Whatcom’s recent string of reported COVID-related deaths continues with 2 more Thursday
Two more Whatcom County residents’ deaths have been linked to COVID-19, the Washington State Department of Health’s COVID Data Dashboard reported Thursday, Aug. 26, as the county continues to wrestle with the fifth wave of the pandemic.
The deaths represent the fourth and fifth related to COVID that have been reported in the past week. The recent string of reported COVID-related deaths, which began Friday, Aug. 20, comes after the county did not see any reported for 23 days.
Whatcom County now has seen 114 deaths during the pandemic.
The people whose deaths were reported Thursday first tested positive for COVID-19 on Aug. 9 and Aug. 18, according to the state’s epidemiological curves. No other information, such as the people’s age, gender or hometown, was reported by the state.
The county has now seen four people who first tested positive for COVID in August die, after seeing two in July.
The four deaths equate to 0.3% of the 1,454 total cases (1,209 confirmed cases and 245 probable cases) the county has seen so far in August, which, as of Thursday, is lower than the 1.0% death rate the state reports Whatcom has had in 11,908 total cases during the pandemic.
In addition to the two deaths, Whatcom County had 69 new confirmed cases and 20 new probable cases — resulting from a positive antigen test not confirmed by a molecular test — reported by the state Thursday.
Whatcom has had 11,200 confirmed cases and 708 probable cases reported during the pandemic.
Whatcom’s two-week infection rate continued to grow to 397.4 cases per 100,000 residents according to the state’s most recently completed epidemiological data between Aug. 4 and Aug. 17, the state’s Risk Assessment Dashboard reported. That was up from a rate of 368.0 reported on Wednesday, Aug. 25, and the highest mark the county has seen since it had an infection rate of 397.7 reported Feb. 4.
The latest report on the state dashboard also shows Whatcom County has:
▪ 578 COVID-related hospitalizations during the pandemic — up four from the last report. St. Joseph hospital in Bellingham reported Friday, Aug. 27, that it was treating 35 COVID patients — up four from the last report and two fewer than the pandemic record-high 37 it reported Aug. 17.
▪ 310,118 tests (molecular and antigen combined) performed during the pandemic — up 780 from the last report.
▪ 243,597 vaccinations administered during the pandemic — up 545 from the last report. The state reports 63.0% of Whatcom County’s total population has initiated vaccination and 57.4% has completed it.
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. All 39 counties in Washington state were listed in the “High” transmission category, and 92.4% of all counties nationwide were “High.”
This story was originally published August 27, 2021 at 8:25 AM.
