State reports 18 new COVID-19 cases in Whatcom as county sees second death from May cases
Whatcom County saw 18 new COVID-19 cases and another related death reported by the Washington State Department of Health’s coronavirus dashboard Thursday, June 10.
Overall, the state reports Whatcom County has seen 9,288 confirmed cases, 464 hospitalizations and 99 related deaths during the pandemic. An additional 403 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.
The death reported Thursday was for a person who first tested positive for COVID on May 29, according to the state’s epidemiological curves — the second person to first test positive in May and later die. No other information about the person, such as gender, age or hometown was reported.
The state reports that 1.0% of Whatcom’s 9,691 total cases (confirmed and probable cases combined) have resulted in death — better than the statewide 1.3% average.
St. Joseph hospital in Bellingham reported it was treating 19 patients who have tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday, June 11, down five.
The hospital tests every patient who is admitted for COVID, spokesperson Bev Mayhew told The Bellingham Herald, and only a “very small minority” are admitted for non-COVID-related medical reasons and are incidentally found to also be COVID positive. All patients who test positive for COVID are admitted to the COVID unit, and approximately 95% of those patients are admitted for COVID-related illness, Mayhew reported.
Whatcom County’s daily average of reported cases decreased to 20.9 and was down from the 27.4 average from one week earlier (May 29-June 4).
The county’s infection rate was 165.8 cases per 100,000 residents, based on the most recent complete data between May 20 and June 2, according to the state’s Risk Assessment dashboard. The county also averaged 6.6 COVID-related hospitalizations per 100,000 residents between March 24 and 30, according to analysis by The Bellingham Herald of the latest complete hospitalization data on the state’s epidemiological curves
The state’s vaccination report on Wednesday showed Whatcom County has administered 209,762 vaccine doses and estimated that nearly two-thirds (66.55%) of the county’s residents 16 and older have initiated vaccination, while 58.56% have completed 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.
If the 70% goal isn’t met, the state will still reopen, the governor said on Thursday, June 3.
Numbers elsewhere
New coronavirus cases and deaths according to Johns Hopkins University Friday morning:
▪ The U.S. has more than 33.4 million reported cases, more than 598,000 deaths — both most of any nation — and 305.4 million vaccine doses administered.
▪ Worldwide, there are more than 174.9 million reported cases, 3.7 million deaths and 2.2 billion vaccine doses administered.
Washington state reported these numbers from the Department of Health Thursday evening:
▪ 407,403 confirmed cases, up 601 from the last report.
▪ 35,412 probable cases, up 116 from the last report.
▪ 24,730 coronavirus-related hospitalizations, up 57 from the last report.
▪ 7,324,825 total molecular tests, up 15,850 from the last report.
▪ 5,803 deaths related to COVID-19, up 10 from the last report.
