Whatcom hospitalizations related to COVID-19 jump by five, 30 new cases reported by state
Whatcom County had 33 new COVID-19 cases and no related deaths on Tuesday, May 25, according to the Washington State Department of Health’s coronavirus dashboard.
Overall, Whatcom County has seen 8,920 confirmed cases, 420 hospitalizations — up five from a day earlier — and 98 related deaths during the pandemic, according to state data. An additional 366 probable cases — up three 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 33 new cases reported Tuesday, Whatcom County’s daily average of new reported cases over the past week increased to 30.4, higher than the 29.0 average from one week earlier.
St. Joseph hospital in Bellingham reported it was treating 16 COVID-related patients on Wednesday, May 26, — down one from Tuesday.
During the pandemic, 1.1% of Whatcom’s 9,286 total cases (confirmed and probable cases combined) have resulted in death — better than the statewide 1.3% average of total cases.
On 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 219.7 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents between May 4-17, according to the state’s Risk Assessment Dashboard, meaning Whatcom would have failed to meet the state guideline of 200 or less to remain in Phase 3.
▪ The county averaged 4.88 COVID-related hospitalizations per 100,000 residents from May 8-14, according to The Herald’s analysis of the state epidemiological data, meaning Whatcom would have made the state guideline of 5.0 or less to remain in Phase 3.
▪ Based on the latest report, The Herald estimates Whatcom County still needs 16,507 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 715 Whatcom County residents per day initiated vaccination. At that rate, it would take the county until June 14 (about 23 days) to reach 70% of all residents 16 and older initiating vaccination.
Numbers elsewhere
New coronavirus cases and deaths according to Johns Hopkins University Wednesday morning:
▪ The U.S. has more than 33.16 million reported cases, more than 591,035 deaths — both most of any nation — and 287.3 million vaccine doses administered, second only to China, which reports 546.7 million.
▪ Worldwide, there are more than 167.9 million reported cases, 3.48 million deaths and 1.73 billion vaccine doses administered.
Washington state reported these numbers from the Department of Health Tuesday evening:
▪ 396,713 confirmed cases, up 813 from the last report.
▪ 33,702 probable cases, up 103 from the last report.
▪ 23,835 coronavirus-related hospitalizations, up 90 from the last report.
▪ 7,037,708 6,929,879 total molecular tests, up 107,829 from the last report.
▪ 5,722 deaths related to COVID-19, up 13 from the last report.
This story was originally published May 26, 2021 at 9:25 AM.
