Whatcom vaccine rate drops as county sees 30 new COVID-19 cases reported by state
Whatcom County had 30 new COVID-19 cases and no related deaths on Wednesday, May 26, according to the Washington State Department of Health’s coronavirus dashboard.
Overall, Whatcom County has seen 8,950 confirmed cases, 424 hospitalizations — up four from a day earlier — and 98 related deaths during the pandemic, according to state data. An additional 367 probable cases — up 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 30 new cases reported Wednesday, Whatcom County’s daily average of new reported cases over the past week decreased to 29.0, lower than the 29.9 average from one week earlier.
St. Joseph hospital in Bellingham reported it was treating 14 COVID-related patients on Thursday, May 27, — down one from Wednesday.
During the pandemic, 1.1% of Whatcom’s 9,317 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 214.0 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents between May 5-18, 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. Whatcom is one of 14 of the state’s 39 counties that would fail.
▪ The county averaged 4.88 COVID-related hospitalizations per 100,000 residents from May 9-15, 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 16,044 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 562 Whatcom County residents per day initiated vaccination. At that rate, it would take the county until June 22 (about 29 days) to reach 70% of all residents 16 and older initiating vaccination. The average number of vaccinations dropped from 715 the day before.
Numbers elsewhere
New coronavirus cases and deaths according to Johns Hopkins University Thursday morning:
▪ The U.S. has more than 33.19 million reported cases, more than 592,432 deaths — both most of any nation — and 288.6 million vaccine doses administered, second only to China, which reports 566.7 million.
▪ Worldwide, there are more than 168.5 million reported cases, 3.5 million deaths and 1.76 billion vaccine doses administered.
Washington state reported these numbers from the Department of Health Wednesday evening:
▪ 398,316 confirmed cases, up 1,603 from the last report.
▪ 33,854 probable cases, up 152 from the last report.
▪ 23,940 coronavirus-related hospitalizations, up 105 from the last report.
▪ 7,096,072 total molecular tests, up 58,364 from the last report.
▪ 5,741 deaths related to COVID-19, up 19 from the last report.
