Whatcom County sees four new COVID-19 cases Saturday

Four more more Whatcom County residents have tested positive for COVID-19, the Washington State Department of Health reported Saturday, Oct. 10. The state does not report coronavirus-related deaths on the weekend.

The county now has seen 1,448 confirmed cases and 48 related deaths during the pandemic, according to state data as of 11:59 p.m. Friday, Oct. 9. That means that 3.3% of the Whatcom residents who have tested positive for COVID during the pandemic have died.

Saturday’s state Department of Health data also shows Whatcom County has had 102 hospitalizations (an increase of one from Friday) and 68,556 tests have been performed (an increase of 411 from Friday).

The state’s Risk Assessment Dashboard was updated Friday, for data as of 11:59 p.m. Thursday, and showed that Whatcom County is missing two of four 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 64.8.

▪ Whatcom had an average COVID-19 testing rate per 100,000 people over a week of 223.4. No goal was stated for this metric, however, the overall statewide number was 186.5.

▪ Whatcom is making the target of less than 2% of individuals testing positive for COVID-19 during the past week with a rate of 1.5%.

▪ Whatcom is missing the target of less than 80% of all licensed hospital beds occupied by patients with 87.5% 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 Saturday that it was treating two patients for COVID-19, up from one on Friday.

Western Washington University’s most recent on-campus student COVID testing data shows that since Sept. 15, WWU has tested 3,296 students, four of whom had positive tests.

Numbers elsewhere

COVID-19 cases and deaths according to Johns Hopkins University Saturday afternoon:

▪ The U.S. has more than 7.70 million reported cases, the most of any nations, and 214,286 deaths.

▪ Worldwide, there are more than 37.05 million reported cases and 1.07 million deaths.

In Washington state, the most recent numbers from the Department of Health were reported Saturday afternoon:

▪ 93,035 reported cases, an increase of 475 from data on Friday.

▪ 7,786 coronavirus-related hospitalizations, an increase of 24 from data Friday.

▪ 2,061,438 total tests, an increase of 23,492 from data Friday.

▪ 2,190 deaths related to COVID-19 were reported on Friday and the state does not update deaths on the weekends.

Phased reopening

Gov. Inslee on Tuesday, Oct. 6, loosened some restrictions for activities and businesses but his July 28 extension of an indefinite pause on counties moving ahead in the Safe Start Washington plan remains in place.

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.