Ten more COVID-19 cases in Whatcom reported Thursday by state health department
Ten more Whatcom County residents have tested positive for COVID-19, the Washington Health Department reported on Thursday, June 18.
The county now has 467 confirmed cases and continues to have 39 deaths during the pandemic — meaning 8.4% of people diagnosed with the new coronavirus in Whatcom have died — according to state department of health data as of 11:59 p.m. Wednesday, June 17.
The state also reports the county continues to have 53 hospitalizations and has conducted 14,552 tests, with 3.2% returning positive results.
The most recent data from the state’s Risk Assessment Dashboard is from Wednesday and shows Whatcom County missing two of five Phase 2 metrics goals:
▪ Whatcom is making the target rate of fewer than 25 new cases per 100,000 residents every 14 days with a rate of 24.
▪ Whatcom is missing the target rate of more than 50 individuals tested for each new confirmed case the past week with a rate of 40.9.
▪ Whatcom is missing the target of less than 2% of individuals testing positive for COVID-19 during the past week with a rate of 2.4%.
The state noted that it will not update hospital bed capacity numbers on the Risk Assessment Dashboard until Tuesday, June 23, posting on the website that “a change in the way the beds are being counted now requires hospitals to fill out forms in a new way. New language from the CDC is prompting this change.”
▪ Whatcom was making the target of less than 80% of all licensed hospital beds being occupied before the state change.
▪ Whatcom is making the target of less than 10% of all licensed hospital beds being occupied by COVID-19 patients before the state change.
St. Joseph hospital reported to The Bellingham Herald Thursday that it has no patients who have tested positive and no patients who are suspected to have COVID-19 for the fifth day in a row.
U.S. and Washington state
More than 8.4 million cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed worldwide, with more than 452,4651 deaths as of Thursday afternoon, according to Johns Hopkins University. The United States has 2,185,873 confirmed cases — the most reported cases of any nation — and at least 118,334 related deaths.
Overall, the Washington State Department of Health Thursday afternoon reported 27,192 cases, 1,245 deaths (an increase of 19) and 3,959 coronavirus-related hospitalizations (an increase of 21). Approximately 4.6% of all confirmed cases in the state have resulted in death, while 6.1% of the 446,899 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 will need to wait until at least June 26 before it can apply to move to Phase 3.
Whatcom was one of 21 counties in Phase 2 on Thursday. Three counties remain in Phase 1, three counties are in a modified version of Phase 1 and 12 counties have advanced to Phase 3, according to the state Department of Health.
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.
