Whatcom County sees 70 new confirmed COVID cases, 11 hospitalizations reported Tuesday
Whatcom County continued to see its COVID-19 case and hospitalization rates increase Tuesday, as the Washington State Department of Health COVID Data Dashboard reported 70 new confirmed cases and 11 new COVID-related hospitalizations.
As of Tuesday, Aug. 17, the state was reporting 10,603 confirmed COVID cases and 554 related hospitalizations within Whatcom County during the pandemic.
Whatcom’s two-week infection rate — its number of confirmed cases per 100,000 residents — climbed to 225.9 between July 27 and Aug. 9 (the most recently completed epidemiological data), according to the state’s Risk Assessment Dashboard. That’s the highest mark the county has seen since it registered a rate of 229.8 on May 21.
Meanwhile, Whatcom’s weekly hospitalization rate climbed to 6.1 COVID-related patients per 100,000 between July 31 and Aug. 6, according to The Bellingham Herald’s analysis of the state’s most recently completed epidemiological data for that statistic.
St. Joseph hospital reported that it was treating 30 COVID patients on Wednesday, Aug. 18, down seven from the pandemic record 37 patients on Tuesday and the lowest number the hospital has seen since it had 27 on Friday, Aug. 13.
The latest report on the state dashboard also shows Whatcom County has:
▪ An additional 575 probable COVID cases during the pandemic — up 19 from the last report — resulting from positive antigen tests not confirmed by a molecular test. The county’s number of probable cases has climbed by 21% (101 cases) in the past two weeks — perhaps a sign that more Whatcom residents are getting antigen tests with slots at the molecular test site at Bellingham International Airport filling up due to the increased number of symptomatic people and demand for testing to travel.
▪ 109 COVID-related deaths during the pandemic — unchanged from the last report.
▪ 301,462 tests (molecular and antigen combined) have been performed during the pandemic — up 1,178 from the last report.
Additionally, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Data Tracker Wednesday listed Whatcom’s level of transmission as “High” — the highest of four categories. All 39 counties in Washington state were listed in the “High” transmission category.
Whatcom long-term care update
Whatcom County had 15 new COVID-19 cases associated with its long-term care facilities reported last week, according to the Washington State Department of Health’s latest COVID-19 Long-Term Care Report. No new related deaths were reported.
According to the report, which was released Tuesday, and reflected data through Monday, Aug. 16, Whatcom County long-term care facilities have had 428 confirmed cases during the pandemic. The number of COVID-related deaths related to Whatcom’s long-term care facilities remained at 51, according to the state’s data.
The 421 cases mean that long-term care facilities had 4.1% of the total cases reported in Whatcom County as of Aug. 16, while the 51 related deaths represent 46.8% of the county’s death total.
The Whatcom County Health Department has not shared if any county long-term care facilities are currently experiencing, telling The Herald, “We generally don’t share information about outbreaks unless there is an elevated risk to the general public.”
Statewide, long-term care facilities have been associated with 21,486 cases (4% of the state’s total cases) and 2,717 related deaths (43% of the state’s death total).
WWU changing vaccine requirements
With the start of the fall semester about a month away, approximately 70% of Western Washington University employees have let Human Resources know that they are fully vaccinated, and 9,000 students have attested to having received a vaccine, WWU President Sabah Randhawa said in a letter Tuesday.
But Randhawa said even more people will have to get vaccinated.
“As you may know, Gov. Inslee’s new vaccine mandate for state employees and healthcare workers was announced last week and while it did not include higher education institutions, we are changing our vaccination requirements to follow this mandate,” Randhawa wrote. “What this means is that we will limit exemptions to only medical and religious reasons.“
More information on what that means will soon be shared on the school’s coronavirus information website.
The school already has mandated all staff, employees, students and visitors to mask when they are inside WWU facilities and transportation, and unvaccinated individuals must mask outdoors when it is not possible to socially distance.
