Location data shows COVID infection rates in most of Whatcom soar into triple-digits
Two of Whatcom County’s seven school district regions last week had COVID-19 infection rates reach 200 — the highest any region has seen so far during the pandemic.
Three others were in triple digits, according to the latest location data published by the Whatcom County Health Department late Tuesday, as one region’s infection rate nearly doubled and another’s nearly tripled.
The news came shortly after the county saw a record daily high of 88 new cases on Tuesday, Nov. 24, according to the Washington State Department of Health.
The glimmer of hope from what has been an otherwise a rough week for Whatcom County in terms of COVID numbers is that the two remaining regions — the areas covered by the Blaine and Mount Baker school districts — actually saw their infection rates decrease last week.
The county health department releases data on the location of COVID-19 positive tests by school district and published new data on its website with each district’s number of total cases and infection rates the past two weeks. Data in the latest report was through Nov. 21, and the infection rates reflected cases reported between Nov. 8 and Nov. 21.
Before the Ferndale and Nooksack Valley regions topped the plateau of 200 infections per 100,000 residents over the past two weeks, the highest infection rate any region in Whatcom County had seen was the 170 posted by Ferndale last week.
Overall, the county saw a 6.5% growth in cases (123 cases) since the last data release on Nov. 17. Added to the weekly total of 154 cases reported Nov. 17, that works out to a county-wide two-week infection rate of approximately 123.1 per 100,000 residents, based on 225,000 residents in the county.
Five regions within the county had infection rates higher than that county-wide mark, according to Tuesday’s data.
Here is what the latest data showed for the seven regions in the county:
Bellingham: Up 7.2% (59 cases) since Nov. 17 to 877 total cases and the rate of new infections per 100,000 residents in the past 14 days increased from 129 to 157.
Blaine: Up 2.8% (three cases) since Nov. 17 to 110 total cases and the rate of new infections per 100,000 residents in the past 14 days decreased from 63 to 51.
Ferndale: Up 7.1% (28 cases) since Nov. 17 to 425 total cases and the rate of new infections per 100,000 residents in the past 14 days increased from 170 to 200.
Lynden: Up 5.5% (13 cases) since Nov. 17 to 249 total cases and the rate of new infections per 100,000 residents in the past 14 days increased from 119 to 178.
Meridian: Up 5.2% (seven cases) since Nov. 17 to 142 total cases and the rate of new infections per 100,000 residents in the past 14 days increased from 56 to 149.
Mount Baker: Up 2.3% (two cases) since Nov. 17 to 90 total cases and the rate of new infections per 100,000 residents in the past 14 days decreased from 51 to 25.
Nooksack Valley: Up 9.8% (11 cases) since Nov. 17 to 123 total cases and the rate of new infections per 100,000 residents in the past 14 days increased from 108 to 208.
