Whatcom County sees first coronavirus-related death in the month of June on Tuesday
Whatcom County saw its first death related to coronavirus this month, according to data released on Tuesday, June 9, by the Washington State Department of Health, which also reported one new positive test for COVID-19.
Whatcom last reported a COVID-related death on May 31, and has since moved to statistics reported by the state last week. No other information about the person who died was released.
The county now has 420 confirmed cases and 38 deaths during the pandemic — meaning 9.0% of people diagnosed with the respiratory illness in Whatcom have died — according to state department of health data as of 11:59 p.m. Monday, June 8.
The state also reports the county has 53 hospitalizations and has conducted 12,378 tests, with 3.4% returning positive results.
After seeing the state report 15 new cases in Whatcom County in the past three days, including nine on Monday, June 8, Whatcom County Health Department Director Erika Lautenbach issued a warning during the Bellingham City Council meeting on Monday night.
“We’re not back to normal, yet, and we’re seeing some signs that some people think it’s pre-COVID,” Lautenbach told the council. “We have to keep our numbers low.”
Also Tuesday, the state’s Risk Assessment Dashboard now shows:
▪ Whatcom is making the target rate of fewer than 25 new cases per 100,000 residents every 14 days with a rate of 17.8.
▪ Whatcom is making the target rate of more than 50 individuals tested for each new confirmed case the past week with a rate of 67.3.
▪ Whatcom is making the target of less than 2% of individuals testing positive for COVID-19 during the past week with a rate of 1.5%.
▪ Whatcom is making the target of less than 80% of all licensed hospital beds being occupied with a rate of 66.0%.
▪ Whatcom is making the target of less than 10% of all licensed hospital beds being occupied by COVID-19 patients with a rate of 0.8%.
St. Joseph hospital reported to The Bellingham Herald Tuesday that it has no patients who have either tested positive or are suspected to have COVID-19.
More than 7.1 million cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed worldwide, with more than 408,000 deaths as of Tuesday afternoon, according to Johns Hopkins University. The United States has nearly 2 million confirmed cases — the most reported cases of any nation — and at least 111,751 related deaths.
Overall, the Washington State Department of Health Tuesday afternoon reported 24,354 cases (an increase of 313), 1,176 deaths (an increase of 15) and 3,747 coronavirus-related hospitalizations (an increase of 48). Approximately 4.8% of all confirmed cases in the state have resulted in death, while 5.9% of the 415,054 tests administered have come back positive for COVID-19.
Phased reopening
Whatcom County was approved Friday, June 5, to move to Phase 2 under new benchmarks announced May 29, by Gov. Jay Inslee. Whatcom is now one 25 counties in Phase 2 — six remain in Phase 1 and eight have advanced to Phase 3.
Whatcom will need to wait until at least June 26 before it can apply to move to Phase 3.
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.
Businesses that aren’t following established safety recommendations can be reported to the governor’s office by using the state’s online form. People violating a business’ safety rules by not wearing a mask should be reported to that business.
Complaints against individuals and private groups not complying with the Stay Home, Stay Safe proclamation should be reported to local law enforcement “who will respond based on their policies and resources,” according to the guidelines. Unified command reminded people not to make assumptions about fellow community members and said that “you can only control your own actions.”
Statewide transmission
The latest statewide modeling report shows COVID-19 transmission trending downwards in western Washington and upwards in eastern Washington. The report estimates differences between counties by combining modeling estimates of how the disease is spreading with data on reported cases.
The report estimates the effective reproductive number — the measure of how many new infections a single COVID-19 case will produce — for different parts of the state. A reproductive number below one means the number of new cases are declining.
The report is based on data from May 3-12. Findings are specific to that time period and include:
▪ The reproductive number varied in different parts of the state. The report estimates the average reproductive number was below one in western Washington and above one in eastern Washington.
▪ Excluding Yakima County, the estimated reproductive number for eastern Washington was fractionally above one.
▪ The majority of cases were reported in King and Yakima counties.
▪ New case counts were trending downwards in King County and were steadily increasing in Yakima County.
▪ Yakima, Douglas, and Chelan counties had the highest number of cases relative to their population.
County rates will have changed in the most recent data, including data under review for county variance applications.
The geographical differences seen in the report likely have multiple causes, including differences in testing. It’s also likely there are differences in infection rates due to behavioral and socioeconomic factors that affect COVID-19 exposure risk.
