Whatcom sees three more COVID-19 cases, state says Thursday
Three more people tested positive for COVID-19 in Whatcom County, according to the Washington State Department of Health on Thursday, Aug. 27. No new deaths were reported.
Whatcom County has now had 1,065 confirmed cases and 39 deaths, during the pandemic, according to the state. The new numbers mean 3.7% 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, Aug. 26. The state also reported Thursday that Whatcom County has had 83 hospitalizations and completed 46,832 tests in total.
The state stopped providing the number of unique individuals tested or the percent positive of those tests Aug. 12. Starting Tuesday, Aug. 25, the state has included every test completed, but has yet to share the percent positive as of Thursday. With this change, the percent positive is likely to decrease relative to recent trends, according to a state news release Tuesday.
The state also added a daily testing rate metric on the risk assessment dashboard Tuesday to understand per capita testing levels, according to the news release. The additional metric replaced a metric accounting for the number of individuals tested for each new case, the release read, and the state is not providing a target for this metric at this time.
The most recent data from the state’s Risk Assessment Dashboard, reported on Thursday, Aug. 27, shows Whatcom County missing two of four Phase 2 metrics goals. A fifth, recently altered metric, did not have a goal as of Wednesday.
▪ Whatcom is missing the target rate of fewer than 25 new cases per 100,000 residents every 14 days with a rate of 40.8.
▪ Whatcom had an average COVID-19 testing rate per 100,000 people over a week of 194.8. No goal was stated for this metric, however, the overall statewide number was 180.1.
▪ Whatcom is making the target of 2% or less of individuals testing positive for COVID-19 during the past week with a rate of 1.4%.
▪ Whatcom is missing the target of less than 80% of all licensed hospital beds occupied by non-COVID-19 patients with 92.5% 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 0.4% reported by the state.
St. Joseph hospital in Bellingham reported to The Bellingham Herald on Thursday that it was treating one patient for the new coronavirus.
U.S. and Washington state
More than 24.3 million cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed worldwide, with more than 828,285 deaths as of Thursday afternoon, according to Johns Hopkins University. The United States has over 5.86 million confirmed cases — the most reported cases of any nation — and at least 180,527 related deaths.
Overall, the Washington State Department of Health Thursday afternoon reported 72,703 cases (an increase of 542), 1,890 deaths (an increase of 10) and 6,674 coronavirus-related hospitalizations (an increase of 34). Approximately 2.6% of all confirmed cases in the state have resulted in death and the state has recorded 1,408,164 total tests. However, the state did not share the percent positive of those tests.
Phased reopening
Gov. Inslee July 28 extended the pause indefinitely on counties moving ahead in the Safe Start Washington plan.
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 people. However, there can be no indoor seating at bars and taverns. Additionally, hair and nail salons and barber shops are allowed to resume business with some restrictions, and retail stores can 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. However, facilities such as pools and arcades are still not allowed. Movie theaters, libraries, museums, nightclubs, live entertainment and any kind of large gathering are also not allowed.
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 August 27, 2020 at 5:38 PM.
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