Whatcom County’s reported COVID-19 vaccine breakthrough cases nearly double in July
Whatcom County’s number of reported COVID-19 vaccine breakthrough cases nearly doubled during the month of July, according to the state’s COVID-19 Cases, Hospitalizations and Deaths in Persons Who Are Not Fully Vaccinated report released Wednesday, Aug. 18.
Between February and July Whatcom County saw 193 breakthrough COVID-19 cases, which is a confirmed case in a person deemed fully vaccinated, according to the report.
That was 95 more breakthrough cases than the state previously reported from February through June and was enough to jump Whatcom’s breakthrough cases from 2.7% of all cases between February and June to 4.8% between February and July, according to the report.
The report also said that there were 3,862 Whatcom County cases in people who were not fully vaccinated between February and July, which represents 95.2% of all cases during that period.
The Bellingham Herald’s analysis of data in the report shows that the 95 additional vaccine breakthrough cases in the month of July represent 22.6% of the new 418 cases included in the report.
Despite the increases, Whatcom’s numbers were still slightly better than the statewide percentage of vaccine breakthrough cases between Feb. 1 and Aug. 10, which stood at 6.3%, according to the report.
Additionally, the report said that 94.5% of all COVID-related hospitalizations between Feb. 1 and Aug. 3 and 92.9% of all COVID-related deaths between Feb. 1 and July 20 in the state were in people who were not fully vaccinated, leaving 5.5% of all COVID-related hospitalizations and 7.1% of all COVID-related deaths statewide as vaccine breakthroughs.
The report did not break down vaccine breakthrough data for hospitalizations and deaths to the county level.
The state’s COVID Data Dashboard reports 62.4% of Whatcom County’s total population has initiated vaccination and 56.9% has completed it.
The Herald has asked the Whatcom County Health Department for comment about the reported increase in breakthroughs.
