State reports Sunday 1 more positive test for COVID-19 in Whatcom County

The Washington State Department of Health reported one new positive test in the county for COVID-19 Sunday evening, June 7.

The county now has 410 confirmed cases and 37 deaths during the pandemic — meaning 9% of people diagnosed with the respiratory illness in Whatcom have died — according to state department of health data as of 11:59 p.m. Saturday, June 6.

The state also reports the county has 53 hospitalizations, has conducted 12,008 tests, with 3.4% returning positive results.

The Whatcom County Health Department has stopped releasing coronavirus data that is independent from COVID-19 data the state is releasing for the county. The county health department announced in a press release Wednesday, June 3, that it has launched a new, interactive COVID-19 dashboard that it says displays new metrics and should allow for better comparisons to other counties.

Sunday evening the state’s Risk Assessment Dashboard still showed data from Thursday, June 4:

▪ Whatcom is making the target rate of fewer than 25 new cases per 100,000 residents every 14 days with a rate of 17.3.

▪ Whatcom is missing the target rate of more than 50 individuals tested for each new confirmed case the past week with a rate of 26.3.

▪ Whatcom is missing the target of less than 2% of individuals testing positive for COVID-19 during the past week with a rate of 3.8%.

▪ Whatcom is making the target of less than 80% of all licensed hospital beds being occupied with a rate of 75.1%.

▪ Whatcom is making the target of less than 10% of all licensed hospital beds being occupied by COVID-19 patients with a rate of 1.7%.

St. Joseph hospital reported to The Bellingham Herald Sunday that it has one patient who tested positive for COVID-19 and none awaiting test results.

More than 6.97 million cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed worldwide, with more than 401,000 deaths as of Sunday evening, according to Johns Hopkins University. The United States has over 1.9 million confirmed cases — the most reported cases of any nation — and at least 109,901 related deaths.

Overall, the Washington State Department of Health Sunday evening reported 23,729 cases (an increase of 736), 1,159 deaths (an increase of 6) and 3,669 coronavirus-related hospitalizations (an increase of 17). Approximately 4.9% of all confirmed cases in the state have resulted in death, while 5.9% of the 405,056 tests administered have come back positive for COVID-19.

Phased reopening

Whatcom County moved to Phase 2 on Friday, June 5. It will be at least three weeks before Whatcom can apply for Phase 3 near June 26.

Phase 2 enables retail firms to resume in-store purchases, restaurants to reopen with 50% capacity and table sizes no larger than 5, and the re-start of new construction, real estate, hair and nail salons, and barbers.

Phase 3 allows restaurants/taverns to reopen at 75% capacity with table sizes no larger than 10, as well as bar areas in restaurants/taverns at 25% capacity, movie theaters at 50% capacity, and libraries and museums.

Now that Whatcom County is in Phase 2, the work is far from finished. The county could move back to Phase 1 if circumstances deteriorate.

Included among developments that could send Whatcom or any other county back to Phase 1, state Department of Health spokesperson Jessica Baggett told The Bellingham Herald in an email, are: a significant community transmission, minimal access to COVID-19 testing, inadequate surge capacity in the hospital, inadequate personal protection supplies, inadequate case and contact investigations, inadequate daily monitoring of cases during their isolation period or cases during their quarantine period, inadequate isolation or quarantine facilities.

Any of those conditions could force the secretary of health to revoke phase approval, and the county can also identify and decide to return to an earlier phase or eliminate approved activities, Baggett wrote.

If a county has to move backward from Phase 2, Baggett wrote that the length of time it would have to remain at Phase 1 before reapplying for Phase 2 “would vary depending on the circumstances.”