According to a new report released by KING-5 TV in Seattle heading into the weekend, data shows the peak of Washington state COVID-19 cases occurred in late March, around the 28-29th, and have dropped steadily ever since.

Gov. Inslee and state officials claim it's due to the social distancing, and Stay at Home closures, and they claim the trend is beginning to uptick again. That's why they favor the slow, almost crawl-like Re-Open process.

But opponents say increased testing, which the state is now engaged in, will obviously produce more confirmed or probable cases; because as thousands more are tested, more cases will be found.  Also, according to CDC data, well over 80% who get it will never show symptoms, or only minor symptoms, and will fully recover.

 Washington State data appears to support this. While a number of people do test positive between 20 and 60, the highest death rates, with 90% of deaths, are those over 60 years of age, 52% over age 80. The positive tests are somewhat even between the 20-39 and upward categories to 79, but the deaths skyrocket with older and at risk persons.

A look at Benton Franklin County as of Monday, May 11, shows 986 combined confirmed cases between Benton-Franklin County. If you add probables (which BFHD includes in their 'total' case count issued every weekday) that number is 1,216.

Of those, 523, or nearly half, of combined-probable tests, are from two sources. They are long-term or assisted care facilities, and the Tyson Foods plant near Wallula. When you add 170 more listed as health care workers 'in general,' that number jumps to 693, or over half.

Of the 64 deaths in B-F Counties, 45 are linked to or from long-term-assisted care facilities, or nursing homes. 3 came from Tyson Foods.

And finally, of the number of persons in beds at the four main area hospitals, (Trios, Kadlec, Lourdes and Prosser Memorial)  the percentage of that census, or patient count, has hovered, and remained below 20 percent. Monday, it was 16% and has been as low as 11.  Of the 269 people in beds, 42 had COVID-19 or CLI (Covid Like symptoms).

This still represents a percentage of about 0.01 percent of the Tri-Cities Metro population (Benton Franklin County) of 286,000.

It's for these reasons that more and more business owners, leaders and workers are saying while we need to focus on at-risk persons even more, the economy needs to be opened up faster; or many businesses will not survive the shutdown or partial shutdowns.

To see the KING-5 story, click on the button below.

To see the Benton Franklin Health District data, click on the button below.

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