Whatcom sees another COVID-related death and 26 new cases Wednesday, state reports
One more Whatcom County resident’s death has been linked to COVID-19, according to the Washington State Department of Health on Wednesday, Jan. 6, as the county saw its number of confirmed cases grow by 26.
Overall, Whatcom County has seen 3,762 confirmed cases and 56 related deaths during the pandemic, according to state data as of 11:59 p.m. Tuesday. That means that 1.5% of the Whatcom residents who have tested positive for COVID during the pandemic have died.
Whatcom also saw one new probable case of COVID-19 in Wednesday’s release of data, meaning the county now has 11 probable cases during the pandemic resulting from positive antigen tests, but those cases were not confirmed by a molecular test.
The state cautioned that case counts Tuesday may include up to 360 duplicates statewide and that negative test results since Nov. 21 still may be incomplete and that test positivity rates and case counts should be interpreted with caution.
With 293 confirmed cases reported since Dec. 31, Whatcom County is now averaging 53.4 new cases per day over the past seven days — a slight dip from the county’s pandemic-record high rolling seven-day average of 55.0 set with Tuesday’s data release. Before the past four days, Whatcom’s highest rolling seven-day average was 46.0 on Nov. 27.
The death announced Wednesday is the first related to COVID Whatcom has seen this year and represents the third since Dec. 1. No other information about the person who died, including their age and gender, was included in the report.
The state Department of Health data Wednesday also showed Whatcom County has had 205 hospitalizations, unchanged from Tuesday’s report.
The state reported that a total of 130,556 molecular tests have been administered in Whatcom County during the pandemic — an increase of 285 tests from Tuesday’s report.
St. Joseph hospital in Bellingham, which is licensed and staffed for 241 beds, reported to The Bellingham Herald on Thursday it was treating a 19 patients for COVID-19, an increase of one from Wednesday.
The Nooksack Indian Tribe announced in a Facebook post Wednesday that it has seen four more confirmed cases within its community, bringing the pandemic total to 34. Fifteen cases are active, while 18 have recovered, according to the post. So far, the Nooksack health team has conducted 2,401 tests during the pandemic, with results for 66 pending.
Nooksack also announced that the tribe instituted a Shelter in Place Order on Wednesday, mandating that all residents stay in their homes except for essential reasons and restricted them from gatherings with people outside their households until further notice in an effort to help prevent the spread of the respiratory illness.
The Lummi Tribal Health Center reported in a Facebook post seven new cases Wednesday, bringing the total number of cases in the Lummi community during the pandemic to 169, including 105 new cases since Oct. 1. As of Wednesday, the Lummi health department reported it had 29 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 3,276 tests. The Lummi Indian Business Council has issued a Phase 1 Shelter in Place Order through Jan. 12.
The Lummi health center also reported that it vaccinated 88 people 65 and older during its Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine clinic Wednesday.
Holiday surge?
Whatcom County Health Department Director Erika Lautenbach said in an online briefing Wednesday that it is still too early to see how much of an impact the Christmas and New Year’s holidays had on Whatcom County’s COVID-19 caseload, but she added that should be available soon.
“We’re continuing to see increases the last couple of weeks,” Lautenbach said. “After seeing some leveling off in November and earlier December, we’re are now seeing increases at higher rates the last week, week-and-a-half. During the holidays, we suspect that crept even higher. We should have more information on the holiday impact in the next week, but it is still too soon to say.”
Case investigations have continued to show the health department that transmission rate remains highest among social gatherings and household activities, Lautenbach said, much like it’s been most of the fall.
Though Lautenbach said she is thankful Whatcom hasn’t seen the caseloads other areas of the state and country have seen, “the increases we are seeing are concerning, especially as we see hospitalizations tick back up. We didn’t see the reduction we hoped we would see.”
Testing update
Though she cautioned that state negative testing data on the Department of Health’s dashboard remains incomplete and should be interpreted with caution, Lautenbach said Wednesday that the county health department has seen test positivity rates increase recently at its low-barrier testing site.
“We’ve seen the positive test rates nearly double from 3% to nearly 7% last week and likely again this week,” Lautenbach said. “That’s what our limited data is showing.”
Lautenbach also said the low-barrier testing site at the Northwest Washington Fairground in Lynden has been maxing out capacity recently and had to use its overflow.
“We’ve seen very high demand for testing at this time,” Lautenbach said.
Race and ethnicity
The Whatcom County Health Department did not release data breaking down COVID-19 infections by race or ethnicity on Tuesday.
A note on the department’s website said that, “In recent weeks the completeness of race/ethnicity fields has decreased. We are working to increase completeness so that sub-population data is as accurate as possible.”
The department said updated information would be available as soon as possible. Until then, the county health department directs people to statewide data on the Department of Health’s dashboard.
Whatcom’s risk assessment
The state’s Risk Assessment Dashboard was last updated Wednesday evening for data as of 11:59 p.m. Tuesday. 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 162.5.
▪ Whatcom had an average COVID-19 molecular testing rate per 100,000 people over a week of 222.1. No goal was stated for this metric, however, the overall statewide number was 206.0. 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 4.2%. 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 Wednesday evening for data through Tuesday, shows for the North region, which combines Whatcom, Skagit, Snohomish, San Juan and Island counties:
▪ Occupied beds: 1,058 of the region’s 1,210 adult hospital beds (87.4%) were occupied, missing the state’s goal of 80% or less.
▪ COVID occupied beds: 173 of the region’s 1,210 adult hospital beds (14.3%) were occupied by COVID patients, missing the state’s goal of 10% or less.
▪ Occupied ICU beds: 105 of the region’s 137 adult ICU beds (76.6%) were occupied. The state does not have a goal for this metric, but it was an increase of seven from Tuesday’s report.
▪ COVID occupied ICU beds: 33 of the region’s 137 adult ICU beds (24.1%) were occupied by COVID patients. The state does not have a goal for this metric, but it was a decrease of one from Tuesday’s report.
Bellingham in-person learning
Bellingham Public Schools second graders will begin returning to in-person instruction on Thursday, Jan. 14, according to a letter from Superintendent Greg Baker Wednesday morning. Promise kindergarten students will begin in-person learning Monday, Jan. 25.
When they return, those students will follow the current elementary schedule and attend classes from 8 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, while Wednesdays will remain remote learning, according to the letter.
“Assuming guidance and other factors do not change, we plan to announce dates soon for grades 3-12 returning to school later in January and February,” Baker wrote. “We continue to work on the planning details for COVID safety protocols, instructional models and other logistics for these grades, and are hopeful we can continue to return students to school in alignment with the guidance over the next six weeks.”
Before winter break, Bellingham elementary schools had six confirmed COVID-19 cases in classes requiring contact tracing, according to the district’s dashboard. All six cases were single infections in six different classrooms at five different schools. Those classrooms were closed, but have all since returned to in-person learning.
Numbers elsewhere
New coronavirus cases and deaths according to Johns Hopkins University Thursday morning:
▪ The U.S. has more than 21.3 million reported cases, the most of any nation, and more than 361,000 deaths.
▪ Worldwide, there are more than 87.3 million reported cases and 1.8 million deaths.
Washington state reported these numbers from the Department of Health Wednesday afternoon:
▪ 250,306 confirmed cases, an increase of 1,726 from reported cases on Tuesday.
▪ 10,446 probable cases, an increase of 259 from Tuesday’s data.
▪ 15,415 coronavirus-related hospitalizations, an increase of 88 from data Tuesday.
▪ 3,969,589 total molecular tests, an increase of 20,057 from Tuesday’s data.
▪ 3,605 deaths related to COVID-19. That reflected an increase of 64 deaths from data reported Tuesday meaning that 1.4% of the state residents who have tested positive for COVID during the pandemic have died.
Washington state actions
In the “Healthy Washington” plan introduced by Gov. Jay Inslee Tuesday, Jan. 5, business resumption is tied to targets by health system regions. Whatcom is tied to Skagit, San Juan and Island counties in the plan.
The state will run analyses each Friday, including this week, to determine whether regions will move backward or forward in phases the following Monday, officials said.
All regions will begin in Phase 1 on Jan. 11. It allows live entertainment with ticketed groups of up to 10 people and very limited fitness activities such as appointment-based training in gyms.
Phase 2 allows restaurants and indoor fitness centers to open indoors at 25% capacity and allows for sports competitions to resume with limited spectators, and wedding, and funeral ceremonies can increase capacities.
Whatcom County is in the North Region, along with Skagit, San Juan and Island counties.
Regions must meet these targets to move to Phase 2:
▪ A 10% decline in case rates over the last 14 days compared to the prior two weeks.
▪ 10% decline in COVID hospital admission rate in the last 14 days.
▪ ICU occupancy rates below 90% for COVID-19 and non-COVID patients.
▪ A test positivity rate below 10%.
To stay in Phase 2, regions have to keep meeting at least three of the metrics, though the trend metrics will have a little more flexibility than ICU occupancy and test positivity rates.
This story was originally published January 7, 2021 at 7:44 AM.
