Whatcom sees 57 COVID cases and 3 hospitalizations, as breakthrough rate remains steady
Whatcom County’s COVID-19 vaccine breakthrough rate remained relatively consistent with less than 3% of the county’s confirmed cases being seen in fully vaccinated residents, the Washington State Department of Health reported Thursday.
Between February and June, 2.7% of Whatcom County’s confirmed cases (98 of 3,634 cases) appeared in people who were fully vaccinated, according to the state’s COVID-19 Cases, Hospitalizations and Deaths in Persons Who Are Not Fully Vaccinated report released Thursday, Aug. 12. The other 97.3% (3,536 cases) occurred in people who were either not vaccinated or not fully vaccinated.
Those numbers were in line with what was seen in the rest of the state, according to the report, which found that 95.5% of all COVID-19 cases from Feb. 1 through July 31 in the state were in people not fully vaccinated. Additionally, most of those (94.3% of all cases) were in people who were eligible to be vaccinated (12 years and older) but weren’t.
The state also found that 95.4% of all COVID-related hospitalizations statewide between Feb. 1 and July 24 were in people who were not fully vaccinated and 94.3% of all COVID-related deaths statewide between Feb. 1 and July 10 were in people who were not vaccinated. The report did not break down hospitalization and death data to the county level.
According to the state’s COVID-19 Data Dashboard, 61.9% of all Whatcom County residents have initiated vaccination and 56.5% have completed it.
Overall, the state reported Thursday that Whatcom saw an increase of 57 confirmed cases from the report on Wednesday, Aug. 11.
St. Joseph hospital reported that it was treating 27 COVID patients on Friday, Aug. 13, up two from Thursday and only four short of the pandemic high of 31, last seen on June 8.
The latest report on the state dashboard shows Whatcom County has:
▪ 10,337 confirmed cases during the pandemic. Whatcom’s infection rate continued to grow to 177.6 cases per 100,000 residents according to the state’s most recently completed epidemiological data between July 22 and Aug. 4, the state’s Risk Assessment Dashboard reported. One month ago, that rate was 45.2 per thousand, less than one-third the current rate.
▪ An additional 512 probable cases during the pandemic — up seven from the last report — resulting from positive antigen tests not confirmed by a molecular test.
▪ 532 COVID-related hospitalizations during the pandemic — up three from the last report.
▪ 109 COVID-related deaths during the pandemic — unchanged from the last report.
Additionally, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Data Tracker Friday listed Whatcom’s level of transmission as “High” — the highest of four categories. Across Washington state, the CDC lists 36 of 39 counties in the “High” transmission category.
This story was originally published August 13, 2021 at 8:38 AM.
