Whatcom sees 3 COVID-related deaths reported Tuesday, but case total decreases by 4
Three more Whatcom County residents who tested positive for COVID-19 have died, the Washington State Department of Health’s dashboard reported on Tuesday, Feb. 9. The state also reported a decrease four confirmed cases for Whatcom County on Tuesday.
Overall, Whatcom County has seen 6,040 confirmed cases and 72 related deaths during the pandemic, according to state data as of 11:59 p.m. Monday, Feb. 8, meaning 1.2% of all COVID cases in Whatcom County have been linked to a death.
Seventy additional probable cases — a decrease of two from Monday’s report — have been reported in Whatcom County during the pandemic, resulting from positive antigen tests not confirmed by a molecular test.
The COVID-related deaths reported Tuesday bring Whatcom’s total to 17 reported so far in 2021.
According to the state’s epidemiologic curves, the people whose deaths were reported Tuesday first tested positive for COVID-19 on Jan. 20 and 22 and Feb. 1 — the first person to test positive in February and die. No other information, such as genders, ages or hometowns, were reported.
The state gave no reason as to why Whatcom’s total number of cases decreased by four on Tuesday, but the state did warn that there were up to 1,200 duplicate cases statewide and adjustments of data by the state have been common throughout the pandemic.
With the decrease, Whatcom has averaged seeing 58.6 cases reported per day over the past week.
The state cautioned that Tuesday’s data may include up to 1,100 duplicate cases statewide.
The state Department of Health data Tuesday showed Whatcom County has had 304 hospitalizations during the pandemic, an increase of three from Monday’s report.
The state also reported that a total of 161,266 molecular tests have been administered in Whatcom County during the pandemic — an increase of 1,366 tests from Monday’s report — meaning 3.7% of all reported tests during the pandemic have come back positive. The state cautioned that negative test results from Nov. 21-30 remain incomplete.
Monday’s vaccination report said that as of 11:59 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 6, Whatcom County had administered 18,450 vaccinations — an increase of 1,384 vaccinations from Friday’s report, which was through 11:59 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 3. An average of 340.0 Whatcom County residents per day received a vaccination dose from Jan. 31-Feb. 6, up from the 337.0 seven-day average on Friday. Vaccination data is released Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
The state estimates that 8.55% of the county (or approximately 19,263 residents) have received their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 2.18% of the county (or approximately 4,912 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 2.0% of the 942,166 total vaccine doses administered in the state — unchanged from Friday’s report — and has administered the 12th-most doses in the state. For comparison, Whatcom County represents 3.0% of the state’s total population and is the state’s ninth-largest county, according to 2019 U.S. Census estimates.
St. Joseph hospital in Bellingham, which is licensed and staffed for 241 beds, reported to The Herald on Wednesday it was treating 12 patients for COVID-19, a decrease of four 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 Tuesday that since Sept. 15 WWU has completed 20,342 tests and 73 students have tested positive — unchanged from Monday’s report. The college has seen 35 new cases since the school resumed testing following the winter break after seeing 38 cases during the fall quarter.
The Lummi Tribal Health Center reported in a Facebook post Tuesday that it had eight new confirmed cases, bringing the total number of cases in the Lummi community during the pandemic to 379. The Lummi health department reported it has 85 active cases and one current hospitalization. During the pandemic, 12 community members have been hospitalized, three have died and the health center has conducted 4,286 tests. Positive tests for the last two weeks are at 22.86%. The Lummi Indian Business Council’s Phase 1 Shelter in Place Order is in place until Feb. 23.
Lynden schools see cases
The Lynden School District’s COVID-19 dashboard, showed three new cases in two incidents when it was updated Tuesday.
Two new cases were reported at Bernice Vossbeck Elementary School the week of Jan. 25-29, bringing the total number of cases reported at the school since students began returning to eight in seven incidents. The two new cases reported required that certain individuals return to remote learning with an expected return date of Feb. 10.
One other case was reported at Lynden Middle School the week of Jan. 25-29, bringing the total number of cases reported at the school to 11 in four incidents. The most recent case did not require any other students to return to remote learning.
Overall, the district’s dashboard reports there have been 30 cases spread across 20 incidents since Lynden students began returning to classes. Eleven incidents have required some students or whole classes to temporarily return to remote learning.
Lummi school sees case
One day after Lummi Nation School began returning to in-person learning, the school saw its first confirmed COVID-19 case, principal Kevin Villars reported in a letter posted to the Lummi Communications Facebook page.
The school was first notified Tuesday morning that a relative of a student had tested positive, Villars reported, and the school immediately closed and sanitized the classroom the student had been in. The school was later notified that the student also tested positive, so the school’s COVID coordinator began contact tracing and and informed all those who may have been exposed.
“LNS has taken every precaution to ensure our school is under the strictest guidelines for the health and safety of our staff and students,” Villars wrote.
Among those procedures, Villars reported, are:
▪ Taking students’ temperatures when they board a bus.
▪ Enforcing social distancing in a common area when students enter the school and then escorting them to classrooms.
▪ Using dividers on desks, keeping desks 6 feet apart and requiring students to wash their hands every time they enter or leave classrooms.
▪ Mandatory mask wearing and keeping classes separate on the playground at recess.
▪ Intensive sanitation of the building by the janitorial staff.
“Moving forward LNS is committed to keeping the school open,” Villars wrote.
Whatcom’s risk assessment
The state’s Risk Assessment Dashboard was last updated Tuesday evening for data as of 11:59 p.m. Monday, Feb. 8. 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. 17-30 with a rate of 348.4 — a decrease from 354.2 reported Monday. Whatcom County has the ninth-highest infection rate in the state, according to Tuesday’s data.
▪ Whatcom had an average COVID-19 molecular testing rate per 100,000 people Jan. 16-22 of 415.1. No goal was stated for this metric, however, the overall statewide number was 287.0, and Whatcom’s average was a decrease from the 418.6 reported Monday.
▪ Whatcom is missing the target of less than 2.0% of individuals testing positive for COVID-19 Jan. 16-22 with a rate of 6.1% — a decrease from the 6.7% reported Monday and the 13th-lowest rate in the state.
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: 965 of the region’s 1,234 adult hospital beds (78.2%) were occupied, making the state’s goal of 80% or less and a decrease of 33 occupied beds from data Monday.
▪ COVID occupied beds: 71 of the region’s 1,234 adult hospital beds (5.8%) were occupied by COVID patients, making the state’s goal of 10% or less and a decrease of 12 occupied beds from data Monday.
▪ Occupied ICU beds: 79 of the region’s 136 adult ICU beds (58.1%) were occupied. The state does not have a goal for this metric, but it was a decrease of 11 beds being used from data Monday.
▪ COVID occupied ICU beds: 20 of the region’s 136 adult ICU beds (14.7%) were occupied by COVID patients. The state does not have a goal for this metric, but it was a decrease of six 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 27.1 million reported cases, the most of any nation, and more than 468,000 deaths.
▪ Worldwide, there are more than 107.0 million reported cases and 2.3 million deaths.
Washington state reported these numbers from the Department of Health Tuesday afternoon:
▪ 307,867 confirmed cases, an increase of 678 from reported cases on Monday.
▪ 16,158 probable cases, an increase of 133 from Monday’s data.
▪ 18,530 coronavirus-related hospitalizations, an increase of 50 from data Monday.
▪ 4,793,925 total molecular tests, an increase of 22,088 from Monday’s data.
▪ 4,558 deaths related to COVID-19, an increase of 107 from data reported Monday. That means 1.4% of all Washington residents who have tested positive for coronavirus have died.
According to the state’s latest vaccination report, which is updated Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays:
▪ 942,166 vaccinations had been given through Saturday, an increase of 108,231.
▪ The state has averaged administering 26,857 doses of vaccines the past seven days — more than half of the Department of Health’s stated daily goal of 45,000, and a slight from the average 26,269 reported Friday.
▪ The state estimates that 9.82% of the state’s residents have received their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 2.59% percent of residents are fully vaccinated.
▪ Approximately 1,056,575 doses have been delivered to Washington state providers (an increase of 35,100 from Friday’s report) and 138,450 doses have been delivered for the CDC’s long-term care program (an increase of 4,875 from Friday’s report).
▪ Of the approximately 1,195,025 doses delivered, 78.84% 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 every other 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 the Puget Sound and West Region will move to Phase 2 Monday, 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.
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, and remains in Phase 1.
