Whatcom sees a death and 19 COVID cases Wednesday, as WWU examines potential ‘surge’
Whatcom County saw its first COVID-related death reported in a week along with 19 new confirmed COVID-19 cases on the Washington State Department of Health’s coronavirus dashboard Wednesday, March 24.
Overall, Whatcom County has seen 7,143 confirmed cases and 87 related deaths during the pandemic, according to state data as of 11:59 p.m. Tuesday, March 23. An additional 216 probable cases — an increase of nine from Tuesday’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 7,359 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 was the 31st Whatcom has had reported in 2021.
The person whose death was reported Wednesday first tested positive for COVID-19 on Jan. 13, according to the state’s epidemiological curves, but no other information about the person, such as gender, age or hometown was reported. They represent the 20th death of a person first diagnosed with COVID in January, when the county saw a post-holiday spike in cases.
The 19 new confirmed cases reported Wednesday mean Whatcom County has had 3,674 cases — 51.4% of its pandemic total — reported during the first 83 days of 2021 (an average of 44.2 cases per day). The county’s daily average of newly reported cases the past seven days dropped to 15.0 per day.
The state Department of Health data Wednesday showed Whatcom County has had 332 hospitalizations during the pandemic, up one from Tuesday’s report.
The state also reported that a total of 198,752 molecular tests have been administered in Whatcom County during the pandemic — up 1,111 tests from Tuesday’s report — meaning 3.59% 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 Thursday morning it was treating seven patients for COVID-19, unchanged from Wednesday’s report.
Whatcom vaccination update
Wednesday’s vaccination report said that as of 11:59 p.m. Monday, March 22, Whatcom County had administered 69,750 vaccinations — up 1.34% (923 vaccinations) from Monday’s report, which was for data through Saturday. Statewide, the number of vaccine doses administered increased 2.03% from Monday’s report (57,258 doses administered).
Vaccination data is updated on Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons. Here is what data analysis of the latest numbers by The Bellingham Herald showed:
▪ Whatcom County — the ninth most populated county in Washington state with approximately 3% of the state’s total population, according to 2019 U.S. Census estimates — has administered the 10th most doses of the 39 counties in the state.
▪ The state estimates 25.38% of Whatcom County residents have initiated a COVID-19 vaccine — the 17th-highest rate in the state, and ahead of the statewide average of 24.66%. The state reports 57,176 people in Whatcom County have initiated a vaccine — eighth highest in the state and an increase of 650 from Monday’s report.
▪ The state estimates that 13.25% of Whatcom County residents are fully vaccinated — the 24th-highest rate in the state, and behind the statewide average of 14.12%. The state reports 29,859 people in Whatcom County are fully vaccinated — the eighth highest in the state and an increase of 561 from Monday’s report.
▪ An average of 1,492 Whatcom County residents per day received a vaccination dose from March 16-22— up from the 1,488 seven-day average from Monday’s report.
▪ Whatcom County has administered approximately 2.42% of the 2,882,195 total vaccine doses given in the state — down from 2.44% in Monday’s report. Based on 2019 five-year population estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau and counting residents fully vaccinated by the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine as having received two doses, Whatcom County has administered 0.32 doses of vaccine per resident — the eighth lowest rate in the state and behind the overall state average of 0.39 doses per person.
WWU monitoring ‘surge’
Western Washington University’s Student Health Center and the Whatcom County Health Department are monitoring a recent increase in COVID cases among students at the Bellingham campus, according to an advisory sent earlier this week.
Contact tracing efforts have identified parties and other large social gatherings as the cause of the increase, according to the advisory.
“One big reason for this message was to remind students, who are on Spring Break this week, to exercise caution regarding COVID (masks, social distancing, avoid gatherings etc.),” spokesperson Paul Cocke told The Bellingham Herald in an email Wednesday.
Students who were at a party or social gathering in the past two weeks were advised to quarantine and if they experienced COVID symptoms to seek medical evaluation, get a COVID test and help the Whatcom County Health Department reach other possible contacts.
“As we take this week to recharge and prepare for spring quarter learning, let’s recommit to protecting our communities by wearing masks, physical distancing, washing hands, and avoiding large social gatherings with people you don’t live with. It has been a long year of making sacrifices big and small, but we do it for the well-being of our friends, our families, our communities, and ourselves,” the advisory said.
A cluster of eight cases has been seen among residents at Fairhaven Hall, Cocke told The Herald.
“The cluster of cases among residents at Fairhaven Hall raised concerns about possible asymptomatic transmission among other residents,” Cocke wrote.
“The recommendation to self-isolate was made to minimize the risk of further transmission. Surveillance testing of all students currently residing in Fairhaven Hall is taking place today (Wednesday) to better understand the extent of this cluster of cases.”
Western Washington University’s most recent on-campus student COVID testing data showed Tuesday that since Sept. 15 WWU has completed 26,913 tests and 84 students have tested positive — up one from Monday’s report. The college has seen 46 new cases since the school resumed testing following the winter break after seeing 38 cases during the fall quarter. The dashboard was not functioning Thursday morning to update those numbers.
Whatcom’s risk assessment
The state’s Risk Assessment Dashboard was last updated Wednesday evening for data as of 11:59 p.m. Tuesday.
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 March 1-14 with a rate of 170.4 — up from 168.7 reported Tuesday. Whatcom County has the seventh-highest infection rate in the state according to Wednesday’s data.
▪ Whatcom had an average COVID-19 molecular testing rate per 100,000 people Feb. 28-March 6 of 306.5. No goal was stated for this metric, however, the overall statewide number was 221.0, and Whatcom’s average was down from the 311.3 reported Tuesday.
▪ Whatcom is missing the target of less than 2.0% of individuals testing positive for COVID-19 Feb. 28-March 6 with a rate of 3.9% — up from the 3.8% reported Tuesday and the 19th-highest rate in the state.
The latest Healthcare System Readiness risk assessment dashboard, updated Wednesday evening for data through Tuesday, shows for the North region, which combines Whatcom, Skagit, Snohomish, San Juan and Island counties:
▪ Occupied beds: 1,029 of the region’s 1,260 adult hospital beds (81.7%) were occupied, missing the state’s goal of 80% or less but up 71 occupied beds from data Tuesday.
▪ COVID occupied beds: 32 of the region’s 1,260 adult hospital beds (2.5%) were occupied by COVID patients, making the state’s goal of 10% or less and down three occupied beds from Tuesday.
▪ Occupied ICU beds: 89 of the region’s 139 adult ICU beds (64.0%) were occupied. The state does not have a goal for this metric, but it’s up one bed in use from data Tuesday.
▪ COVID occupied ICU beds: 13 of the region’s 139 adult ICU beds (9.4%) were occupied by COVID patients. The state does not have a goal for this metric, but it’s down two occupied beds from data Tuesday.
Vaccine scam warning
The Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday released a warning of a scam using a bogus COVID vaccine survey as an avenue to steal money from unsuspecting people.
“People across the country are reporting getting emails and texts out of the blue, asking them to complete a limited-time survey about the Pfizer, Moderna, or AstraZeneca vaccine. (And no doubt, there may be one for Johnson & Johnson, too.),” the FTC’s release read. “In exchange, people are offered a free reward, but asked to pay shipping fees.
“If you get an email or text like this, STOP. It’s a scam. No legitimate surveys ask for your credit card or bank account number to pay for a ‘free’ reward.”
The FTC cautioned not to click any links or open attachments, as they could install malware, and don’t use any phone or email numbers in the fraudulent emails. If you do call the company, look up the company that supposedly sent the message and find a number or email address to use.
Numbers elsewhere
New coronavirus cases and deaths according to Johns Hopkins University Thursday morning:
▪ The U.S. has more than 30.0 million reported cases, the most of any nation, and more than 545,000 deaths.
▪ Worldwide, there are more than 124.9 million reported cases and 2.7 million deaths.
Washington state reported these numbers from the Department of Health Wednesday evening:
▪ 335,606 confirmed cases, an increase of 765 from reported cases on Tuesday.
▪ 21,893 probable cases, an increase of 198 from Tuesday’s data.
▪ 20,233 coronavirus-related hospitalizations, an increase of 38 from data Tuesday.
▪ 5,756,387 total molecular tests, a decrease of 68,550 from Tuesday’s data.
▪ 5,200 deaths related to COVID-19, up 14 from Tuesday’s data. That means 1.5% of all Washington residents who have tested positive for coronavirus have died.
Statewide, according to the state’s latest vaccination report, which is updated Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays:
▪ 2,882,195 vaccinations had been given as of Monday, March 22, an increase of 57,258 from the previous report (2.03%).
▪ The state has averaged administering 45,841 doses of vaccines the past seven days — more than the Department of Health’s stated daily goal of 45,000, and down from the average 46,103 reported Monday.
▪ The state estimated that 24.56% of the state’s residents (1,861,169 people) have received their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 14.12% percent of residents (1,065,262 people) are fully vaccinated.
▪ 3,445,130 doses have been delivered to Washington state providers (an increase of 303,650 from Monday’s report) and 186,030 doses have been delivered for the CDC’s long-term care program (unchanged from Monday’s report).
▪ Of the 3,631,160 doses delivered, 79.37% have been given, according to Wednesday’s report.
Washington state actions
All counties moved to Phase 3 on Monday. On March 11, Inslee announced that the Roadmap to Recovery plan would transition from the regional approach back to a county-by-county evaluation process.
In Phase 3, outdoor professional sports can welcome back fans at 25% capacity, according to Inslee’s office, while capacity for indoor activities such as dining at restaurants, attending worship services and shopping at retail stores will double to 50% occupancy.
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 restrictions in Phase 2 will be in some way expanded in Phase 3, according to Inslee’s office. That includes restaurants, gyms, retail, movie theaters, and professional and personal services.
Up to 50% occupancy or 400 people, whichever is lower, will be allowed for indoor activities that were allowed in Phase 2.
Up to 400 people will be allowed for outdoor activities and indoor events with physical distancing and masking in place, according to the governor’s office, as long as that count doesn’t exceed 50 percent capacity. Events at bigger venues will have different guidelines: 25% occupancy or up to 9,000 people.
This story was originally published March 25, 2021 at 8:50 AM.
