Whatcom sees seven new COVID-19 cases, state says Saturday

Seven more Whatcom County residents have tested positive for COVID-19, the Washington State Department of Health reported Saturday, Oct. 24. Deaths are not reported on the weekend.

Whatcom County now has seen 1,560 confirmed cases and 49 related deaths during the pandemic, according to state data as of 11:59 p.m. Friday, Oct. 23. That means that 3.1% of the Whatcom residents who have tested positive for COVID during the pandemic have died.

The state Department of Health data also shows Whatcom County has had 109 hospitalizations (an increase of two from Friday) and 77,278 tests have been performed (an increase of 679 from Friday).

The state’s Risk Assessment Dashboard, most recently updated Friday for data as of 11:59 p.m. Thursday, showed that Whatcom County is making 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 51.5.

▪ Whatcom had an average COVID-19 testing rate per 100,000 people over a week of 253.2. No goal was stated for this metric, however, the overall statewide number was 230.5.

▪ 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 80.4% 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 0.8% 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, no change from Friday.

Western Washington University’s most recent on-campus student COVID testing data shows that, since Sept. 15, WWU has tested 5,353 students, five 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 8.56 million reported cases, the most of any nation, and 224,710 deaths.

▪ Worldwide, there are more than 42.4 million reported cases and 1.14 million deaths.

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

▪ 102,264 reported cases, an increase of 919 from data on Friday.

▪ 8,258 coronavirus-related hospitalizations, an increase of 27 from data Friday.

▪ 2,343,022 total tests, an increase of 24,091 from data Friday.

▪ 2,296 deaths related to COVID-19 were reported Friday, meaning that 2.3% of the state residents who have tested positive for COVID during the pandemic have died. New deaths are not recorded on weekends.

Phased reopening

Gov. Inslee on Tuesday, Oct. 13, moved all counties in modified Phase 1 to Phase 2, but his July 28 extension of an indefinite pause on counties moving ahead in the Safe Start Washington plan remains in place. That came a week after Inslee loosened some restrictions for activities and businesses.

That means 22 counties — including Whatcom — are in Phase 2 and 17 counties are in Phase 3.

This story was originally published October 24, 2020 at 2:43 PM.