Fourteen more test positive for COVID-19 in Whatcom County, state says Tuesday
Fourteen more Whatcom County residents have tested positive for COVID-19 according to the Washington State Department of Health on Tuesday, July 21. No new deaths have been reported.
Whatcom County now has had 802 confirmed cases and 37 deaths during the pandemic, according to the state. The new numbers mean 4.6% of people diagnosed with the new coronavirus in Whatcom have died — according to state Department of Health data as of 11:59 p.m. Monday, July 20.
The state also reported Tuesday that Whatcom County has had 69 hospitalizations and has conducted 27,575 tests, with 2.9% 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 Tuesday, July 21, shows Whatcom County making one of five Phase 2 metrics goals after making four of the five on Thursday, July 16:
▪ Whatcom is missing the target rate of fewer than 25 new cases per 100,000 residents every 14 days with a rate of 46.6.
▪ Whatcom is missing the target rate of more than 50 individuals tested for each new confirmed case the past week with a rate of 46.4.
▪ Whatcom is missing the target of 2% or less of individuals testing positive for COVID-19 during the past week with a rate of 2.2%.
▪ Whatcom is missing the target of less than 80% of all licensed hospital beds occupied by non-COVID-19 patients with 90.6% 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 2.4% reported by the state.
St. Joseph hospital in Bellingham reported to The Bellingham Herald on Tuesday that it was treating six patients for coronavirus. The most-ever COVID-19 patients at the Bellingham hospital was 11 on March 31.
U.S. and Washington state
More than 14.8 million cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed worldwide, with more than 613,879 deaths as of Tuesday afternoon, according to Johns Hopkins University. The United States has over 3.89 million confirmed cases — the most reported cases of any nation — and at least 141,883 related deaths.
Overall, the Washington State Department of Health Tuesday afternoon reported 48,575 cases (an increase of 832), 1,465 deaths (an increase of 12) and 5,161 coronavirus-related hospitalizations (an increase of 59). Approximately 3.0% of all confirmed cases in the state have resulted in death, while 5.8% of the 841,184 tests administered have come back positive for COVID-19.
Lummi reports 2 cases
The Lummi Public Health Department announced Monday evening that two more community members have tested positive for COVID-19.
They represent the 45th and 46th Lummi community members to be infected with the respiratory illness, but only the third and fourth new cases since May 19, according to Lummi health department reports.
The Lummi Indian Business Council announced July 6 in a Facebook post that it is extending its Shelter in Place order until July 27 due to the increased cases in Whatcom County.
WWU in-person classes
Western Washington University announced Tuesday in a letter to its campus community that it will be moving all classes online following the Thanksgiving break.
The move means that the final week of instruction (Nov. 30 through Dec. 4) and exams during Finals Week (Dec. 7-11) will be administered remotely, according to the letter from WWU Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Brent Carbajal and Vice President for Enrollment and Student Services Melynda Huskey.
“Many universities across the country have implemented some version of this health-and-safety strategy, and we believe that our approach will mitigate the risk of students recongregating after Thanksgiving trips and possibly causing a significant COVID-19 outbreak,” the letter read.
Western has previously announced that classes during the fall quarter, which begins Sept. 23, will employ a combination of face-to-face classes, remote instruction and a hybrid of the two. Classes that are held face-to-face will be held in medium-to-large lecture areas to allow for social distancing and those areas will be taken out of service for an hour after each class for cleaning and disinfecting, the school said.
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.
On Monday, Washington State Secretary of Health John Wiesman announced that he is returning the Safe Start applications for seven counties due to Inslee’s reopening pause. The returned applications included applications to move to Phase 3 for Clark, Cowlitz, Jefferson, Kitsap, Klickitat, San Juan and Walla Walla counties, a Department of Health release stated.
“It remains critical that everyone continues to do their part to slow the spread of COVID-19,” Wiesman said in the release. “Wear a face covering in any public setting or place where you can’t keep at least 6 feet of distance from people who are not members of your immediate household. In addition, stay home as much as possible, limit the number of people that you interact with, wash your hands and cover your coughs and sneezes.”
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 21, 2020 at 5:29 PM.
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