Whatcom County sees 26 new COVID-19 cases reported as pace of recent cases increases
Whatcom County had 26 new COVID-19 cases and no related deaths on Friday, May 28, according to the Washington State Department of Health’s coronavirus dashboard.
Overall, Whatcom County has seen 9,012 confirmed cases, 426 hospitalizations — no change from a day earlier — and 98 related deaths during the pandemic, according to state data. An additional 371 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 26 new cases reported Friday, Whatcom County’s daily average of new reported cases over the past week decreased to 26.4, lower than the 27.9 average from one week earlier.
St. Joseph hospital in Bellingham reported it was treating eight COVID-related patients on Saturday, May 29, — down four from Friday. It’s the first time in single digits in the last six weeks.
During the pandemic, 1.0% of Whatcom’s 9,383 total cases (confirmed and probable cases combined) have resulted in death — better than the statewide 1.3% average of total cases.
Friday’s vaccination report showed Whatcom County has administered 187,758 vaccine doses and estimated that 61.92% of the county’s residents 16 and older have initiated vaccination, while 54.42% have completed it. Statewide, those averages were 61.79% initiating vaccination and 52.31% completing it.
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 both of two metrics the state previously used to determine if it would stay in Phase 3.
▪ The county has an infection rate of 210.1 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents between May 7-20, 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 16 of the state’s 39 counties that would fail.
▪ The county averaged 6.21 COVID-related hospitalizations per 100,000 residents from May 11-17, according to The Herald’s analysis of the state epidemiological data, meaning Whatcom would have missed 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 15,239 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 543 Whatcom County residents per day initiated vaccination. At that rate, it would take the county until June 23 (about 28 days) to reach 70% of all residents 16 and older initiating vaccination. The average number of vaccinations dropped from 562 from the last report.
Another barrier passed
It took Whatcom County 30 days to move from 8,000 reported confirmed cases to 9,000 — almost two weeks less time than it took to go from 7,000 to 8,000. Here is a look at how long it took Whatcom County to surpass barriers for total number of reported confirmed cases during the pandemic:
▪ First case: March 10
▪ 1,000th case: Aug. 12 (155 days).
▪ 2,000th case: Nov. 20 (100 days).
▪ 3,000th case: Dec. 17 (27 days).
▪ 4,000th case: Jan. 8 (22 days).
▪ 5,000th case: Jan. 21 (13 days).
▪ 6,000th case: Feb. 8 (18 days).
▪ 7,000th case: March 16 (36 days).
▪ 8,000th case: April 28 (43 days).
▪ 9,000th case: May 29 (30 days).
Numbers elsewhere
New coronavirus cases and deaths according to Johns Hopkins University Friday evening:
▪ The U.S. has more than 33.23 million reported cases, more than 593,338 deaths — both most of any nation — and 291.5 million vaccine doses administered, second only to China, which reports 584.36 million.
▪ Worldwide, there are more than 169.27 million reported cases, 3.51 million deaths and 1.80 billion vaccine doses administered.
Washington state reported these numbers from the Department of Health Friday evening:
▪ 400,615 confirmed cases, up 905 from the last report.
▪ 34,168 probable cases, up 177 from the last report.
▪ 24,075 coronavirus-related hospitalizations, up 57 from the last report.
▪ 7,139,199 total molecular tests, up 20,854 from the last report.
▪ 5,765 deaths related to COVID-19, up 11 from the last report.
This story was originally published May 29, 2021 at 8:00 AM.
