While 5 Whatcom regions saw COVID infection rates drop, one rose for second straight week
While one of Whatcom County’s seven school district regions saw its COVID-19 infection rate increase for the second straight week, five others saw their rates continue to drop.
The region covered by the Blaine School District was the only region to see its rate of COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents over the past two weeks increase, when the Whatcom County Health Department released its newest location data on Tuesday, June 29.
Despite that slight increase, Blaine remained one of four regions with rates below triple figures.
Only the Lynden, Nooksack Valley and Meridian regions continued to have infection rates higher than 100, but the Lynden and Meridian rates both dropped and Nooksack remained unchanged.
The lowest rate belonged to Bellingham, which dropped to its lowest mark since Oct. 12.
The percentage of residents vaccinated in each region also continued to slowly increase last week, though none of the seven has reached 70%, yet.
The county health department releases weekly data on the location of COVID-19 cases using school districts as geographical boundaries, including each region’s number of total cases during the pandemic, infection rate and percentage of residents who have initiated vaccination. Data in Tuesday’s report was through Saturday, June 19, and the infection rates reflect confirmed cases from June 6 and June 19.
Overall, Whatcom County saw a 0.6% growth in cases (63 cases) between June 20 and 26 — down from the 1.0% growth and 97 new cases the county reported the previous week.
With 160 cases the past two weeks, Whatcom County has an overall infection rate of 71, based on 225,300 residents in the county. Only two of the county’s regions had infection rates lower than that mark, according to the county’s data this week.
As of June 26, the Washington State Department of Health reported that 59.0% of all Whatcom County residents had initiated vaccination and 53.3% had completed it.
Here is what the health department’s latest data showed for the seven regions in the county:
Bellingham: Up 0.4% (15 cases) since the June 22 report to 3,499 total cases, but the rate of new infections per 100,000 residents in the past 14 days decreased from 41 last week to 32 this week. Approximately 68.2% of residents in the region have initiated vaccination.
Blaine: Up 1.5% (10 cases) since the June 22 report to 660 total cases, and the rate of new infections per 100,000 residents in the past 14 days increased from 69 last week to 85 this week. Approximately 58.5% of residents in the region have initiated vaccination.
Ferndale: Up 0.7% (14 cases) since the June 22 report to 1,989 total cases, but the rate of new infections per 100,000 residents in the past 14 days decreased from 93 last week to 84 this week. Approximately 54.6% of residents in the region have initiated vaccination.
Lynden: Up 1.0% (17 cases) since the June 22 report to 1,746 total cases, but the rate of new infections per 100,000 residents in the past 14 days decreased from 186 last week to 177 this week. Approximately 44.1% of residents in the region have initiated vaccination.
Meridian: Up 0.4% (two cases) since the June 22 report to 554 total cases, but the rate of new infections per 100,000 residents in the past 14 days decreased from 152 last week to 107 this week. Approximately 55.5% of residents in the region have initiated vaccination.
Mount Baker: Up 0.2% (one case) since the June 22 report to 568 total cases, but the rate of new infections per 100,000 residents in the past 14 days decreased from 93 last week to 37 this week. Approximately 39.2% of residents in the region have initiated vaccination.
Nooksack Valley: Up 0.5% (four cases) since the June 22 report to 858 total cases, but the rate of new infections per 100,000 residents in the past 14 days remained at 122 this week. Approximately 38.3% of residents in the region have initiated vaccination.
