Whatcom just a thousand vaccination starts away from 70%, as county sees 3 new COVID cases
Whatcom County needs approximately a thousand more residents old enough to drive to initiate a COVID-19 vaccination to reach the golden goal of 70% the state has set — OK, 1,001 people, to be exact.
The Washington State Department of Health’s coronavirus dashboard on Wednesday, June 30, reported that 134,674 Whatcom County residents have initiated vaccination, which works out to 69.3% of the county’s population that is 16 or older.
That leaves the the county approximately 1,001 vaccination starts short of 70%, according to data analysis by The Bellingham Herald.
The Herald also found the county has averaged almost 204 vaccine initiations over the past week, and at that rate, Whatcom would reach 70% on Saturday, July 3.
Also Wednesday — the day that Washington state officially reopened from most pandemic restrictions — the state’s dashboard showed Whatcom County with three new confirmed COVID-19 cases an no new related hospitalizations or deaths. The three new cases represent the smallest reported increase Whatcom has seen since the state reported two cases on April 19.
Overall, Whatcom County has seen 9,483 confirmed cases, 475 hospitalizations and 103 related deaths during the pandemic, according to the dashboard. An additional 425 probable cases — unchanged from the last report — have been reported in Whatcom County during the pandemic, resulting from positive antigen tests not confirmed by a molecular test.
Whatcom’s infection rate stood at 75.9, according to the state’s Risk Assessment dashboard — its lowest mark since it had a rate of 71.0 on Nov. 19 — based on the state’s most recent complete epidemiological data between June 9 and 22.
With the three new cases reported, Whatcom’s daily average of reported cases decreased to 7.1 over the past week, and that was down from the 10.9 average from one week earlier (June 17-23). The average was last that low on Nov. 1.
St. Joseph hospital in Bellingham reported it was treating seven patients who have tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday, July 1, down one from the previous report.
The county averaged 2.2 COVID-related hospitalizations per 100,000 residents between June 13-19, 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 the county has now administered 225,630 vaccine doses. In addition to estimating that 69.2% of the county’s residents 16 and older have initiated vaccination, the state says 63.0% have completed it.
Both were ahead of the overall percentages for the state, which reported it has administered 7,813386 doses and that 66.5% of residents 16 and older have initiated vaccination and 60.6% have completed it.
COVID variant update
Whatcom County saw its number of confirmed COVID-19 variant cases increase by 60 last week, according to the latest SARS-CoV-2 Sequencing and Variants report by the Washington State Department of Health released Wednesday, but Whatcom still has not had any confirmed cases of the delta variant.
Whatcom County has at least one case of seven of the 12 variants currently being tracked in Washington state.
“When we first started this pandemic, we had variants as varied as the books on the shelf behind me,” state Epidemiologist and Acting State Health Officer Dr. Scott Lindquist said during an online briefing Wednesday. “We are now down to really just three books that are predominating this library.”
Those three, Lindquist said, were the alpha (formerly known as the B.1.1.7 or U.K.) variant, the gamma (formerly known as the P.1 or Brazil) variant and the delta (formerly known as the B.1.617.2 or India) variant. Of those three, Lindquist said the alpha variant is being out-competed statewide by the gamma and delta variants in recent weeks.
Lindquist said the gamma variant is seeing hospital and death rates approximately twice that of other strains of the coronavirus within the state, but the delta hasn’t been as “aggressive” as has been seen elsewhere.
“Our current guidance is it’s much more of a risk to be unvaccinated in this state right now than it is any concern for the vaccine not working against these variants,” Lindquist said.
Since its first confirmed variant case was reported Feb. 23, Whatcom has had a total of 562 variant cases through June 29, which accounts for 18.43% of Whatcom’s 3,049 cases reported since then and 5.93% of Whatcom’s pandemic total of 9,483 cases, according to analysis by The Herald.
The state’s most recent variants report for Whatcom County last week showed:
▪ 31 new B.1.1.7 alpha (U.K.) variant cases — 356 total.
▪ One new B.1.351 (South Africa) variant case — two total.
▪ 17 new P.1 gamma (Brazil) variant cases — 133 total.
▪ No new B.1.427 (California) variant cases — six total.
▪ Nine new B.1.429 (California) variant cases — 31 total.
▪ Two new B.1.526 (New York) variant cases — 15 total.
▪ No new B.1.525 (New York) variant cases — two total.
In addition to no cases of the delta variant, Whatcom also has seen no cases of the P.2 (Brazil), B.1.526.1 (New York), B.1.617.1 (kappa) or B.1.617.3 (India) variants, according to the report.
Whatcom reopening
As pandemic-related restrictions ease across Washington state, Bellingham and Whatcom County are opening more of their offices to the public.
According to an emailed statement from Whatcom County Executive Satpal Sidhu, the County Courthouse will be open to the public 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. weekdays, including the Auditor, Treasurer, Assessor and Council offices will be open.
Other offices in the courthouse complex are open, including the Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office, District Court, District Court probation, and Superior and Juvenile courts.
Limited jury trials have resumed.
Sidhu’s office will be open, but will close from noon to 1 p.m.
Offices for Planning and Development Services, Public Works and the Health Department will be open by appointment only. Those offices will continue with limited public access through 2021, according to the statement.
Parks and Recreation offices on Mount Baker Highway will be open during business hours and all parks facilities are open.
Some in-person services have resumed at the city of Bellingham, including in-person services during limited hours at the Permit Center, Finance Department, and Parks Department at City Hall, according to a statement posted at the city’s website.
Mayor Seth Fleetwood said those who are not vaccinated are asked to wear masks and social distance.
Employees who are vaccinated will not be required to wear face coverings and social distance while working, but unvaccinated employees must continue to wear masks and social distance at work, the city said.
County government offices will still follow COVID-19 safety protocols and will follow the guidance provided by the state Department of Health, Sidhu said.
Proof of vaccination will not be required, but unvaccinated people are expected to wear masks.
—Robert Mittendorf (rmittendorf@bhamherald.com)
Whatcom monthly update
Whatcom County saw fewer COVID cases reported per day in June than it has in any month since October of 2020.
The county saw 14.53 new confirmed cases reported per day during June, as the case count grew from 9,047 on May 31 (which was actually reported May 29 due to the Memorial Day holiday) to 9,483 on June 30. The last time Whatcom’s daily average was that low was October, when it averaged 8.23 cases reported per day.
June’s average was also less than half of May’s 32.30 cases per day.
Whatcom had seven COVID-related deaths reported in June — though all the deaths were for people who first tested positive for COVID in May. That was down from seven deaths reported in May.
COVID-related hospitalizations also were down, with 48 reported in June, down from 56 in May.
Numbers elsewhere
New coronavirus cases and deaths according to Johns Hopkins University Thursday morning:
▪ The U.S. has more than 33.6 million reported cases, more than 604,000 deaths — both most of any nation — and 325.8 million vaccine doses administered.
▪ Worldwide, there are more than 182.3 million reported cases, 3.9 million deaths and 3.0 billion vaccine doses administered.
Washington state reported these numbers from the Department of Health Wednesday afternoon:
▪ 414,785 confirmed cases, up 276 from the last report.
▪ 36,810 probable cases, up 71 from the last report.
▪ 25,505 coronavirus-related hospitalizations, up 50 from the last report.
▪ 7,577,673 total molecular tests, up 21,720 from the last report.
▪ 5,930 deaths related to COVID-19, up 10 from the last report.
