Whatcom sees 6 new delta variant cases and 68 COVID infections reported Wednesday
The number of confirmed COVID-19 delta variant cases in Whatcom County slowed a bit from last week’s report, growing by approximately 17%, according to the Washington State Department of Health.
Six new confirmed delta variant cases were reported in Whatcom County in the Department of Health’s SARS-CoV2 Sequencing and Variants in Washington State report released Wednesday, Aug. 11. That brings the county’s total to 42 confirmed delta variant cases.
The six new cases come a week after the Department of Health last week reported 25 new cases in Whatcom County.
The Whatcom County Health Department has previously told The Bellingham Herald that variant reports reflect data from approximately a month ago, due to the time it takes to test and confirm data, so the six cases reported this week are likely from early July, when overall case loads in Whatcom County were much lower than they are now.
Overall, the state reported Wednesday that Whatcom saw an increase of 68 confirmed cases from Tuesday’s report. Part of that increase was likely a result of the state catching up after a data interruption impacted Tuesday’s report and Whatcom saw only eight new cases reported.
Whatcom’s infection rate continued to grow to 168.4 cases per 100,000 residents according to the state’s most recently completed epidemiological data between July 21 and Aug. 3, the state’s Risk Assessment Dashboard reported.
“Whatcom County is generally a little behind the curve,” Whatcom County Health Director Erika Lautenbach said during an online briefing Wednesday. “We were starting to see surges occur weeks ago in other counties around Washington state, while our cases remained low.
“That has changed, and our cases in the last four weeks have increased, I believe, by about 500%. We now have all age groups at more than 100 (cases) per 100K (100,000), which even in the middle of July, those were around 30 to 40 per 100K. So quite a large change, a big, dramatic increase.”
St. Joseph hospital reported that it was treating 25 COVID patients on Thursday, Aug. 12, down one from Wednesday but only six short of the pandemic high of 31, last seen on June 8.
“Likewise, our hospitalizations have increased dramatically,” Lautenbach said. “We had very few hospitalizations for weeks. On Friday we had 13, on Monday we had 22, yesterday (Tuesday) we had 25, today (Wednesday) we have 26. That follows, generally, that three- to four-week lag between a new surge and hospitalizations, but it’s incredibly concerning given the fact that there are very few hospitals in the state that have capacity.”
The latest report on the state dashboard shows Whatcom County has:
▪ 10,280 confirmed cases during the pandemic.
▪ An additional 505 probable cases during the pandemic — up eight from the last report — resulting from positive antigen tests not confirmed by a molecular test.
▪ 529 COVID-related hospitalizations during the pandemic — up three from the last report.
▪ 109 COVID-related deaths during the pandemic — unchanged from the last report.
▪ 238,610 vaccinations had been administered during the pandemic — up 488 from the last report. The state reports 61.9% of Whatcom County’s total population has initiated vaccination and 56.5% has completed it.
Additionally, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Data Tracker Thursday listed Whatcom’s level of transmission as “High” — the highest of four categories. Across Washington state, the CDC lists 33 of 39 counties in the “High” transmission category.
Whatcom’s COVID variant update
In addition to seeing the six delta variant cases reported by the state in Wednesday’s report, Whatcom County had 57 other confirmed variant cases reported last week. Most new confirmed cases were the alpha and gamma variants.
Whatcom County has at least one case of nine of the 11 variants currently being tracked in Washington state.
Since its first confirmed variant case was reported Feb. 23, Whatcom has had a total of 813 variant cases reported through Aug. 10, which accounts for approximately 22% of Whatcom’s 3,778 cases reported since then and almost 8% of Whatcom’s pandemic total of 10,212 cases, according to analysis by The Herald.
The state’s most recent variants report for Whatcom County showed:
▪ 31 new alpha (U.K.) variant cases — 466 total.
▪ No new B.1.351 (South Africa) variant case — three total.
▪ 25 new gamma (Brazil) variant cases — 243 total.
▪ No new B.1.427 (California) variant cases — six total.
▪ No new B.1.429 (California) variant cases — 31 total.
▪ One new B.1.526 (New York) variant cases — 19 total.
▪ No new B.1.525 (New York) variant cases — two total.
▪ No new kappa (India) variant cases — one total.
Whatcom also has seen no cases of the P.2 (Brazil) or B.1.617.3 (India) variants, according to the report.
ER patient load high
Due to higher-than-normal patient volumes at hospitals in the region, the Whatcom County Health Department and local healthcare providers on Thursday urged people with non-emergent medical needs to seek care from their primary care physicians or an urgent care clinics, rather than at the emergency department at St. Joseph hospital in Bellingham.
COVID-related hospitalizations are part of the reason for the increased patient load at area hospitals, according to a health department news release.
“COVID-19 has surged again, driven by the rise of the more highly contagious delta variant,” Whatcom County Health Officer Dr. Greg Stern said in the release. “ Our hospital beds and emergency rooms are increasingly being used to treat patients with COVID-19.
“To keep our hospital available for those who need hospital-level and critical care, we ask everyone to help by going to the emergency department only when truly necessary. We also ask everyone to help by getting vaccinated and using masks to slow the spread of the virus and lower the need for hospitalization.”
PeaceHealth, which operates St. Joseph’s hospital, made a similar request last week.
While people with serious or life-threatening medical emergencies, such as chest pain, difficulty breathing, head or eye injuries, severe bleeding, severe burns, sudden loss or blurry vision, major fractures or loss of consciousness should go to the ER or call 911, patients with other non-life threatening needs are asked to seek treatment elsewhere.
“We’re asking people to use other options in our community for health care concerns that don’t require a visit to the emergency department,” PeaceHealth St. Joseph Medical Center Emergency Department Medical Director Dr. Worth Everett said in Thursday’s release.
“Our caregivers and other staff work incredibly hard to provide quality care to all patients of our medical center, but there are times when our emergency department isn’t the best option because someone could get the care they need at an urgent care clinic or their primary health care provider’s office. Freeing up space and keeping wait times down in the ED lets us do what we do best: quickly and skillfully taking care of acute medical emergencies.”
This story was originally published August 12, 2021 at 9:41 AM.
