One dead, 11 more test positive for COVID-19 in Whatcom County, state says Friday
One more Whatcom County resident has died with COVID-19 and 11 others have tested positive for the respiratory illness, according to the Washington State Department of Health on Friday, July 17.
Whatcom County now has had 760 confirmed cases and 37 deaths during the pandemic, according to the state. The new numbers mean 4.9% of people diagnosed with the new coronavirus in Whatcom have died — according to state Department of Health data as of 11:59 p.m. Thursday, July 16.
The state also reported Friday that Whatcom County has had 68 hospitalizations and has conducted 24,836 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 58.5.
▪ Whatcom is making the target of 2% or less of individuals testing positive for COVID-19 during the past week with a rate of 1.7%.
▪ 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 Friday that it was treating four patients for coronavirus.
U.S. and Washington state
More than 14 million cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed worldwide, with more than 593,369 deaths as of Friday afternoon, according to Johns Hopkins University. The United States has over 3.6 million confirmed cases — the most reported cases of any nation — and at least 139,128 related deaths.
Overall, the Washington State Department of Health Friday afternoon reported 45,067 cases (an increase of 754), 1,434 deaths (an increase of 7) and 4,984 coronavirus-related hospitalizations (an increase of 40). Approximately 3.2% of all confirmed cases in the state have resulted in death, while 5.9% of the 767,657 tests administered have come back positive for COVID-19.
Drive-thru testing
The Whatcom County Health Department continued it’s COVID-19 drive-thru pilot program Friday. About 494 samples were taken and sent off to Northwest Laboratory, according to the Facebook page of Whatcom Unified Command, the multi-governmental agency that’s directing local pandemic response.
The second round of testing, which is free, continues from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, July 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, July 14, 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 allows restaurants and taverns to operate at half capacity with table occupancy limited to five, hair and nail salons and barber shops to resume business, and retail stores to reopen for in-store purchases at 30% capacity. It also allows additional outdoor recreation and gatherings with no more than five people outside of a person’s household.
Phase 3 allows gyms and movie theaters to operate at half capacity and restaurants to increase capacity to 75%. A prohibition on bar seating at restaurants and taverns was added in this phase earlier in July.
This story was originally published July 17, 2020 at 5:14 PM.
