State reports 1 death in Whatcom County on Monday and another slip in COVID-19 metrics
One more Whatcom County resident has died after testing positive for COVID-19, the Washington Health Department reported on Monday, June 22.
While state data for the county showed no new reported cases of the respiratory illness Monday, it noted reporting errors Saturday night, June 20, through Monday morning resulted in lower case counts. The number is likely much higher.
Whatcom County Health Director Erika Lautenbach told the Bellingham City Council Monday evening that there were 10 new cases today and 23 Sunday, June 21. The state reported 13 cases for Sunday.
No additional information is available about the resident who died.
Whatcom County has slipped a notch in risk assessment and is now missing three of five Phase 2 metrics goals.
The county continues to have 499 confirmed cases and, with the new death, is up to 40 deaths during the pandemic — meaning 8% of people diagnosed with the new coronavirus in Whatcom have died — according to state department of health data as of 11:59 p.m. Sunday, June 21.
Many of the recent COVID-19 infections have been linked to several large parties and social events over the Memorial Day weekend in the Lynden area, the county Health Director Erika Lautenbach said at a press conference Friday, June 19.
People who attended those parties then went to their jobs and infected their co-workers, she said.
The state also reports the county has had 52 hospitalizations and has conducted 15,304 tests, with 3.3% returning positive results.
The new number for tests was down 28 from the previous day’s report, and the reason for the discrepancy wasn’t immediately known.
The most recent data from the state’s Risk Assessment Dashboard is from Sunday, June 21, and shows Whatcom County missing three of five Phase 2 metrics goals:
▪ Whatcom is missing the target rate of fewer than 25 new cases per 100,000 residents every 14 days with a rate of 28.9.
▪ Whatcom is missing the target rate of more than 50 individuals tested for each new confirmed case the past week with a rate of 47.7.
▪ Whatcom is missing the target of less than 2% of individuals testing positive for COVID-19 during the past week with a rate of 2.1%.
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 Monday that it has one patient who has tested positive. The hospital is no longer tracking on its daily dashboard the number of patients suspected of having COVID-19 because test results are now available much more quickly.
U.S. and Washington state
More than 9 million cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed worldwide, with at least 470,665 deaths as of Monday evening, according to Johns Hopkins University. The United States has 2,306,247 confirmed cases — the most reported cases of any nation — and at least 120,351 related deaths.
Overall, the Washington State Department of Health Monday evening reported 28,870 cases (an increase of 190), 1,276 deaths (an increase of 6) and 4,062 coronavirus-related hospitalizations (an increase of 13). Approximately 4.4% of all confirmed cases in the state have resulted in death, while 6% of the 477,204 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 Friday, June 26, before it can apply to move to Phase 3.
Whatcom was one of 19 counties in Phase 2 as of Sunday. Three counties remain in Phase 1, two counties are in a modified version of Phase 1 and 15 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.
This story was originally published June 22, 2020 at 5:28 PM.
