Twelve more test positive for COVID-19 in Whatcom County, state says Saturday
Twelve more Whatcom County residents have tested positive for COVID-19 according to the Washington State Department of Health on Saturday, July 18. No new deaths have been reported.
Whatcom County now has had 772 confirmed cases and 37 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. Friday, July 17.
The state also reported Saturday that Whatcom County has had 67 hospitalizations and has conducted 25,667 tests, with 3.0% returning positive results. The state removed one hospitalization from Friday’s report.
The state Department of Health announced Tuesday, July 14, that it is utilizing a new death data report that includes different categories of deaths related to COVID-19 in an effort to collect, maintain and publish more meaningful data. That dropped the number of dead attributed to Whatcom County from 41 to 36. Similar adjustments can be expected routinely, the state said.
A new death was reported Friday, July 17.
The most recent data from the state’s Risk Assessment Dashboard, reported on Thursday, July 16, 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 Saturday that it was treating five patients for coronavirus. That’s the most patients COVID-19 patients reported at the hospital since The Herald began publishing the hospital data on May 5.
U.S. and Washington state
More than 14.2 million cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed worldwide, with more than 600,435 deaths as of Saturday evening, according to Johns Hopkins University. The United States has over 3.7 million confirmed cases — the most reported cases of any nation — and at least 140,103 related deaths.
Overall, the Washington State Department of Health Saturday afternoon reported 46,026 cases (an increase of 959), 1,444 deaths (an increase of 10) and 5,033 coronavirus-related hospitalizations (an increase of 49). Approximately 3.1% of all confirmed cases in the state have resulted in death, while 5.8% of the 791,786 tests administered have come back positive for COVID-19.
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 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.
