit compliance. BFHD has developed a check out
form and training materials for use of the fit test kit – contact BFHD Long Term Care team for use of the kit.
BFHD will be participating in a panel discussion with the WA Farm Labor Association on Thursday
BFHD conducted one site visit to a local business to assist with COVID infection control planning
The BFHD Outreach outbreak team is actively working with local Agriculture and H2A partners on planning for testing
and safety precautions for incoming workers
BFHD Long Term Care and Healthcare outbreak teams are reviewing updated long term care guidance, in effect
2/1/21. Long Term Care for Safe Start Plan: https://www.dshs.wa.gov/altsa/residential-care-services/safe-start-long-
term-care-plan
BFHD school team is working to provide quarantine guidance and training to school support staff, especially
important as some middle and high schools prepare to return to hybrid in-person learning.
COVID-19 Vaccination “Get Ready” plan for school, OSPI and Kaiser Permanente plan to vaccinate school employees
https://medium.com/waospi/state-unveils-covid-19-vaccination-get-ready-plan-for-school-employees-
be21e08ee2d8
BFHD Schools team will be participating in a call with OSPI regarding preplanning for potential school vaccine clinics
when we reach that phase for the state
Updated guidance from WIAA based on the Health Washington Sport and Activity guidelines
https://www.wiaa.com/ConDocs/Con1911/Healthy%20Washington%20Sport%20and%20Activity%20Guidelines%20(
https://www.bfhd.wa.gov/UserFiles/Servers/Server_10765972/File/BFHD%20Health%20Officer%20Update%20to%2
0Schools%20Jan%2012%202021.pdf
Visit each individual school district website for current information on hybrid learning schedules, safety plans and
COVID-19 Activity Dashboards
school-guidance-person-instruction
DOH -Tools to Prepare for Provision of In-Person Learning among K-12 Students at Public and Private Schools during
the COVID-19 Pandemic: https://www.doh.wa.gov/Portals/1/Documents/1600/coronavirus/DecisionTree-
CONTACT TRACING & CARE COORDINATION:
Care Coordination team connects people in Isolation or quarantine to the services they need to stay isolated.
This may be providing a Walgreens Hygiene kit or a Kroger Food box or connecting them with rent assistance,
grocery or prescription delivery or other services. With the increasing case count, Care Coordination is
averaging about over 30 case referrals per day. BFHD/Care Coordination Team has partnered with Within
Reach. Currently they can take 5 cases/day, with the plan to take at least 10. The agreement with Yakima
Valley Farm Workers ended January 8.
Care Coordination team currently has 399 active cases. Last week there was 82 referrals for 72 households, 68
households were contacted and 54 of those households were enrolled in services
Contact tracing team to receive guidance/training on reporting of “vaccine break through cases” a vaccine
breakthrough case is an identified COVID positive case 7 days or more after the person has received both
COIVD vaccinations. These cases must be reported to DOH.
VACCINE PREPAREDNESS:
Mass vaccination site at the Benton County Fairgrounds for eligible 1A-1B1 population. As of today Feb 3rd the
site has provided vaccinations to 5,672 people. The Department of Health has mandated the use of the PrepMod
registration/appointment system. A link to the registration page can be found here
https://prepmod.doh.wa.gov/clinic/search and click on BFHD-COVID Vaccine Clinic you will also need to
present your eligibility certificate which can be obtained here
https://form.findyourphasewa.org/210118771253954.
Please note the registration through PrepMod is NOT an assigned appointment time, people with a registration
are encouraged to come to the site early beginning at 8:30am. There is very limited opportunity to receive a
vaccination on a “walk-in” basis. During the day there may be unallocated vaccine from no-shows and because
sometimes there are “extra” doses in each vial. In an effort to ensure that no vaccine is wasted a “hold-Line” will
be established, there is no guarantee that you will receive a vaccination, and the BEST way to ensure your
vaccination is to make a registration, but around 1:00pm each day there may be a chance to receive vaccine from
these unclaimed doses
Patience with vaccine administration is key, please keep in mind that providers (including the mass vaccination
site) do not know what their weekly vaccine allocation will be until Friday, making it difficult to set long range
appointments
The mass vaccination site is a joint effort with command from the SE Washington Type 3 Incident Management
team, and assistance from the National Guard, Department of Health, Kennewick Police Department, and BFHD
and public information assistance from City of Kennewick and City of Pasco. This has been a tremendous
community effort. It took a great deal of planning and cooperation between everyone to complete this enormous
undertaking in just a few shorts days – thank you to all
The other 3 Mass vaccination sites to date (as of 2/2) have administered the following vaccinations:
o Spokane: 4,713
o Chelan: 2,844
o Clark: 3,989
BFHD to participate in a call with DOH regarding deployment of mobile strike teams to assist with vaccinations at
Adult Family Homes. BFHD is also coordinating with local partners to vaccinate Adult Family Homes and identify
gaps in vaccination efforts.
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BFHD vaccination team is working with pharmacies and clinics and have provided a listing on their website of
community partners who may be able to provide COVID vaccine appointments COVID-19 Vaccine Information -
Benton-Franklin Health District (wa.gov)
BFHD vaccination team is working to connect local and state partners to facilitate discussions about vaccination
clinics for school staff.
The BFHD vaccination team is working with Benton county staff on planning for vaccination of staff and inmates
at the local jail and juvenile detention center.
COMMUNITY TESTING:
CBC-West Test Site: To date the site has administered 62,828 COVID tests. Testing numbers this week are as follows:
Thursday 1/28/2021 – 399, Friday 1/29/2021 - 475, Saturday 1/30/2021 -412, Sunday 1/31/2021- 334, Monday
2/1/2021 – 637, Tuesday 2/2/2021- 399, Wednesday 2/3/2021-444
CBC-West Test Site remains open 7 days a week Monday -Sunday from 8:30am to 4:00pm - pre-registration makes
for a faster experience at the test site – however you may still have to wait in line until you reach the point where the
site breaks into lanes, please be patient. Click the link to be taken to the registration page
www.wacovid19.org/tricitiestesting
Positivity rate for the CBC West Test Site is 18.33%. The 14-day positivity rate at this site is 16.91%
PUBLIC INFORMATION:
NEWS AND INFORMATION OF INTEREST:
New re-opening guidance for businesses and workers. Governor Inslee issued new guidance for certain business activities, which must adhere to the occupancy and operation requirements outlined for their regions' Healthy Washington phase. The new guidance applies to:
o Weddings/funerals/events o Indoor entertainment o In-store retail o Miscellaneous venues
Benton-Franklin County COVID-19 Outbreak report for March 2020 - Dec31, 2020.
https://www.bfhd.wa.gov/UserFiles/Servers/Server_10765972/File/Agency%20Reports/BFHD%20COVID-
Need support during COVID-19? Call Washington Listens - Crisis Connections helps facilitate a support line called
Washington Listens. Washington Listens will provide non-clinical support to people who feel sad, anxious, or stressed
due to COIVD-19. Washington Listens is free and anonymous. Any Washington resident can call, and a support
specialist will listen and help to guide you to connections within your community. Call Washington Listens at 1-833-
681-0211. Someone is available to talk from Monday – Friday, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. and weekends from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
TTY and language access services are available
“Ask Dr. Amy” NBC Right will be moving to Tuesdays at 5:00pm - provides the community the opportunity to ask Dr.
Amy Person, BFHD Health Officer questions
BFHD weekly Media Briefing for this week has been canceled
Heather Hill with BFHD is on Kadlec on Call every other Wednesday on KONA Radio at 6:00pm
BFHD updates Website Twitter and Facebook daily
LOGISTICS:
All PPE requests for either Benton County facilities/agencies or Franklin County facilities/agencies will now go
through Franklin County Emergency Management. Reminder entities should only be requesting assistance for those
supplies they are unable to procure for themselves. Contact for PPE request is Sean Davis at
sdavis@co.franklin.wa.us
FYI – Nitrile gloves are in very short supply – Washington Department of Enterprise Services has indicated that the
182 million glove contract with manufacturers have increased their prices far above the amounts agreed upon when
the contracts were signed, and they are no longer being honored by the distributors. DES is currently working on
securing new contracts for nitrile gloves. Requests for Nitrile gloves will still be filled at a reduced amount, however
Medical grade vinyl gloves in all sizes are readily available
List of PPE vendors the state uses to procure PPE items
https://des.wa.gov/sites/default/files/public/documents/ContractingPurchasing/covid19/Vendors.pdf
If you are curious to know how much PPE each county has received from the state you can find that information here
https://coronavirus.wa.gov/what-you-need-know/personal-protective-equipment/tracking-ppe-distribution
Tuesday Planning meeting at 4:00pm – Planning Meeting via ZOOM
Dissemination of BFHD weekly Incident Action Plan released Tuesday’s by 5:00
Tuesday at 1:00pm – Region 8 Healthcare and partners call
Every other Tuesday at 2:00pm - BFHD hosts local elected officials and decision-makers conference call
Tuesday at 2:00 - SEOC Unified Command Ops to BFHD Command Ops meeting
Unified Situational Report (SitRep) dissemination once weekly - Wednesday only
Medical Provider Call Tuesday at 5:30pm This is a forum for providers to ask questions about mostly COVID topics
presented by many different medical providers each week.
Wednesday at 10:30am - Local Hospital/Clinic/EMS/EM coordination call via ZOOM
Every other Wednesday at 1:00 PM- BFHD School Team hosts a call with local school nursing staff.
Every other Thursday at 2:00pm – Call with local agricultural partners. This call will be restarting 1/21/2021. The BFHD Outreach team participates in an Agriculture call hosted by Yakima Health District, hosted the third Friday of every month.
Every other Wednesday at 1:00pm - North Franklin County Community Leadership meeting – call in phone 1-509-
545-3555 meeting number: 5847# access code: 3555# the next meeting will be February 17, 2021
Thursday at 11:30am - Coordination call with the WA State EOC, 1-877-820-7831, password 782831# - State SitRep is
not produced on the weekends it will be sent M-F only
Thursday at 10:00- BFHD School Team hosts a call with local school administration
Every other Thursday at 1:30 - Municipality Advisory Council
Every other Wednesday at 1:30pm - call with BFHD and LTC agencies
FUTURE OPERATIONS:
Mobile vaccination and other community vaccine planning progression into the next phases
Healthy Washington, Roadmap-to-Recovery Plan metrics review every other Friday
CURRENT RISKS:
Vaccine supply and delivery to providers and patience within our community as the vaccines are provided through
the “phases”
Return to in-person/hybrid learning in schools across the two counties for middle and high school students–
monitoring for outbreaks
WHERE TO FIND MORE INFORMATION:
• Benton-Franklin Health District- All News: https://www.bfhd.wa.gov
• Washington State Department of Health: https://www.doh.wa.gov/Emergencies/Coronavirus
• Center for Disease Control and Prevention: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html
• REDI Healthcare Coalition: https://srhd.org/programs-and-services/hcc/eei-
Local Health Jurisdiction: Management Team, EOC/ECC Staff, all BFHD Staff
Region 8: Local Emergency Response Coordinators, Emergency Management agencies, healthcare partners, Fire/EMS agencies
WA State: Regional Emergency Response Coordinators, DOH Duty Officer
Eastern WA: REDi Coalition Duty Officer
Cross Boarder: Oregon Regions 6 and 9 Liaisons