Whatcom sees 3 deaths Thursday, tops 5,000 total COVID-19 cases as 73 confirmed
It took Whatcom County only 13 days to surpass another dubious milestone during the COVID-19 pandemic, as the 73 cases reported by the Washington State Department of Health dashboard Thursday, Jan. 21, pushed the county over past 5,000 total confirmed cases.
Making Thursday’s numbers release even more difficult was the reporting of three additional related deaths.
Statewide, 125 deaths were reported Thursday, and the dashboard said the high number was due to the clearing of a “data processing backlog” from Jan. 14-20.
According to the state’s epidemiologic curves, Whatcom’s three deaths were of people who had specimens collected for COVID-19 tests on Dec. 29, Jan. 1 and Jan. 3. No other information, including the people’s age or gender, was released.
Whatcom’s last reported deaths, according to the curves, were for two people who had their specimens collected Dec. 15.
Overall, Whatcom County has seen 5,012 confirmed cases and 59 related deaths during the pandemic, according to state data as of 11:59 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 20. The three deaths reported Thursday raised the percentage of Whatcom residents who have died after testing positive for COVID during the pandemic to 1.2%.
Fifteen additional probable cases — unchanged from Wednesday 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.
Since Jan. 1, Whatcom County’s reported case total has increased by 1,543 — already the largest month the county has seen during the pandemic by more than 500 cases and nearly a third (30.8%) of the county’s total cases during the pandemic. Whatcom’s seven-day average of reported cases did dip to 61.7 cases per day only four days after reaching a record high of 107.0.
The state Department of Health data Thursday also showed Whatcom County has had 249 hospitalizations during the pandemic, a decrease of one from Wednesday’s report.
The state reported that a total of 140,038 molecular tests have been administered in Whatcom County during the pandemic — an increase of 879 tests from Wednesday’s report. The state cautioned that negative test results Nov. 21-30 and since Jan. 2 still are incomplete.
On Tuesday, the state began releasing statewide and county-by-county data on vaccinations — metrics it says it plans to update on Mondays, Wednesday and Fridays..
Wednesday’s report said that as of 11:59 p.m. Monday, Jan. 18, Whatcom County had administered 7,212 vaccinations — an increase of 1,268 vaccinations from Tuesday’s report, which was through 11:59 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 16. The state estimates that 3.32% of the county (or approximately 7,480 residents) have received their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 0.73% of the county (or approximately 1,645 residents) are fully vaccinated.
St. Joseph hospital in Bellingham, which is licensed and staffed for 241 beds, reported to The Bellingham Herald on Friday it was treating 21 patients daily for COVID-19, a decrease of four from Thursday’s report and nine fewer than the record 30 it reported Jan. 13. 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 Thursday that since Sept. 15 WWU has tested 17,302 students, 56 of whom had positive tests — an increase of one from Wednesday’s report. The college has seen 18 new cases since the school resumed testing following the winter break.
The Nooksack Indian Tribe announced in a Facebook post Thursday that it has seen one more confirmed case within its community, bringing the pandemic total to 41. Five cases are active, while 35 have recovered, according to the post. So far, the Nooksack health team has conducted 2,625 tests during the pandemic, with results for 13 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.
Another barrier passed
It took Whatcom County only 13 days to move from 4,000 reported confirmed cases to 5,000. Here is a look at how long it took Whatcom County to surpass barriers for total number of reported confirmed cases during the pandemic:
▪ First case: March 10
▪ 1,000th case: Aug. 12 (155 days).
▪ 2,000th case: Nov. 20 (100 days).
▪ 3,000th case: Dec. 17 (27 days).
▪ 4,000th case: Jan. 8 (22 days).
▪ 5,000th case: Jan. 21 (13 days).
Whatcom’s risk assessment
The state’s Risk Assessment Dashboard was last updated Thursday evening for data as of 11:59 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 20. 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. 29-Jan. 11 with a rate of 448.3 — an increase from 442.5 reported Wednesday.
▪ Whatcom had an average COVID-19 molecular testing rate per 100,000 people Jan. 4-10 of 346.2. No goal was stated for this metric, however, the overall statewide number was 299.1, and it was an increase from Whatcom’s average of 335.7 reported Wednesday.
▪ Whatcom is missing the target of less than 2.0% of individuals testing positive for COVID-19 Jan. 4-10 with a rate of 7.0% — an increase from the 6.9% reported Wednesday.
The latest Healthcare System Readiness risk assessment dashboard, updated Thursday evening for data through Wednesday, shows for the North region, which combines Whatcom, Skagit, Snohomish, San Juan and Island counties:
▪ Occupied beds: 1,034 of the region’s 1,198 adult hospital beds (86.3%) were occupied, missing the state’s goal of 80% or less and an increase of nine occupied beds from data Wednesday.
▪ COVID occupied beds: 164 of the region’s 1,198 adult hospital beds (13.7%) were occupied by COVID patients, missing the state’s goal of 10% or less and an increase of three occupied beds from data Wednesday.
▪ Occupied ICU beds: 96 of the region’s 138 adult ICU beds (69.6%) were occupied. The state does not have a goal for this metric, but it was an increase of one bed being used from data Wednesday.
▪ COVID occupied ICU beds: 27 of the region’s 138 adult ICU beds (19.6%) were occupied by COVID patients. The state does not have a goal for this metric, but it was a decrease of one bed being used from data Wednesday.
Rite Aid expands testing
Rite Aid announced that, beginning Friday, it will expand its self-swab COVID-19 testing, including at one site in Whatcom County, to children 4 and older, regardless if they exhibiting COVID symptoms or not.
The now 460 nationwide testing sites will continue to utilize what a release called “simple self-swab nasal tests,” which are overseen by Rite Aid pharmacists. All individuals are required to preregister at riteaid.com to schedule a time slot for testing.
Rite Aid has 22 testing sites in Washington state, including one in Lynden (8090 Guide Meridian Road) and one in Mount Vernon (412 E. College Way.
Rite Aid also announced in the release that, as a COVID-19 vaccination provider, it is looking to fill over 2,000 pharmacist, pharmacy intern and pharmacy technician positions to administer vaccines during Phase 2 of the CDC’s rollout plan.
Safest state rankings
As the COVID-19 pandemic begins its second year since the first cases appeared in the U.S., Washington was ranked the 16th safest state during the pandemic in a study released by personal finance website wallethub.com on Thursday, Jan. 21.
“The level of safety in a state is crucial to its economy because it determines the way businesses are allowed to operate,” WalletHub analyst Jill Gonzalez said in a release announcing the study. “States will not remove their current COVID-19 restrictions until certain safety benchmarks are met, such as the reduction of the transmission rate to specific levels. Until it is safe enough to remove these restrictions, business will continue to be stunted across the U.S.”
Wallethub said it looked at five key metrics in all 50 states and the District of Columbia in making the ranking — vaccination, positive testing, hospitalization, death and transmission rates. Double weight was given to each state’s vaccination rate and triple weight to its death rate, according to the study.
““The most important thing that residents can do to increase the safety of their community and state is to get vaccinated when they are eligible,” Gonzalez said in the release. “While the vaccines being offered have a high efficacy, how well they are able to curb the pandemic also depends on the share of the population that chooses to get vaccinated.”
Topping Wallethub’s list for safest states were Alaska (No. 1), Vermont (No. 2) and Colorado (No. 3), while Mississippi (No. 49), Alabama (No. 50) and Arizona (No. 51) were ranked the least safe.
Washington did not rank among the top five in any of the five metrics Wallethub examined, but it was No. 50, ahead of only Hawaii, in terms of its transmission rate.
Numbers elsewhere
New coronavirus cases and deaths according to Johns Hopkins University Thursday morning:
▪ The U.S. has more than 24.4 million reported cases, the most of any nation, and more than 406,000 deaths.
▪ Worldwide, there are more than 97.0 million reported cases and 2.0 million deaths.
Washington state reported these numbers from the Department of Health Thursday afternoon:
▪ 283,188 confirmed cases, an increase of 1,930 from reported cases on Wednesday.
▪ 12,899 probable cases, an increase of 140 from Wednesday’s data.
▪ 16,939 coronavirus-related hospitalizations, an increase of 91 from data Wednesday.
▪ 4,325,798 total molecular tests, an increase of 28,492 from Wednesday’s data.
▪ 4,065 deaths related to COVID-19 were reported, and increase of 125 deaths from Wednesday’s data, in part, due to the clearing of a “data processing backlog” from Jan. 14-20, according to the state.
▪ 335,836 vaccinations given, an increase of 41,450 from Tuesday’s data. The state has averaged administering 15,500 doses of vaccines the past seven days — approximately a third of the Department of Health’s stated goal of 45,000. The state estimates that 3.74% of the state’s residents have received their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 0.67% percent of residents are fully vaccinated.
▪ 608,325 doses have been delivered to Washington state providers and 88,725 doses have been delivered for the CDC’s long-term care program, and of the total 697,050 doses delivered, 48.18% have been given. Vaccination data should next be updated Friday.
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.
This story was originally published January 22, 2021 at 8:00 AM.
