Whatcom County sees another COVID-related death and surpasses milestone for cases Tuesday
In addition to seeing its second death related to COVID-19 reported in the past five days, Whatcom County surpassed another milestone in cases during the pandemic on Tuesday.
With 91 new confirmed COVID cases reported Tuesday, Aug. 24, on the Washington State Department of Health’s COVID Data Dashboard, Whatcom County surpassed 11,000 total confirmed cases since its first confirmed case was reported March 10, 2020.
The milestone came only 20 days after the county surpassed 10,000 cases on Aug. 4.
Whatcom County now has had a total of 11,065 confirmed cases reported during the pandemic. The state also reported an additional 665 probable cases — resulting from a positive antigen test not confirmed by a molecular test — which was an increase of six from the last report.
Whatcom’s infection rate continued to grow to 357.5 cases per 100,000 residents according to the state’s most recently completed epidemiological data between Aug. 3 and Aug. 16, the state’s Risk Assessment Dashboard reported. That was up from a rate of 337.7 reported on Monday, Aug. 23, and the highest mark the county has seen since it had an infection rate of 379.1 reported Feb. 5.
The death, meanwhile, was of a person who first tested positive for COVID on Aug. 8, marking the second person so far to die after first testing positive this month. The county saw one epidemiological death in July. No other information about the person whose death was reported Tuesday, such as age, gender or hometown, was released.
The death was Whatcom’s 111th COVID-related death during the pandemic, which means 0.9% of the county’s 11,730 total cases (confirmed and probable cases combined) have resulted in death. For comparison, the state’s rate is 1.2%.
The latest report on the state dashboard also shows Whatcom County has:
▪ 571 COVID-related hospitalizations during the pandemic — up two from the last report. St. Joseph hospital in Bellingham reported Wednesday, Aug. 25, that it was treating 31 COVID patients — down two from the last reported and six fewer than the pandemic record-high 37 it reported Aug. 17.
▪ 308,287 tests (molecular and antigen combined) performed during the pandemic — up 1,833 from the last report.
▪ 243,052 vaccinations administered during the pandemic — up 1,329 from the last report. The state reports 62.9% of Whatcom County’s total population has initiated vaccination and 57.3% has completed it.
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 10 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 Aug. 23, Whatcom County long-term care facilities have had 438 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 438 cases mean that long-term care facilities had 4.0% of the total cases reported in Whatcom County as of Aug. 23, while the 51 related deaths represent 46.4% of the county’s death total.
Statewide, long-term care facilities have been associated with 21,767 cases (4% of the state’s total cases) and 2,737 related deaths (43% of the state’s death total).
This story was originally published August 25, 2021 at 8:59 AM.
