Whatcom sees 18 new COVID-related hospitalizations, now failing metric to stay in Phase 3
Whatcom County officially has no margin for error to remain in Phase 3 of Gov. Jay Inslee’s Healthy Washington — Roadmap to Recovery plan — other than time.
On the day that Inslee put a pause on moving counties up or down phases in the state’s recovery plan from COVID-19, Whatcom County found itself failing one of two metrics used to determine whether it will stay in Phase 3 or not and straddling the barrier of the second.
Fortunately, the state’s next data evaluation is two weeks off, so Whatcom receives a reprieve until at least then.
To remain in Phase 3, Whatcom must make at least one of two goals set by the state on the next data evaluation date, which was originally scheduled to occur Tuesday but was pushed back two weeks by Inslee during the pause:
▪ 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 exactly that — 200.0 — from April 13-26, according to the latest update of the state’s Risk Assessment Dashboard on Tuesday, meaning Whatcom is currently, but barely, making the goal. That rate was up from 190.4 reported Monday. Whatcom County’s rate during the last evaluation period (March 20 to April 2) was 154.8.
▪ 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 12 COVID-related hospitalizations (or 5.3 per 100,000 residents) from April 17-23 according to the state’s epidemiological curves. That means Whatcom is currently failing 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’s reported COVID-related hospitalizations jumped by 18 on Tuesday, May 4, according to the Washington State Department of Health’s coronavirus dashboard — the largest single-day increase Whatcom has seen since hospitalizations were first reported by the state on June 3. The previous high was 17 reported Jan. 14.
Whatcom’s weekly hospitalization average is not likely to improve anytime soon, according to the state’s epidemiological curves, as the county has seen 14 new hospitalizations between Saturday and Monday. That comes on the heels of seeing 16 between April 24 and 27, and none of those hospitalizations are currently within the date range the state would examine if the evaluation were done now.
Through the entire pandemic, Whatcom has had 392 COVID-related hospitalizations. St. Joseph hospital in Bellingham reported 27 hospitalizations Wednesday, down one from Tuesday.
Additionally, the state reported 45 new confirmed COVID-19 cases, but no related deaths on Tuesday.
Overall, Whatcom County has seen 8,242 confirmed cases and 91 related deaths during the pandemic. An additional 318 probable cases — an increase of six from Monday’s report — have been reported in Whatcom County during the pandemic, resulting from positive antigen tests not confirmed by a molecular test.
Whatcom County’s daily average of newly reported cases the past seven days is 35.9, up from an average of 33.1 one week earlier (April 20-26) and the highest average the county has seen since it was at 37.7 on Feb. 27.
The state reported Monday that Whatcom County has administered 147,394 vaccinations and that 54.15% of the county’s eligible recipients (age 16 and over) have initiated vaccination and 39.32% have completed it.
The Bellingham Herald has asked the Whatcom County Health Department for comment on the latest hospitalization data and if the state has notified it of the date the next data evaluation for phases will occur.
Long-term care update
Whatcom County had 10 new cases but no new related deaths associated with its long-term care facilities, 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, May 3, Whatcom County long-term care facilities have had 363 confirmed cases during the pandemic. The number of COVID-related deaths in Whatcom’s long-term care facilities remained 46, according to the state’s data.
The 363 cases mean that long-term care facilities had 4.4% of the 8,197 overall cases reported in Whatcom County by Monday, while the 46 related deaths represent 50.5% of the county’s death total (91).
Statewide, long-term care facilities have been associated with 20,188 cases (5% of the state’s total cases) and 2,658 related deaths (48% of the state’s death total).
Numbers elsewhere
New coronavirus cases and deaths according to Johns Hopkins University Wednesday morning:
▪ The U.S. has more than 32.5 million reported cases, the most of any nation, and more than 578,000 deaths.
▪ Worldwide, there are more than 154.4 million reported cases and 3.2 million deaths.
Washington state reported these numbers from the Department of Health Tuesday evening:
▪ 378,225 confirmed cases, up 1,206 from the last report.
▪ 30,382 probable cases, up 210 from the last report.
▪ 22,556 coronavirus-related hospitalizations, up 84 from the last report.
▪ 6,609,469 total molecular tests, up 19,022 from the last report.
▪ 5,528 deaths related to COVID-19, up 21 from the last report.
