Whatcom expecting 600 more vaccine doses from state, sees 29 new COVID cases Tuesday
Whatcom County saw 29 new reported COVID-19 cases but no related deaths on the Washington State Department of Health’s coronavirus dashboard Tuesday, April 13.
Overall, Whatcom County has seen 7,578 confirmed cases and 88 related deaths during the pandemic, according to state data as of 11:59 p.m. Monday, April 12. An additional 274 probable cases — up one from Monday’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 1.1% of Whatcom’s 7,852 total cases (confirmed and probable cases combined) have resulted in death — better than the statewide 1.4% average of total cases.
Whatcom County’s daily average of newly reported cases the past seven days is 23.1, up from 19.9 on Monday.
Whatcom County is currently in Phase 3 of Gov. Jay Inslee’s Healthy Washington — Roadmap to Recovery plan. On Monday, Inslee announced Whatcom will remain in Phase 3 for at least the next three weeks, though Cowlitz, Pierce and Whitman counties will slide back to Phase 2 beginning Friday, April 16.
To remain in Phase 3, Whatcom must make two goals set by the state on the next data evaluation date scheduled for May 3:
▪ The county must have fewer than 200 new cases per 100,000 residents in a two-week period. Whatcom’s infection rate was 143.0 between March 22 and April 4, according to the latest update of state’s Risk Assessment Dashboard on Tuesday, meaning Whatcom is currently making the first goal. Whatcom County’s rate during the last evaluation period (March 20 to April 2) was 154.8.
▪ The county must also have fewer than five new COVID-related hospitalizations per 100,000 residents per seven days. Whatcom had four COVID-related hospitalizations (or 1.8 per 100,000 residents) from March 26 through April 1, according to the state’s epidemiological curves. That means Whatcom is currently making the second goal, according to data analysis by The Bellingham Herald. Whatcom County’s rate during the last evaluation period (March 24-30) was 1.3.
Whatcom vaccine allocation
Whatcom County is expecting an additional 600 COVID vaccine doses from the Washington State Department of Health this week, according to the latest vaccine update from the Whatcom County health Department released Tuesday.
Last week (week of April 4), the county received 12,480 total doses, including 5,840 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention via the state Department of Health. Additionally, the county reported receiving 5,640 doses from the Federal Pharmacy Partnership and another 1,000 doses for federally qualified health centers.
This week (week of April 11), the county reported it is expecting 6,440 doses from the state. Doses from the Federal Pharmacy Partnership for this week are not yet available, according to the report.
Monday’s vaccination report from the state said that as of 11:59 p.m. Saturday, April 10, Whatcom County had administered 106,173 doses. The state estimates 34.59% of Whatcom County residents (78,862 people) have initiated a COVID-19 vaccine and 22.99% of Whatcom County residents (52,418 people) are fully vaccinated.
Other Whatcom data
▪ 342 total hospitalizations during the pandemic according to the state dashboard, up one from Monday’s report.
▪ 216,213 molecular tests administered, according to the state dashboard, up 553 from Monday’s report.
▪ Five patients were being treated for COVID-19 at St. Joseph hospital in Bellingham on Wednesday, according to the hospital, up one from Tuesday.
▪ 96 Western Washington University students have tested positive for COVID-19, including eight from the spring quarter, according to the school’s dashboard, unchanged from Monday’s data.
▪ 497 members of the Lummi Nation community have tested positive during the pandemic, according to a Lummi Tribal Health Center Facebook post Tuesday, up two since a March 9 post. Two cases were active according to the post, and 13 community members have been hospitalized and three have died during the pandemic.
Long-term care update
Whatcom County had four new cases associated with its long-term care facilities in the past two weeks but no related deaths, according to the Washington State Department of Health’s latest COVID-19 Long-Term Care Report.
According to the report, which was released Tuesday and reflected data through Monday, April 12, Whatcom County long-term care facilities have had 349 confirmed cases during the pandemic — a 1.2% increase from the 345 in the previous report, which included data through March 29.
The number of COVID-related deaths in Whatcom’s long-term care facilities remained at 45, according to the state’s data.
The 349 cases mean that long-term care facilities had 4.6% of the 7,549 overall cases reported in Whatcom County on Monday — down from 4.8% on March 29 — while the 45 related deaths represent 51.1% of the county’s death total (88).
Statewide, long-term care facilities have been associated with 19,423 cases (5% of the state’s total cases) and 2,596 related deaths (49% of the state’s death total) — an increase of 130 cases and 25 deaths since March 29 — the report showed.
Whatcom’s risk assessment
The state’s Risk Assessment Dashboard was last updated Tuesday evening for data as of 11:59 p.m. Monday. It showed:
▪ Whatcom is missing the target rate of fewer than 25 new cases per 100,000 residents March 22 through April 4 with a rate of 143.0 — down from 149.1 on Monday and the 19th-highest infection rate among the 39 counties in the state.
▪ Whatcom had an average COVID-19 molecular testing rate per 100,000 people March 20-26 of 287.8. No goal was stated for this metric, however, the overall statewide number was 222.7 and Whatcom’s average was up from the 286.2 reported Monday.
▪ Whatcom is missing the target of less than 2.0% of individuals testing positive for COVID-19 March 20-26 with a rate of 3.4 — up from 3.1% on Monday and the 28th-highest rate in the state.
Numbers elsewhere
New coronavirus cases and deaths according to Johns Hopkins University Wednesday morning:
▪ The U.S. has more than 31.3 million reported cases, the most of any nation, and more than 563,000 deaths.
▪ Worldwide, there are more than 137.5 million reported cases and 2.9 million deaths.
Washington state reported these numbers from the Department of Health Tuesday evening:
▪ 353,147 confirmed cases, up 756 from reported cases Monday.
▪ 25,909 probable cases, up 348 from Monday’s data.
▪ 21,184 coronavirus-related hospitalizations, up 127 from data Monday.
▪ 6,173,796 total molecular tests, up 19,378 from Monday’s data.
▪ 5,340 deaths related to COVID-19, up 11 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 on Monday:
▪ 4,189,884 vaccinations had been given as of Saturday, April 10, an increase of 246,784 from the previous report.
▪ The state estimated that 34.13% of the state’s residents (2,612,736 people) have received their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 22.25% percent of residents (1,703,363 people) are fully vaccinated.
This story was originally published April 14, 2021 at 8:24 AM.
