Whatcom is 1 of 4 counties with high COVID-19 case counts, but hospitalization rate improves
Confirmed COVID-19 cases in Whatcom County jumped by 42 and two more related hospitalizations were reported by the Washington State Department of Health’s coronavirus dashboard on Friday, May 21.
Overall, Whatcom County has seen 8,827 confirmed cases, 414 hospitalizations and 97 related deaths during the pandemic, according to state data. An additional 359 probable cases — up five 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 42 new cases reported Friday, Whatcom County’s daily average of new reported cases over the past week decreased to 27.9, according to an analysis by The Bellingham Herald, lower than the 34.1 average from one week earlier (May 8-14).
St. Joseph hospital in Bellingham reported it was treating 15 COVID-related patients on Friday — unchanged from Thursday.
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 May 13 that the state will fully reopen by June 30 — earlier if 70% of all residents 16 and older initiate vaccination.
Though data other than vaccinations is no longer measured in the reopening plan, Whatcom County would still be failing one of two metrics the state previously used to determine if it would stay in Phase 3.
▪ The county has an infection rate of 229.8 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents between April 30 and May 13 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 3.99 COVID-related hospitalizations per 100,000 residents from May 4-10, according to The Herald’s analysis of the state epidemiological data, meaning Whatcom would have made the state guideline of 5.0 to remain in Phase 3.
Statewide situation report
Whatcom County was one of four counties, of the state’s 39, singled out for having COVID-19 infection case counts heading in the wrong way in Thursday’s statewide modeling and surveillance situation report.
Joining Whatcom on the state’s “naughty list” were Lewis, Kittitas and Steven counties.
Statewide, transmission was down the last two weeks of April, but remained relatively high as of April 30, according to the report, which said the state had an estimated reproductive number of 1.34. A number of 1.0 or less means the disease is holding steady or decreasing.
Overall, the state estimates that 36.5% of the population is immune to the COVID virus — 23.6% by vaccination and 12.9% by a prior infection.
“We are excited to see trends improving, but we are not out of the woods yet,” Acting State Health Officer Dr. Scott Lindquist said in the news release. “We still have work to do on vaccinations if we want to continue to see declines in disease and make progress toward full reopening. Getting vaccinated is the best way to protect yourself, your family and your community from the virus.”
Vaccination calendar counting
If you are hoping to be fully vaccinated by July 4 and you are planning to get the Moderna vaccine, you are running out of time, a Facebook post by the Whatcom County Health Department states.
The Moderna vaccine requires two doses, four weeks apart and then two weeks after the second dose to be considered fully vaccinated. That means you need your first dose this weekend (May 21-21), according to the post, and a second dose by June 20.
The Pfizer vaccine also requires two doses at least three weeks apart and needs two weeks after the second dose to be considered fully vaccinated. That means you would have until next weekend (May 28-29), according to the post and a second dose by June 20.
The single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine only needs to be received by June 20 to be in full effect by the Fourth.
“Don’t procrastinate! Vaccinate!” the post read.
Whatcom vaccination update
Friday’s vaccination report said that Whatcom County has administered 176,298 doses — up 4.14% (7,022 doses) from the last report.
Vaccination data is updated on Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons. Here is what data analysis of the latest numbers by The Herald show:
Friday’s vaccination report showed Whatcom County has administered 176,298 vaccine doses and estimated that 59.90% of the county’s residents 16 and older have initiated vaccination, while 48.91% have completed it. Statewide, those averages were 59.79% initiating vaccination and 48.78% completing it.
Based on the latest report, The Herald estimates Whatcom County still needs 19,040 more residents 16 and older to initiate vaccination to reach 70% of the eligible population. In the last seven days of data, an average of 569 Whatcom County residents per day initiated vaccination. At that rate, it would take the county until June 21 (about 33 days) to reach 70% of all residents 16 and older initiating vaccination.
Statewide, there have been 6,541,234 vaccine doses administered — up 203,310 from the last report. So far, 3,673,659 residents (59.90% of all eligible residents in the state) have initiated vaccination and 2,997,144 (48.91%) have completed it. Based on the latest data, The Herald estimates it will take the state until June 28 to reach the goal of 70% of all residents 16 and older initiating vaccination at its current seven-day average of 15,844 people per day initiating vaccination.
COVID variant update
Whatcom County saw 38 new confirmed COVID-19 variant cases last week, according to the latest SARS-CoV-2 Sequencing and Variants report by the Washington State Department of Health released Wednesday. That was up from 22 new confirmed variant cases reported the week before.
Whatcom County has at least one case of seven of the nine variants currently being tracked in Washington state.
Since its first confirmed variant case was reported Feb. 23, Whatcom has had a total of 171 variant cases through May 18, which accounts for 7.60% of Whatcom’s 2,249 cases reported since then and 1.97% of Whatcom’s pandemic total of 8,683 cases, according to analysis by The Herald.
Since last week, the state reports Whatcom County has seen:
▪ 23 new cases of the B.1.1.7 (U.K.) variant and 131 cases total, which is third-most in the state behind, King and Snohomish counties.
▪ No new cases of the B.1.351 (South Africa) variant and one case total.
▪ 11 new cases of the P.1 (Brazil) variant and 22 cases total.
▪ No new cases of the B.1.427 (California) variant and five cases total.
▪ Two new cases of the B.1.429 (California) variant and seven cases total.
▪ Two new cases of the B.1.526 (New York) variant and two cases total.
▪ No new cases of the B.1.525 (New York) variant and two cases total.
▪ No cases of the P.2 (Brazil) variant.
▪ No cases of the B.1.617 (India) variant.
Long-term care update
Whatcom County had four new cases and one new related death associated with its long-term care facilities last week, 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 17, Whatcom County long-term care facilities have had 376 confirmed cases during the pandemic. The number of COVID-related deaths in Whatcom’s long-term care facilities increased to 47, according to the state’s data.
The 376 cases mean that long-term care facilities had 4.3% of the 8,683 total cases reported in Whatcom County by Monday, while the 47 related deaths represent 51% of the county’s death total (92) on that date.
Statewide, long-term care facilities have been associated with 20,315 cases (5% of the state’s total cases) and 2,679 related deaths (48% of the state’s death total).
Lynden parade is on
After first announcing last month that the Lynden Farmer’s Day Parade would be canceled due to COVID, the parade announced on the Lynden Chamber of Commerce Facebook page it will actually be held on Saturday, July 17.
“After a wagon full of discussion, and more decision-making than the feeder sale at the auction barn, we are blessed to bring you the oldest event in Whatcom County!” an email to The Bellingham Herald Thursday, May 20, read.
Organizers said they hope holding the parade will allow the community to connect in a way it hasn’t been able to in quite some time.
Numbers elsewhere
New coronavirus cases and deaths according to Johns Hopkins University Friday night:
▪ The U.S. has more than 33.08 million reported cases, more than 589,222 deaths — both most of any nation — and 281.1 million vaccine doses administered, second only to China, which reports 466.6 million.
▪ Worldwide, there are more than 165.8 million reported cases, 3.43 million deaths and 1.599 billion vaccine doses administered.
Washington state reported these numbers from the Department of Health Friday evening:
▪ 394,143 confirmed cases, up 1,389 from the last report. The state noted that number may be elevated due to a backlog in its system.
▪ 33,351 probable cases, up 257 from the last report.
▪ 23,560 coronavirus-related hospitalizations, up 82 from the last report.
▪ 6,905,669 total molecular tests, up 22,238 from the last report.
▪ 5,702 deaths related to COVID-19, up 12 from the last report.
This story was originally published May 22, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
