System errors keep state from posting COVID-19 cases as Bellingham hospital has 15 patients
An error in the Washington State Department of Health system kept the state from updated COVID-19 numbers Sunday, Nov. 22, according to an email to The Bellingham Herald from a spokesperson.
St. Joseph hospital in Bellingham, which is licensed and staffed for 241 beds, reported to The Herald on Sunday that it was treating 15 patients for COVID-19, an increase of four from Saturday and the most COVID-19 patients since it began sharing patient numbers on May 5.
The Department of Health also announced earlier that it was experiencing a reporting delay of 1-2 days due to an increased volume of lab test results.
“Our disease reporting system can receive and process approximately 33,000 total results per day. We are currently receiving 30-50 thousand records per day, leading to a backlog. As of Saturday, there are 53,000 backlogged results which accumulated over the past two to three days,” a news release said late Saturday.
“We have been working to expand the system’s capacity to receive additional results in anticipation of a surge, but recent disease growth and the associated testing volumes have outpaced our efforts. Without this pause, we will fall further behind,” it continued.
The testing results backlog means that the number of new COVID-19 cases reported late last week is an undercount and “likely does not reflect disease trends,” the release stated.
Anti-restriction rally
A group calling its event “The Great Whatcom County Turkey Day Rebellion” in a press release Friday, Nov. 20, gathered Saturday in the parking lot of the Northwest Soccer fields in Bellingham to protest Gov. Jay Inslee’s COVID-19 restrictions.
“We’re not taking it no more, we’re going to have Thanksgiving with our families and you’re not telling us otherwise,” said State Rep. Robert Sutherland, R-Granite Falls, according to KING5-TV.
State Sen. Doug Ericksen, R-Ferndale, spoke about the shutdown’s impact on the economy.
“The phone calls coming into my office have changed significantly from April, May, June to today,” Ericksen said. “Before it was like this is going to be hard we can’t do it like this... now it’s like we can’t survive, this has to end,” according to KING5.
The group’s press release said the Turkey Rebellion is an “unaffiliated group of local business leaders, employees, families and feed-up citizens that are fighting for the most vulnerable, the young and for our Constitutionally guaranteed liberties of speech, assembly and worship.”
“We want to make Governor Grinchlee irrelevant, and allow American citizens to make responsible personal decisions,” the release stated.
Western, state dashboards
Western Washington University’s most recent on-campus student COVID testing data, last updated Nov. 18, shows that, since Sept. 15, WWU has tested 9,316 students, 16 of whom had positive tests.
WWU suspended all in-person courses and moved to remote learning Thursday, Nov. 19.
Throughout the fall quarter, the vast majority of classes were already being held remotely, and after Thanksgiving break, all courses were scheduled to move to remote learning anyway.
The university’s voluntary testing program at Fraser Hall will continue, though appointments must be made ahead of time.
The state’s Risk Assessment Dashboard was last updated Friday for data as of 11:59 p.m. Thursday and showed that Whatcom County is missing the marks on three of four key 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 84.3.
▪ Whatcom had an average COVID-19 testing rate per 100,000 people over a week of 305.6. No goal was stated for this metric, however, the overall statewide number was 281.5.
▪ Whatcom is missing the target of less than 2% 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 patients with 85.1% 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.
Numbers elsewhere
COVID-19 cases and deaths according to Johns Hopkins University Sunday evening:
▪ The U.S. has more than 12.24 million reported cases, the most of any nation, and 256,741 deaths.
▪ Worldwide, there are more than 58.54 million reported cases and 1.38 million deaths.
Washington state actions
Gov. Inslee announced new rules Sunday, Nov. 15, that will go into effect statewide this week that will eliminate indoor service at restaurants and bars, close indoor activity at gyms, and limit occupancy at retail stores to 25% in an effort to curb the dramatic rise in COVID-19 cases in Washington state.
The restrictions are scheduled to last four weeks, until Dec. 14.
Inslee issued a travel advisory for Washington state on Friday, Nov. 13, recommending Washington state residents self-quarantine for 14 days when they return home after traveling out of the state. The governors of Oregon and California joined Inslee in making similar advisories for their states.
On Tuesday, Oct. 13, Inslee 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.
