Whatcom has one new related death, 37 confirmed cases of COVID-19, state says Friday
Whatcom County saw one new COVID-related death and 37 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 reported on the Washington State Department of Health’s coronavirus dashboard on Friday, March 5.
Overall, Whatcom County has seen 6,771 confirmed cases and 85 related deaths during the pandemic, according to state data as of 11:59 p.m. Thursday, March 4. An additional 154 probable cases — an increase of two from Thursday’s report — have been reported in Whatcom County during the pandemic, resulting from positive antigen tests not confirmed by a molecular test.
That means that 1.2% of Whatcom’s 6,925 total cases (confirmed and probable cases combined) have resulted in death — better than the statewide 1.5% average of total cases.
The COVID-related death reported Wednesday is the 30th reported in the county since the first of the year. No other information about the person, such as gender, age or hometown was reported.
The 37 new confirmed cases reported Friday mean Whatcom County has had 3,299 cases — or 48.7% of its pandemic total — reported during the first 64 days of 2021 (an average of 51.5 cases per day). The county’s daily average of newly reported cases the past seven days decreased to 27.3 per day.
The state Department of Health data Friday showed Whatcom County has had 317 hospitalizations during the pandemic, which is no change from Thursday’s report.
The state also reported that a total of 184,140 molecular tests have been administered in Whatcom County during the pandemic — an increase of 1,396 tests from Thursday’s report — meaning 3.67% of all reported tests in the county during the pandemic have come back positive. The state cautioned that negative test results from Nov. 21-30 remain incomplete.
St. Joseph hospital in Bellingham, which is licensed and staffed for 241 beds, reported to The Herald on Friday morning it was treating six patients for COVID-19, unchanged from Thursday’s report.
Western Washington University’s most recent on-campus student COVID testing data show Friday that since Sept. 15 WWU has completed 24,531 tests and 76 students have tested positive — an increase of one from Thursday’s report. The college has seen 38 new cases since the school resumed testing following the winter break after seeing 38 cases during the fall quarter.
Whatcom vaccination update
Friday’s vaccination report said that as of 11:59 p.m. Wednesday, March 3, Whatcom County had administered 41,500 37,753 vaccinations — an increase of 3,747 vaccinations (up 9.92%) from Wednesday’s report. Vaccination data is released Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
The state estimates that 15.67% of the county (or 35,257 residents) has received its first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 7.85% of the county (or 17,662 residents) is 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.
Bellingham schools report case
One new COVID-19 incident was reported by Bellingham Public Schools on its dashboard on Friday. The incident involved a single confirmed case this week at Alderwood Elementary and required one class return to remote learning with an expected return date of March 18.
The district now has had 25 incidents and 27 reported cases since it began returning to in-person learning. Bellingham’s list of schools that have seen COVID cases includes: Birchwood (three cases), Sunnyland (five cases in three incidents), Carl Cozier (three cases), Northern Heights (two cases), Alderwood (three cases), Roosevelt, Geneva, Wade King, Silver Beach, Lowell and Cordata elementaries, Fairhaven and Kulshan middle school, Sehome High School and a 23rd case at a non-school location.
The district estimates 5,820 students have returned for in-person learning and 1,200 staff members are working on site.
Whatcom’s risk assessment
The state’s Risk Assessment Dashboard was last updated Friday evening for data as of 11:59 p.m. Thursday. 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 Feb. 10-23 with a rate of 240.69 — a decrease from 241.9 reported Thursday.
▪ Whatcom had an average COVID-19 molecular testing rate per 100,000 people Feb. 9-15 of 276.1. No goal was stated for this metric, however, the overall statewide number was 208.8, and Whatcom’s average was a decrease from the 298.6 reported Thursday.
▪ Whatcom is missing the target of less than 2.0% of individuals testing positive for COVID-19 Feb. 9-15 with a rate of 4.4% — no change from Thursday.
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: 1,048 of the region’s 1,257 adult hospital beds (83.4%) were occupied, missing the state’s goal of 80% or less but a decrease of 10 occupied beds from data Thursday.
▪ COVID occupied beds: 37 of the region’s 1,257 adult hospital beds (2.9%) were occupied by COVID patients, making the state’s goal of 10% or less but an increase of three occupied bed from data Thursday.
▪ Occupied ICU beds: 91 of the region’s 137 adult ICU beds (66.4%) were occupied. The state does not have a goal for this metric, but it’s an increase of 10 beds in use from data Thursday.
▪ COVID occupied ICU beds: 13 of the region’s 137 adult ICU beds (9.5%) were occupied by COVID patients. The state does not have a goal for this metric, but it was a decrease of one occupied bed from data Thursday.
Numbers elsewhere
New coronavirus cases and deaths according to Johns Hopkins University Friday evening:
▪ The U.S. has more than 28.88 million reported cases, the most of any nation, and more than 522,751 deaths.
▪ Worldwide, there are more than 116.0 million reported cases and 2.57 million deaths.
Washington state reported these numbers from the Department of Health Friday evening:
▪ 324,469 confirmed cases, an increase of 630 from reported cases on Thursday.
▪ 19,399 probable cases, an increase of 148 from Thursday’s data.
▪ 19,556 coronavirus-related hospitalizations, an increase of 564 from data Thursday.
▪ 5,369,716 total molecular tests, an increase of 49,335 from Thursday’s data.
▪ 5,041 deaths related to COVID-19 were reported, an increase of 9 from Thursday. That means 1.5% 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:
▪ 1,865,640 vaccinations had been given as of Wednesday, according to the report, an increase of 104,971 from the previous report.
▪ The state has averaged administering 45,221 doses of vaccines the past seven days — over the Department of Health’s stated daily goal of 45,000, and an increase from the average 43,765 reported Wednesday.
▪ The state estimated Friday that 15.68% of the state’s residents have received their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 8.97% percent of residents are fully vaccinated.
▪ 2,227,970 doses have been delivered to Washington state providers (an increase of 119,520 from Wednesday’s report) and 186,030 doses have been delivered for the CDC’s long-term care program (an increase of 5,850 from Wednesday’s report).
▪ Of the 2,414,000 doses delivered, 77.28% have been given, according to Friday’s report.
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.
All regions began in Phase 1 on Jan. 11, and the North region, which includes Whatcom, Island, San Juan and Skagit counties moved to Phase 2 Feb. 14, along with the East, North Central, Northwest and Southwest regions. On Feb. 26, Inslee said the state would stay in Phase 2, with no areas slipping back to Phase 1. But new metrics for Phase 3 and what activities will be allowed in that phase have not yet been released by Inslee.
Phase 2 allows for live entertainment with ticketed groups of up to 10 people and very limited fitness activities such as appointment-based training in gyms.
Phase 2 also 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.
This story was originally published March 6, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
