Whatcom sees another COVID-related death, 40 cases as student vaccines offered in Bellingham
New COVID-19 cases in Whatcom County jumped by 40 and another related death was reported by the Washington State Department of Health’s coronavirus dashboard on Wednesday, May 19.
Overall, Whatcom County has seen 8,747 confirmed cases, 412 hospitalizations and 97 related deaths during the pandemic, according to state data. An additional 350 probable cases — down one from the last report — have been reported in Whatcom County during the pandemic, resulting from positive antigen tests not confirmed by a molecular test.
With the 40 new cases reported Wednesday, Whatcom County’s daily average of new reported cases over the past week increased to 29.0, according to an analysis by The Bellingham Herald, lower than the 36.4 average from one week earlier (May 6-12).
St. Joseph hospital in Bellingham reported it was treating 15 COVID-related patients on Thursday — down four from Wednesday.
No other information about the person who died, such as gender, age or hometown was reported. It was Whatcom’s sixth COVID-related death in May.
During the pandemic, 1.1% of Whatcom’s 9,097 total cases (confirmed and probable cases combined) have resulted in death — better than the statewide 1.3% average of total cases.
On Tuesday, May 18, all counties throughout the state returned to Phase 3 of Gov. Jay Inslee’s Healthy Washington — Roadmap to Recovery plan. Additionally, Inslee announced Thursday, May 13, that the state will fully reopen by June 30 — earlier if 70% of all residents 16 and older initiate vaccination.
Wednesday’s vaccination report showed Whatcom County has administered 170,859 vaccine doses and estimated that 58.80% of the county’s residents 16 and older have initiated vaccination, while 47.35% have completed it. Statewide, those averages were 59.21% initiating vaccination and 47.64% completing it.
Though Inslee’s announcement Thursday means data other than vaccinations is no longer measured in the reopening plan, Whatcom County would still be failing both metrics the state previously used to determine if it would stay in Phase 3.
▪ The county has an infection rate of 232.0 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents between April 28 and May 11 according to the state’s Risk Assessment Dashboard, meaning Whatcom would have failed to meet the state guideline of 200 to remain in Phase 3.
▪ The county averaged 7.54 COVID-related hospitalizations per 100,000 residents from May 2-8, according to The Herald’s analysis of the state epidemiological data, meaning Whatcom would have failed to meet the state guideline of 5.0 to remain in Phase 3.
Vaccines for students
COVID-19 vaccine clinics at three high schools in Bellingham on Thursday, May 20, have 760 appointments for students 12 and older and adult members of their households, Bellingham Public Schools said.
People can reserve their spot online for clinics at Sehome and Squalicum high schools, or walk up if they don’t have internet access or forget to make an appointment. The clinic at Bellingham High School is full.
Students must have a consent form signed by a parent or guardian. A screening form also is required.
Just under 500 slots had been filled as of Tuesday afternoon, Dana Smith, spokesperson for the school district.
“There is lots of interest at the middle school level,” she said.
The Pfizer vaccine, which is the only one so far authorized for those as young as 12, will be given at the high school clinics run by Rite Aid and Unity Care NW.
“We encourage all families to consider immunizing their student against COVID-19, for not just for their individual health, but the health and safety of our schools and community,” the school district said in a message to families this week.
Officials said that vaccinated students will face fewer COVID protocols that could affect their learning.
“For example, if your student is vaccinated, they would not need to quarantine for 10 days if they were identified as a close contact to a confirmed case of COVID-19 and they would be able to continue to attend in-person school and extracurriculars,” the district said.
Bellingham is Whatcom County’s largest school district at 11,566 students.
Of that total, there are 6,394 students age 12 and older, according to Smith.
Smith also discussed the impact of a confirmed COVID-19 case in a classroom, for example, where students and others are vaccinated.
“As of right now, fully vaccinated people do not have to quarantine from work, school or extracurriculars, although we continue to return some contacts and classes to remote learning; for example, younger grades where the children are not yet able to be immunized,” Smith explained. ”We have already seen situations where close contacts who were immunized were able to stay at school or work, participate in sports, and so forth, while non-immunized contacts had to quarantine,” she added.
— Kie Relyea, krelyea@bhamherald.com
Numbers elsewhere
New coronavirus cases and deaths according to Johns Hopkins University Thursday morning:
▪ The U.S. has more than 33 million reported cases, more than 587,930 deaths — both most of any nation — and 276.8 million vaccine doses administered, second only to China, which reports 449.5 million.
▪ Worldwide, there are more than 165 million reported cases, 3.42 million deaths and 1.55 billion vaccine doses administered.
Washington state reported these numbers from the Department of Health Wednesday evening:
▪ 391,925 confirmed cases, up 737 from the last report.
▪ 32,978 probable cases, up 116 from the last report.
▪ 23,428 coronavirus-related hospitalizations, up 58 from the last report.
▪ 6,857,371 total molecular tests, up 19,681 from the last report.
▪ 5,673 deaths related to COVID-19, up 20 from the last report.
This story was originally published May 20, 2021 at 9:03 AM.
