Whatcom County sees seven more COVID-19 cases, state says Saturday

Seven more people tested positive for COVID-19 in Whatcom County, according to the Washington State Department of Health on Saturday, Aug. 29. No new deaths were reported.

Whatcom County has now had 1,081 confirmed cases and 39 deaths, during the pandemic, according to the state. The new numbers mean 3.6% of people diagnosed with the new coronavirus in Whatcom have died — according to state Department of Health data as of 11:59 p.m. Friday, Aug. 28. The state also reported Saturday that Whatcom County has had 83 hospitalizations and completed 47,669 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 Friday. 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 new 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.

Additionally, the state will stop reporting the number of COVID-19 related deaths on weekends, according to a Friday news release. Deaths from the weekend will be added on Mondays and the death count will update regularly from Monday to Friday, the release read.

The most recent data from the state’s Risk Assessment Dashboard reported on Friday, Aug. 28, shows Whatcom County missing two of four Phase 2 metrics goals. A fifth, recently altered metric, did not have a goal as of Friday.

▪ Whatcom is missing the target rate of fewer than 25 new cases per 100,000 residents every 14 days with a rate of 34.2.

▪ Whatcom had an average COVID-19 testing rate per 100,000 people over a week of 193. No goal was stated for this metric, however, the overall statewide number was 175.7.

▪ Whatcom is making the target of 2% or less of individuals testing positive for COVID-19 during the past week with a rate of 1.1%.

▪ Whatcom is missing the target of less than 80% of all licensed hospital beds occupied by non-COVID-19 patients with 88.2% 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 0.4% reported by the state.

St. Joseph hospital in Bellingham reported to The Bellingham Herald on Saturday that it was treating one patient for the new coronavirus.

U.S. and Washington state

More than 24.83 million cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed worldwide, with more than 839,233 deaths as of Saturday afternoon, according to Johns Hopkins University. The United States has over 5.95 million confirmed cases — the most reported cases of any nation — and at least 182,665 related deaths.

Overall, the Washington State Department of Health Saturday afternoon reported 73,879 cases (an increase of 578), 1,905 deaths and 6,723 coronavirus-related hospitalizations (an increase of 44). Approximately 2.6% of all confirmed cases in the state have resulted in death and the state has recorded 1,447,460 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.