COVID-19 infection rates increase significantly in two Whatcom County regions last week
For the first time in almost a month the Nooksack Valley School District region is not seeing Whatcom County’s highest COVID-19 infection rate, as two other regions saw significant increases last week, according to data released Tuesday, Jan. 5.
The Nooksack Valley region has held the top spot among the county’s seven school district regions since regional numbers were released by the Whatcom County Health Department Dec. 8. The Nooksack region has maintained the county’s top rate four straight weeks, posting the record highest infection rate the county has seen during the pandemic (632 cases per 100,000 residents in 14 days) on Dec. 15.
Since then, the Nooksack region has seen its infection rate slowly decrease, and with big gains by the Lynden and Meridian districts last week, those two regions have either caught or surpassed Nooksack’s infection rate.
The good news is four regions, including Nooksack, saw their infection rates decrease last week.
The county health department releases weekly data on the location of COVID-19 cases by school district, including each district’s number of total cases during the pandemic and its infection rates per 100,000 residents the past two weeks. Data in Tuesday’s report was through Jan. 2, and the infection rates reflected cases between Dec. 20 and Jan. 2.
For the fourth straight week, all seven regions had infection rates above 100.
Overall, the county saw an 8.7% growth in cases (284 cases) since the last data release on Dec. 29 — an increase from the 5.7% growth and 175 new cases seen the previous week, according to the county’s data.
With 459 cases the past two weeks, according to the report, Whatcom County overall has an infection rate of 204.0, based on 225,000 residents in the county. Three of the county’s regions had infection rates higher than that mark, according to the county’s data.
Here is what the health department’s latest data showed for the seven regions in the county:
Bellingham: Up 8.5% (119 cases) since Dec. 29 to 1,524 total cases and the rate of new infections per 100,000 residents in the past 14 days decreased from 156 to 147.
Blaine: Up 6.4% (12 cases) since Dec. 29 to 200 total cases and the rate of new infections per 100,000 residents in the past 14 days decreased from 125 to 108.
Ferndale: Up 7.1% (46 cases) since Dec. 29 to 692 total cases and the rate of new infections per 100,000 residents in the past 14 days increased from 194 to 200.
Lynden: Up 10.0% (42 cases) since Dec. 29 to 464 total cases and the rate of new infections per 100,000 residents in the past 14 days increased from 292 to 390.
Meridian: Up 12.9% (26 cases) since Dec. 29 to 228 total cases and the rate of new infections per 100,000 residents in the past 14 days increased from 223 to 325.
Mount Baker: Up 11.3% (17 cases) since Dec. 29 to 168 total cases and the rate of new infections per 100,000 residents in the past 14 days decreased from 190 to 177.
Nooksack Valley: Up 8.7% (22 cases) since Dec. 29 to 276 total cases and the rate of new infections per 100,000 residents in the past 14 days decreased from 388 to 325.
