New COVID-related death reported in Whatcom Tuesday, along with 23 confirmed cases
Whatcom County had its 60th COVID-related death during the pandemic reported by the Washington State Department of Health’s dashboard on Tuesday, Jan. 26, and its confirmed case total increased by 23.
Overall, Whatcom County has seen 5,254 confirmed cases to go along with the 60 related deaths during the pandemic, according to state data as of 11:59 p.m. Monday, Jan. 25, meaning 1.1% of all COVID cases in Whatcom County have been linked to a death.
Fifteen additional probable cases — unchanged from Monday’s report — have been reported in Whatcom County during the pandemic, resulting from positive antigen tests not confirmed by a molecular test.
Tuesday’s reported death is Whatcom County’s first since three were reported Jan. 21 and marks the fifth death the county has had reported so far in 2021.
No other information about the person who died, including age or gender, was available, but the state dashboard’s epidemiologic curves showed the person first tested positive for COVID-19 on Dec. 29.
Since Jan. 1, Whatcom County’s reported case total has increased by 1,785 — already the largest count in a month the county has seen by more than 700 cases and more than a third (33.9%) of the county’s total cases during the pandemic. Whatcom’s seven-day average of cases per day increased slightly to 53.4 — up from 51.4 after Monday’s report.
The state Department of Health data Tuesday also showed Whatcom County has had 260 hospitalizations during the pandemic, an increase of seven from Monday’s report.
The state reported that a total of 144,480 molecular tests have been administered in Whatcom County during the pandemic — an increase of 856 tests from Monday’s report. The state cautioned that negative test results from Nov. 21-30 and since Jan. 5 still are incomplete.
Monday’s vaccination report said that as of 11:59 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 23, Whatcom County had administered 11,796 vaccinations — an increase of 3,056 vaccinations from Friday’s report, which was through 11:59 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 20. An average of 656.6 Whatcom County residents per day received a vaccination dose between Jan. 17 and 23. Vaccination data is released Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
The state estimates that 5.06% of the county (or approximately 11,400 residents) have received their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 1.21% of the county (or approximately 2,726 residents) are fully vaccinated. The number of vaccines given and people vaccinated may not match, according to the dashboard, because people may be vaccinated in counties other than where they live.
According to the data released Monday, Whatcom residents have received approximately 2.4% of the 500,105 total vaccine doses administered in the state.
St. Joseph hospital in Bellingham, which is licensed and staffed for 241 beds, reported to The Herald on Wednesday it was treating 23 patients for COVID-19, an increase of two from Tuesday’s report. 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 Wednesday that since Sept. 15 WWU has tested 18,160 students, 68 of whom had positive tests — an increase of four from Tuesday’s report. The college has seen 30 new cases since the school resumed testing following the winter break after seeing 38 cases during the fall quarter.
The Nooksack Indian Tribe announced in a Facebook post Tuesday that it has seen one more confirmed case within its community, bringing the pandemic total to 47. Eleven cases are active, while 35 have recovered, according to the post. So far, the Nooksack health team has conducted 2,637 tests during the pandemic, with results for three pending. Nooksack instituted a Shelter in Place Order on Jan. 6, mandating that all residents stay in their homes except for essential reasons and restricted them from gathering with people outside their households until further notice.
Waiting for the vaccine
Bellingham Mayor Seth Fleetwood asked for residents’ patience regarding local distribution of the vaccine against COVID-19, calling it the “final hurdle” toward ending the new coronavirus pandemic.
“The Health Department has heard from many residents and understands the frustration” of not being able to schedule appointments to get the two required shots, Fleetwood said at the Monday, Jan. 25, City Council meeting.
“There’s very little vaccine coming into our county,” he said.
Once more doses of the vaccine are available, the city will help establish mass vaccination sites and make sure that people will have transportation to them, he said.
“This will take months, not days,” Fleetwood said.
A mass COVID-19 vaccination site isn’t coming to Bellingham just yet, despite an earlier announcement from the Washington State Department of Health that might have stirred excitement for Whatcom County residents who are eligible to get the vaccine.
“We’ve reached out to (state Department of Health) to confirm that there are no plans in motion at this time for a state-run mass vaccination site in Whatcom County. We expect DOH will be issuing a written statement later today to clarify the comments made earlier about a site in Bellingham,” Whatcom Unified Command said in an email to The Bellingham Herald Tuesday morning.
Tuesday evening the state confirmed vaccinations sites only in Kennewick, Ridgefield, Spokane, and Wenatchee.
—Robert Mittendorf, rmittendorf@bhamherald.com, and Kie Relyea, krelyea@bhamherald.com
Whatcom’s risk assessment
The state’s Risk Assessment Dashboard was last updated Tuesday evening for data as of 11:59 p.m. Monday, Jan. 25. With a shift to “Healthy Washington” goals to resume business activities, the state is 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 Jan. 3-16 with a rate of 530.0 — an increase from 494.5 reported Monday.
▪ Whatcom had an average COVID-19 molecular testing rate per 100,000 people Jan. 2-8 of 393.4. No goal was stated for this metric, however, the overall statewide number was 335.7, and Whatcom’s average was an increase from the 349.1 reported Monday.
▪ Whatcom is missing the target of less than 2.0% of individuals testing positive for COVID-19 Jan. 2-8 with a rate of 10.0% — an increase from the 9.8% reported Monday.
The latest Healthcare System Readiness risk assessment dashboard, updated Tuesday evening for data through Monday, shows for the North region, which combines Whatcom, Skagit, Snohomish, San Juan and Island counties:
▪ Occupied beds: 987 of the region’s 1,223 adult hospital beds (80.7%) were occupied, missing the state’s goal of 80% or less and a decrease of 25 occupied beds from data Monday.
▪ COVID occupied beds: 95 of the region’s 1,223 adult hospital beds (7.8%) were occupied by COVID patients, making the state’s goal of 10% or less and a decrease of five occupied beds from data Monday.
▪ Occupied ICU beds: 91 of the region’s 139 adult ICU beds (65.5%) were occupied. The state does not have a goal for this metric, but it was a decrease of two beds being used from data Monday.
▪ COVID occupied ICU beds: 23 of the region’s 139 adult ICU beds (16.5%) were occupied by COVID patients. The state does not have a goal for this metric, but it was a decrease of four beds being used from data Monday.
Numbers elsewhere
New coronavirus cases and deaths according to Johns Hopkins University Wednesday morning:
▪ The U.S. has more than 25.4 million reported cases, the most of any nation, and more than 425,000 deaths.
▪ Worldwide, there are more than 100.4 million reported cases and 2.1 million deaths.
Washington state reported these numbers from the Department of Health Tuesday afternoon:
▪ 290,168 confirmed cases, an increase of 1,220 from reported cases on Monday.
▪ 13,314 probable cases, an increase of 121 from Monday’s data.
▪ 17,354 coronavirus-related hospitalizations, an increase of 95 from data Monday.
▪ 4,446,844 total molecular tests, an increase of 22,614 from Monday’s data.
▪ 4,167 deaths related to COVID-19 were reported, an increase of 19 from Monday’s report.
▪ According to Monday’s vaccination report, 500,105 vaccinations had been given by Saturday, an increase of 108,910 from Friday’s report. The state has averaged administering 23,964 doses of vaccines the past seven days — slightly more than half of the Department of Health’s stated goal of 45,000. The state estimates that 5.55% of the state’s residents have received their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 1.04% percent of residents are fully vaccinated. Vaccination data is updated Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
▪ According to Monday’s vaccination report, 719,775 doses have been delivered to Washington state providers (an increase of 300 from Friday’s report) and 124,800 doses have been delivered for the CDC’s long-term care program (an increase of 25,350 from Friday’s report), and of the total 844,574 doses delivered, 59.21% have been given.
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 in Phase 1 until at least Feb. 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 27, 2021 at 8:33 AM.
