Seventeen more test positive for COVID-19 in Whatcom County, state says Thursday
Seventeen residents have tested positive for COVID-19 in Whatcom County, according to the Washington State Department of Health on Thursday, July 16. No new deaths were reported.
Whatcom County now has had 749 confirmed cases and 36 deaths during the pandemic, according to the state. The new numbers mean 4.8% of people diagnosed with the new coronavirus in Whatcom have died — according to state Department of Health data as of 11:59 p.m. Wednesday, July 15.
While the county rarely releases information about where cases are from, six people tested positive at a weekend drive-thru site in Bellingham, Amy Cloud, spokesperson for Whatcom Unified command, told The Bellingham Herald in an earlier story.
A total of 793 people were tested during the 12 hours the site was open July 10 and July 11.
The state also reported Thursday that Whatcom County has had 67 hospitalizations and has conducted 24,394 tests, with 3.1% returning positive results.
The most recent data from the state’s Risk Assessment Dashboard, reported on Thursday, shows Whatcom County making four 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 44.4.
▪ Whatcom is making the target rate of more than 50 individuals tested for each new confirmed case the past week with a rate of 56.4.
▪ Whatcom is making the target of 2% or less of individuals testing positive for COVID-19 during the past week with a rate of 1.8%.
▪ Whatcom is making the target of less than 80% of all licensed hospital beds occupied by non-COVID-19 patients with 79.2% reported by the state.
▪ Whatcom is making the target of less than 10% of all licensed hospital beds being occupied by COVID-19 patients with 1.6% reported by the state.
St. Joseph hospital in Bellingham reported to The Bellingham Herald on Thursday that it was treating four patients for coronavirus.
The length of stay for COVID-19 patients at St. Joseph has been around 7 days, almost double the 4-day average length of stay for non-COVID patients, according to Dr. Sudhakar Karlapudi, chief medical officer. He added that the length of stay has been consistent throughout the pandemic so far.
U.S. and Washington state
More than 13.7 million cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed worldwide, with more than 588,149 deaths as of Thursday afternoon, according to Johns Hopkins University. The United States has over 3.5 million confirmed cases — the most reported cases of any nation — and at least 138,185 related deaths.
Overall, the Washington State Department of Health Thursday afternoon reported 44,313 cases (an increase of 1,267), 1,427 deaths (an increase of 6) and 4,944 coronavirus-related hospitalizations (an increase of 115). Approximately 3.2% of all confirmed cases in the state have resulted in death, while 5.9% of the 753,174 tests administered have come back positive for COVID-19.
Drive-thru testing
The Whatcom County Health Department continues it’s COVID-19 drive-thru pilot program this weekend.
The next round of testing, which is free, is set for 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, July 17 and 18, at the Civic Field Stadium parking lot.
Whatcom Unified Command Incident Commander Scott McCreery said waits will likely still be long this weekend even with changes to speed things along. Real-time updates on wait times will be posted through the county’s health department and unified command Facebook pages.
Phased reopening
Gov. Jay Inslee said at a virtual press conference Tuesday that the pause on reopening phases under the state’s Safe Start plan will continue until at least July 28.
Five counties remain in a modified version of Phase 1, 17 counties — including Whatcom — are in Phase 2 and 17 counties are in 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, barbers and gyms with some restrictions.
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 July 16, 2020 at 4:13 PM.
.jpeg)