Whatcom County sees 218 more COVID-19 cases for two days, state reports Sunday
Whatcom County has 218 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the past two days, according to the Washington State Department of Health on Sunday, Jan. 17. Deaths are not reported on weekends.
The Department of Health experienced technical challenges processing COVID-19 data Saturday, Jan. 16, and did not update the COVID-19 dashboard as expected.
With the Martin Luther King Holiday Monday, Jan. 18, the state said it would not update the COVID-19 dashboard Monday.
“Cases are higher than ever before in Whatcom County right now,” according to a Whatcom County Health Facebook post Saturday. “You might not feel sick, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have COVID-19 and can’t spread it. Take preventive action now to keep COVID-19 from spreading even further in our community: wear your mask around people you don’t live with, stay at least 6 feet away from people you don’t live with, wash your hands often and don’t gather with people outside your household.”
Overall, Whatcom County has seen 4,871 confirmed cases and 56 related deaths during the pandemic, according to state data as of 11:59 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 16. That means that 1.1% of the Whatcom residents who have tested positive for COVID during the pandemic have died.
Fourteen additional probable cases — no change from Friday’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 Department of Health data Sunday showed Whatcom County has had 236 hospitalizations during the pandemic, an increase of five from Friday’s report, though the state said hospitalization data was not reconciled with local data this weekend.
The state also reported that a total of 137,191 molecular tests have been administered in Whatcom County during the pandemic — an increase of 1,351 tests from Friday’s report.
The state cautioned that case counts Sunday may include up to 950 duplicates statewide and that negative test results Nov. 21-30 and from Dec. 30 still are incomplete.
St. Joseph hospital in Bellingham, which is licensed and staffed for 241 beds, reported to The Bellingham Herald on Saturday and Sunday it was treating 18 patients daily for COVID-19, no change from Friday. St. Joseph has banned visitors at the medical center until further notice while COVID-19 remains a public health threat.
Western Washington University’s most recent on-campus student COVID testing data show Saturday that, since Sept. 15, WWU has tested 16,767 students, 55 of whom had positive tests. The college has now seen 17 new cases since the school resumed testing following the winter break.
Whatcom’s risk assessment
The state’s Risk Assessment Dashboard was last updated Friday evening for data as of 11:59 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 14. With a shift to “Healthy Washington” goals to resume business activities, the state was more specific on reporting dates for some metrics. The dashboard does not update on the weekends.
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. 23-Jan. 5 with a rate of 272.5.
▪ Whatcom had an average COVID-19 molecular testing rate per 100,000 people Dec. 29-Jan. 4 of 103.5. No goal was stated for this metric, however, the overall statewide number was 174.3.
▪ Whatcom is missing the target of less than 2.0% of individuals testing positive for COVID-19 Dec. 29-Jan. 4 with a rate of 26.8%.
The latest Healthcare System Readiness risk assessment dashboard, updated Friday evening for data through Thursday, shows for the North region, which combines Whatcom, Skagit, Snohomish, San Juan and Island counties:
▪ Occupied beds: 1,090 of the region’s 1,242 adult hospital beds (87.8%) were occupied, missing the state’s goal of 80% or less.
▪ COVID occupied beds: 156 of the region’s 1,242 adult hospital beds (12.6%) were occupied by COVID patients, missing the state’s goal of 10% or less.
▪ Occupied ICU beds: 104 of the region’s 135 adult ICU beds (77%) were occupied. The state does not have a goal for this metric, but it was an increase of 10 beds being used from data Thursday.
▪ COVID occupied ICU beds: 30 of the region’s 135 adult ICU beds (22.2%) were occupied by COVID patients. The state does not have a goal for this metric, but it was an increase of three beds being used from data Thursday.
Numbers elsewhere
New coronavirus cases and deaths according to Johns Hopkins University Sunday afternoon:
▪ The U.S. has more than 23.89 million reported cases, the most of any nation, and more than 397,258 deaths.
▪ Worldwide, there are more than 94.93 million reported cases and 2.02 million deaths.
Washington state reported these numbers from the Department of Health Sunday afternoon:
▪ 277,404 confirmed cases, an increase of 3,701 from reported cases on Thursday.
▪ 12,535 probable cases, an increase of 268 from Friday’s data.
▪ 16,558 coronavirus-related hospitalizations, an increase of 188 from data Friday, though the state said hospitalization data was not reconciled with local data this weekend.
▪ 4,233,758 total molecular tests, an increase of 53,925 from Friday’s data.
▪ 3,903 deaths related to COVID-19 were reported Friday, which was an increase of 27 from Thursday’s data, meaning that 1.4% of the state residents who have tested positive for COVID during the pandemic have died. Deaths are not released on weekends.
Washington state actions
In the “Healthy Washington” plan introduced by Gov. Jay Inslee 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 began in Phase 1 on Jan. 11 and continue into a second week in Phase 1. It allows live entertainment with ticketed groups of up to 10 people and very limited fitness activities such as appointment-based training in gyms.
