Whatcom sets record 7-day high for pandemic after seeing 43 new COVID cases Monday
Whatcom County has 43 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 and one additional probable case, according to the Washington State Department of Health on Monday, Jan. 4, but no new deaths were reported over the weekend.
Overall, Whatcom County has seen 3,683 confirmed cases and 55 related deaths during the pandemic, according to state data as of 11:59 p.m. Sunday. That means that 1.5% of the Whatcom residents who have tested positive for COVID during the pandemic have died.
Ten additional probable cases have been reported in Whatcom County during the pandemic resulting from positive antigen tests, but those cases were not confirmed by a molecular test.
With 214 confirmed cases reported since Dec. 31, Whatcom County is now averaging 49.4 new cases per day over the past seven days — the highest rate it has seen during the pandemic. Before the past two days, Whatcom’s highest seven-day average was 46.0 on Nov. 27.
The state Department of Health data Monday also showed Whatcom County has had 190 hospitalizations, unchanged from Sunday’s report.
The state reported that a total of 129,875 molecular tests have been administered in Whatcom County during the pandemic — an increase of 999 tests from Sunday’s report. The state continues to caution that negative test results since Nov. 21 are incomplete.
Ordinarily, the state does not release new data on Sundays, but due to the New Year’s holiday Friday and a state reporting issue Saturday, it released three days of data on Sunday, including the report of 171 new cases in Whatcom County over the three days.
The Nooksack Indian Tribe announced in a Facebook post Monday that it has seen five more confirmed cases within its community, bringing the pandemic total to 30. Twelve cases are active, while 18 have recovered, according to the post. So far, the Nooksack health team has conducted 2,272 tests during the pandemic, with results for 111 pending.
The Lummi Tribal Health Center reported 15 new cases between Friday, Jan. 1, and Monday, bringing the total number of cases in the Lummi community during the pandemic to 162, including 98 new cases since Oct. 1. As of Monday, the Lummi health department reported it had 22 active cases and no hospitalizations. During the pandemic, five people have been hospitalized, but there have been no related deaths and the health center has conducted 3,227 tests. The Lummi Indian Business Council has issued a Phase 1 Shelter in Place Order through Jan. 12.
Hospital update
St. Joseph hospital in Bellingham, which is licensed and staffed for 241 beds, reported to The Bellingham Herald on Monday it was treating a record-tying 21 patients for COVID-19, an increase of three from Sunday. The hospital first set the record of 21 COVID-19 patients on Dec. 1.
PeaceHealth, which operates the hospital and several others across the state, is seeing similar numbers across its system, Chief Medical Officer and Senior Vice President Dr. Mark Hallett said during an online Washington State Hospital Association briefing Monday.
“Overall today across the entire PeaceHealth system, we reached our highest level of COVID hospitalizations to date with over 100 hospitalized patients across our system,” Hallett said. “Teams are working 24-7 on the dual priorities of both caring for COVID-19 patients and all other patients while actively managing our capacity and maximizing vaccinations of both our employed 1A caregivers as well as those 1A workers in healthcare outside PeaceHealth.”
The rest of the state, meanwhile, is seeing COVID-related hospitalizations remain steady or even decrease, Washington State Hospital Association CEO Cassie Sauer said during the briefing. Sauer added that the state is beginning to see what it believes is a post-Christmas surge, though she said Washington doesn’t seem to be hit anywhere near as hard as other areas around the country at this time.
Hallett said the entire PeaceHealth system, including Bellingham, has vaccinated approximately 10,000 people, including 8,000 PeaceHealth caregivers and staff and 2,000 top priority caregivers outside of PeaceHealth. He added that Monday was the first day that some of those 10,000 were able to receive their second dose of the vaccine.
Because it has ultra-cold freezers in Bellingham and Vancouver, Wash., Hallett said PeaceHealth has received mostly doses of the Pfizer vaccine and that it has approximately 4,000 doses still in storage.
“Our goal is to empty our freezers,” Hallett said. “Right now it’s just a matter of getting folks into the clinics and getting them through.”
Weekly case watch
Thanks in part to the New Year’s holiday and a state Department of Health reporting issue on Saturday, Whatcom County saw its number of reported COVID-19 case drop for the fifth straight week last week.
The Washington State Department of Health reported 167 new cases in the county between Dec. 27 and Jan. 2, as Whatcom’s case total during the pandemic grew from 3,302 to 3,469. That’s a 20.1% decrease from the 209 new cases the county saw between Dec. 20 and 26, but data was only reported on four days last week and none after Thursday, Dec. 31.
On Sunday, the state reported 171 new cases.
Despite the recent weekly decreases, last week’s total marked the eighth straight week Whatcom has surpassed 100 cases in a week and the ninth week during the pandemic that the county’s case total has reached triple figures in a week.
Though the state resumed reporting the number of tests conducted on Friday, Dec. 4, it cautioned in a note accompanying the data that testing data between Nov. 21 and now is not yet complete, so test positivity rates cannot accurately be estimated at this time.
Data did appear to be slowly catching up, though, as the state reported 10,446 tests last week in Whatcom County.
Whatcom’s risk assessment
The state’s Risk Assessment Dashboard was last updated Monday evening for data as of 11:59 p.m. Sunday. It showed that Whatcom County was missing the marks on two 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 175.8.
▪ Whatcom had an average COVID-19 molecular testing rate per 100,000 people over a week of 334.9. No goal was stated for this metric, however, the overall statewide number was 260.0. The state Department of Health has said that testing data since Nov. 21 is incomplete and that is likely impacting this metric.
▪ Whatcom is missing the target of less than 2.0% of individuals testing positive for COVID-19 during the past week with a rate of 3.6%. The state Department of Health has said that testing data since Nov. 21 is incomplete and that is likely impacting this metric.
The latest Healthcare System Readiness risk assessment dashboard, updated Monday evening for data through Sunday, shows for the North region, which combines Whatcom, Skagit, Snohomish, San Juan and Island counties:
▪ Occupied beds: 1,051 of the region’s 1,211 adult hospital beds (86.8%) were occupied, missing the state’s goal of 80% or less.
▪ COVID occupied beds: 194 of the region’s 1,211 adult hospital beds (16.0%) were occupied by COVID patients, missing the state’s goal of 10% or less.
▪ Occupied ICU beds: 98 of the region’s 136 adult ICU beds (72.1%) were occupied. The state does not have a goal for this metric, but it was an decrease of two from Thursday’s report.
▪ COVID occupied ICU beds: 41 of the region’s 136 adult ICU beds (30.1%) were occupied by COVID patients. The state does not have a goal for this metric, but it was an increase of four from Thursday’s report.
Numbers elsewhere
New coronavirus cases and deaths according to Johns Hopkins University Tuesday morning:
▪ The U.S. has more than 20.8 million reported cases, the most of any nation, and more than 353,000 deaths.
▪ Worldwide, there are more than 85.8 million reported cases and 1.8 million deaths.
Washington state reported these numbers from the Department of Health Monday afternoon:
▪ 246,376 confirmed cases, an increase of 995 from reported cases on Sunday.
▪ 10,059 probable cases, an increase of 44 from Sunday’s data.
▪ 15,160 coronavirus-related hospitalizations, an increase of 49 from data Sunday.
▪ 3,935,760 total molecular tests, an increase of 25,788 from Sunday’s data.
▪ 3,482 deaths related to COVID-19 were reported Sunday, the most recent data available. That reflected an increase of 21 deaths from data reported Sunday meaning that 1.4% of the state residents who have tested positive for COVID during the pandemic have died.
Washington state actions
State rules that eliminated indoor service at restaurants and bars, closed indoor activity at gyms, and limited occupancy at retail stores to 25% were extended Dec. 30 from Jan. 4 to Jan. 11.
Gov. Jay Inslee issued a travel advisory for Washington state on 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 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.
This story was originally published January 5, 2021 at 7:40 AM.
