Whatcom County COVID-19 death rate drops as 36 new cases reported
Whatcom County had 36 new COVID-19 cases and no related deaths on Thursday, May 27, according to the Washington State Department of Health’s coronavirus dashboard.
Overall, Whatcom County has seen 8,986 confirmed cases, 426 hospitalizations — up two from a day earlier — and 98 related deaths during the pandemic, according to state data. An additional 370 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 36 new cases reported Thursday, Whatcom County’s daily average of new reported cases over the past week increased to 28.7, higher than the 27.9 average from one week earlier.
St. Joseph hospital in Bellingham reported it was treating 12 COVID-related patients on Friday, May 28, — down two from Thursday.
During the pandemic, 1.0% of Whatcom’s 9,356 total cases (confirmed and probable cases combined) have resulted in death — a reduction of 0.1% from the last report and 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 216.2 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents between May 6-19, 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 10-16, 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 vaccination 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 28 days) to reach 70% of all residents 16 and older initiating vaccination. The average number of vaccinations dropped from 715 from the last report.
COVID variant update
Washington state sequenced 17.7% of confirmed molecular COVID-19 cases in April.
On Wednesday, May 26, the state noted these variants in Whatcom County:
B.1.1.7 (United Kingdom), 260 cases.
B.1.351 (South Africa), 1 case.
P.1 (Brazil), 48 cases.
B.1.427 (California), 5 cases.
B.1.429 (California), 14 cases.
B.1.526 (New York), 4 cases.
B.1.525 (New York), 2 cases.
No cases of P.2 (Brazil) and B.1.617 (India).
Numbers elsewhere
New coronavirus cases and deaths according to Johns Hopkins University Friday morning:
▪ The U.S. has more than 33.21 million reported cases, more than 593,325 deaths — both most of any nation — and 290.1 million vaccine doses administered, second only to China, which reports 584.3 million.
▪ Worldwide, there are more than 169.0 million reported cases, 3.51 million deaths and 1.80 billion vaccine doses administered.
Washington state reported these numbers from the Department of Health Thursday evening:
▪ 399,710 confirmed cases, up 1,394 from the last report.
▪ 33,991 probable cases, up 137 from the last report.
▪ 24,018 coronavirus-related hospitalizations, up 78 from the last report.
▪ 7,118,345 total molecular tests, up 22,273 from the last report.
▪ 5,754 deaths related to COVID-19, up 13 from the last report.
This story was originally published May 28, 2021 at 8:54 AM.
