Thirty new COVID cases in Whatcom as hospitalization rate moves closer to missing goal

Whatcom County saw 30 new confirmed COVID-19 cases reported Saturday on the Washington State Department of Health’s coronavirus dashboard. Deaths are not reported on weekends.

Overall, Whatcom County has seen 8,145 confirmed cases and 91 related deaths during the pandemic, according to state data. An additional 309 probable cases — no change from the last report — have been reported in Whatcom County during the pandemic, resulting from positive antigen tests not confirmed by a molecular test.

During the pandemic, 1.1% of Whatcom’s 8,454 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 34.0, up from an average of 26.3 one week earlier (April 18-24).

On April 12, Inslee announced Whatcom will remain in Phase 3 for at least the next three weeks, though three counties slid back to Phase 2. To remain in Phase 3, Whatcom must make at least one of two goals set by the state on the next data evaluation date scheduled for Monday:

▪ The first goal is for the county to have fewer than 200 new cases per 100,000 residents in a two-week period. Whatcom’s infection rate was 183.8 from April 9-22, according to the latest update of the state’s Risk Assessment Dashboard on Friday, meaning Whatcom is currently making the goal.

▪ The second goal is for the county to have fewer than five new COVID-related hospitalizations per 100,000 residents per seven days. Whatcom had 10 COVID-related hospitalizations (or 4.44 per 100,000 residents) from April 14-20 according to the state’s epidemiological curves. That means Whatcom is currently making the 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 County has had 372 hospitalizations reported during the pandemic. Those include 17 active hospitalizations Saturday reported by St. Joseph hospital in Bellingham, which was down three from the last report.

Friday’s vaccination report said that Whatcom County has administered 141,816 doses — up 1.03% (4,723 vaccinations) from the last report. That was slightly ahead of the state’s 1.027% increase in doses administered for the same period.

Statewide, there have been 5,394,469 vaccine doses administered — up 146,408 from the last report. So far, 3,249,976 residents have initiated vaccination and 2,287,018 have completed it.

Numbers elsewhere

New coronavirus cases and deaths according to Johns Hopkins University Saturday afternoon:

▪ The U.S. has more than 32.37 million reported cases, the most of any nation, and more than 576,608 deaths.

▪ Worldwide, there are more than 151.64 million reported cases and 3.18 million deaths.

Washington state reported these numbers from the Department of Health Saturday afternoon:

▪ 374,882 confirmed cases, up 1,476 from the last report.

▪ 29,827 probable cases, up 193 from the last report.

▪ 22,333 coronavirus-related hospitalizations, up 97 from the last report.

▪ 6,548,773 total molecular tests, up 21,022 from the last report.

▪ 5,499 deaths related to COVID-19, up 12 from the last report.

This story was originally published May 2, 2021 at 5:00 AM.