Confirmed TC COVID-19 Case Count: 37, One Death for August 13th

Over the last 24 hours, the Benton Franklin Health District is reporting 13 additional new COVID-19 cases testing positive for a total of 3,801. Franklin County is reporting 24 additional new COVID-19 cases for a total of 3,599. There was one death in Franklin County, a man in his 60s with underlying health conditions.

Also of note, today in news release, the Washington State Department of Health announced COVID-19 testing data will soon be reported using the total number of tests completed. This is a change from the current reporting, which reflects the total number of unique individuals ever tested.

For example, someone who has a negative COVID-19 test result in May then another negative result in July would only be counted once in the current reporting approach. The most recent test would not be included. That means testing data does not fully reflect the actual testing volume or the current test positive rate, since only the first negative result for each person is included.

Other COVID-19 notes:

The NY Post says the Big Ten is going to lose up to $1 billion in revenue because their football season has been canceled due to coronavirus.

The Daily Mail says only 23,000 fans will be able to attend the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs the weekend of September 4th. The Run for the Roses usually has about 170,000 spectators on hand, and about 175,000 hats.

The biker rally in Sturgis, South Dakota this week was so focused on belittling and denying coronavirus that one bar hosted a contest to see who could sneeze the furthest in the crowd.

In Australia, water treatment plants are using stale beer that goes bad and turning in into energy, The plants normally get 80% of their power by mixing industrial waste and sewage to make biogas and generate electricity. Now they're generating even more by adding beer to the mix, enough to power 1,200 homes a month.