Whatcom sees 121 new COVID cases Friday, as pace at long-term facilities continues to slow
Whatcom County has 121 new confirmed cases of COVID-19, according to the Washington State Department of Health on Friday, Jan. 8, but no new deaths were reported.
Overall, Whatcom County has seen 4,054 confirmed cases and 56 related deaths during the pandemic, according to state data as of 11:59 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 7. That means that 1.4% of the Whatcom residents who have tested positive for COVID during the pandemic have died.
Twelve additional probable cases — an increase of one from Thursday’s report — have been reported in Whatcom County during the pandemic, resulting from positive antigen tests, but those cases were not confirmed by a molecular test.
The state cautioned that case counts Friday may include up to 460 duplicates statewide and that negative test results Nov. 21-30 and from Dec. 13 still may be incomplete. Hospitalization data are also incomplete due to a data processing interruption.
The state Department of Health data Friday also showed Whatcom County has had 201 hospitalizations, a decrease of eight from Thursday’s report.
The state reported that a total of 131,490 molecular tests have been administered in Whatcom County during the pandemic — an increase of 603 tests from Thursday’s report.
St. Joseph hospital in Bellingham, which is licensed and staffed for 241 beds, reported to The Bellingham Herald on Friday it was treating 19 patients for COVID-19, unchanged from Thursday.
St. Joseph will ban visitors at the medical center until further notice, starting at 5 a.m. Monday, Jan. 11, while COVID-19 remains a public health threat, according to a Friday Facebook post.
The Nooksack Indian Tribe announced in a Facebook post Friday that it has seen one more confirmed case within its community, bringing the pandemic total to 36. Seventeen cases are active, while 18 have recovered, according to the post. So far, the Nooksack health team has conducted 2,526 tests during the pandemic, with results for 64 pending. Nooksack instituted a Shelter in Place Order on Wednesday, Jan. 6, 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.
Whatcom’s risk assessment
The state’s Risk Assessment Dashboard was last updated Friday evening for data as of 11:59 p.m. Dec. 23. With a shift to “Healthy Washington” goals to resume business activities, the state was more specific on reporting dates for some metrics.
Whatcom County was missing the marks on two key metrics.
▪ Whatcom is missing the target rate of fewer than 25 new cases per 100,000 residents Dec. 1-14 with a rate of 213.9.
▪ Whatcom had an average COVID-19 molecular testing rate per 100,000 people Dec. 7-13 of 95.4 No goal was stated for this metric, however, the overall statewide number was 296.9. The state’s incomplete testing data is likely impacting this metric.
▪ Whatcom is missing the target of less than 2.0% of individuals testing positive for COVID-19 Dec. 7-13 with a rate of 14.3%. The state’s incomplete testing data is likely impacting this metric.
The latest Healthcare System Readiness risk assessment dashboard, updated Friday evening for data through Dec. 23, shows for the North region, which combines Whatcom, Skagit, Snohomish, San Juan and Island counties:
▪ Occupied beds: 992 of the region’s 1,215 adult hospital beds (81.6%) were occupied, missing the state’s goal of 80% or less.
▪ COVID occupied beds: 126 of the region’s 1,215 adult hospital beds (10.4%) were occupied by COVID patients, missing the state’s goal of 10% or less.
▪ Occupied ICU beds: 78 of the region’s 140 adult ICU beds (55.7%) were occupied as of Dec. 24. The state does not have a goal for this metric, but the occupancy statewide was 80.1%.
▪ COVID occupied ICU beds: 29 of the region’s 140 adult ICU beds (20.7%) were occupied by COVID patients as of Dec. 24. The state does not have a goal for this metric, but the occupancy statewide was 19.9%.
Vaccine update
The state Department of Health reported that as of Tuesday, Jan. 5, 425,900 doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines had been delivered to the state and healthcare providers reported 110,225 of those had been administered to Phase 1A recipients since mid-December. Those numbers included doses set aside for long-term care facilities.
Next week, the state says it is expecting 44,850 Pfizer doses for people receiving their first inoculation and 62,400 doses for those receiving their second. The state also expects 44,100 first Moderna doses next week.
Earlier this week, Whatcom County Health Department Health Information and Assessment Supervisor Amy Hockenberry estimated the county had received 5,900 doses of vaccine — enough for about 37% of its eligible Phase 1A recipients — as of Monday, Jan. 4.
—David Rasbach, drasbach@bhamherald.com
Long-term care update
The pace of new COVID cases in Whatcom County’s long-term facilities continues to slow, according to the latest Washington State Department of Health’s latest COVID-19 Long-Term Care Report.
According to the report, which was released Tuesday, Jan. 5 and reflected data through Monday, Jan. 4, Whatcom County long-term care facilities have had 271 confirmed cases during the pandemic. That marks an increase of 11 cases since the previous report, which included data through Dec. 21 — a 4.2% growth, slightly less than the 4.4% growth the county saw in early and mid-December.
The number of COVID-related deaths in long-term care facilities was unchanged from the last report at 38, according to the state’s data.
The 271 cases mean that long-term care facilities had 7.1% of the 3,683 overall cases reported in Whatcom County on Jan. 4 — down from 8.2% on Dec. 21 — while the 38 related deaths represent 69.1% of the county’s death total (55) during the pandemic.
Statewide, long-term care facilities have been associated with 13,870 cases (5% of the state’s total cases) and 1,765 related deaths (51.2% of the state’s death total), the report showed. Since Dec. 21, the state’s long-term care facilities saw increases of 10.9% in the number of cases (1,369 cases) and 8.5% in the number of deaths (138 deaths).
—David Rasbach, drasbach@bhamherald.com
Numbers elsewhere
New coronavirus cases and deaths according to Johns Hopkins University Friday evening:
▪ The U.S. has more than 21.86 million reported cases, the most of any nation, and more than 368,769 deaths.
▪ Worldwide, there are more than 88.84 million reported cases and 1.91 million deaths.
Washington state reported these numbers from the Department of Health Friday evening:
▪ 257,447 confirmed cases, an increase of 4,046 from reported cases on Thursday.
▪ 10,611 probable cases, no change from Thursday’s data.
▪ 15,557 coronavirus-related hospitalizations, a decrease of 11 from data Thursday.
▪ 4,009,784 total molecular tests, an increase of 22,656 from Thursday’s data.
▪ 3,699 deaths related to COVID-19. That reflected an increase of 65 deaths from data reported Thursday 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 to determine whether regions will move backward or forward in phases the following Monday, officials said.
All regions 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.
This story was originally published January 9, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
