Six more test positive for COVID-19 in Whatcom County, state says Saturday

Six more Whatcom County residents have tested positive for COVID-19 according to the Washington State Department of Health on Saturday, July 25. No new deaths have been reported.

Whatcom County now has had 830 confirmed cases and 37 deaths during the pandemic, according to the state. The new numbers mean 4.5% 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 24.

The state also reported Saturday that Whatcom County has had 73 hospitalizations and has conducted 29,391 tests, with 2.8% returning positive results.

St. Joseph hospital in Bellingham reported to The Bellingham Herald on Saturday that it was treating seven patients for the new coronavirus, down from 10 earlier in the week. The most-ever COVID-19 patients at the Bellingham hospital was 11 on March 31.

Face-covering order

The Secretary of Health and Human Services announced the expansion of the statewide face-covering order on Saturday to include any indoor setting outside your home and non-public settings with non-household members. These non-public settings include common areas, fraternity and sorority houses and assisted living facilities.

“We’ve lost our momentum, and case counts are worse across the state now than they were at our previous peak and the number of hospitalizations are again increasing,” the release said. “The current orders about face-coverings are intended to increase the use of face coverings and emphasize their critical importance to our overall strategy to slow the spread of COVID-19.”

Risk assessment data

The most recent data from the state’s Risk Assessment Dashboard, reported on Friday, 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 55.5.

▪ Whatcom is missing the target rate of more than 50 individuals tested for each new confirmed case the past week with a rate of 41.9.

▪ Whatcom is missing the target of 2% or less of individuals testing positive for COVID-19 during the past week with a rate of 2.4%.

▪ Whatcom is missing the target of less than 80% of all licensed hospital beds occupied by non-COVID-19 patients with 83.1% 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 3.1% reported by the state.

U.S. and Washington state

More than 15.9 million cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed worldwide, with more than 641,889 deaths as of Saturday afternoon, according to Johns Hopkins University. The United States has over 4.16 million confirmed cases — the most reported cases of any nation — and at least 146,299 related deaths.

Overall, the Washington State Department of Health Saturday afternoon reported 51,849 cases (an increase of 1,025), 1,494 deaths (a decrease of 1 as cases are reviewed) and 5,341 coronavirus-related hospitalizations (an increase of 40). Approximately 2.9% of all confirmed cases in the state have resulted in death, while 5.7% of the 903,674 tests administered have come back positive for COVID-19.

Phased reopening

Gov. Jay Inslee said at a virtual press conference July 14 that the pause on reopening phases under the state’s Safe Start plan will continue until at least July 28.

And on Thursday, July 23, Inslee announced changes to the state’s Safe Start plan that affect restaurants, bars, gyms, weddings and funerals, movie theaters and other services.

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.