Whatcom wraps up second-worst month of pandemic with two more COVID-related deaths
Whatcom County wrapped up its second-worst month of the COVID-19 pandemic by seeing two more COVID-related deaths added to its reported total on Tuesday, Aug. 31.
Whatcom County has now seen 116 total deaths related to COVID-19 during the 18-month long pandemic, according to the Washington State Department of Health’s COVID-19 Data Dashboard.
The two deaths reported Tuesday were for people who first tested positive for COVID on Aug. 2 and Aug. 12, according to the state’s epidemiological curves — marking the fifth and sixth epidemiological deaths Whatcom has seen in August after it had two in July.
No other information about the people who died, such as their age, gender or hometown was reported.
Whatcom County has now seen 0.9% of the 12,388 total COVID cases in the county (confirmed and probable cases combined) result in death, which remains better than the state’s 1.2% average.
The latest report on the state dashboard also shows Whatcom County has:
▪ 11,618 confirmed cases during the pandemic — up 76 cases from the last report.
▪ An additional 770 probable COVID cases during the pandemic — up 12 from the last report — resulting from positive antigen tests not confirmed by a molecular test.
▪ A 14-day infection rate of 467.98 cases per 100,000 residents for the most recently completed epidemiological case data for Aug. 10-23 — up from 451.32 from the last report (Aug. 9-22) and the highest rate the county has seen since Jan. 19 (470.18).
▪ 584 COVID-related hospitalizations during the pandemic — unchanged from the last report after the state reported an interruption in Tuesday’s data. St. Joseph hospital in Bellingham reported it was treating 32 patients with COVID-related symptoms on Wednesday, Sept. 1 — down five from Tuesday’s report and seven from a pandemic-high of 39 on Monday, Aug. 30.
▪ A weekly COVID-related hospitalization rate of 7.02 patients per 100,000 for the most recently completed epidemiological hospitalization data for Aug. 16-22 — down from 7.46 in the last report (Aug. 15-21).
▪ 316,688 tests (molecular and antigen combined) performed during the pandemic — up 1,214 from the last report.
▪ 246,089 vaccinations administered during the pandemic — up 1,598 from the last report. The state reports 63.6% of Whatcom County’s total population has initiated vaccination and 57.9% 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, and 93.8% of all counties nationwide were “High.”
Whatcom monthly update
Whatcom County experienced its second-worst month of the pandemic in August, seeing its second-highest daily reported case average and second-highest reported total of hospitalizations in the past 18 months.
The only month that was worse was January, when Whatcom experienced its post-holiday surge.
Whatcom averaged 55.9 reported confirmed COVID-19 cases per day during the 31 days of August, as its pandemic total of confirmed cases climbed from 9,885 cases on July 31 to 11,618 on Tuesday, an increase of 1,733 cases. The average in August was more than four times higher than the 12.97 cases per day in July.
The only month that was worse was January, when the county averaged 66.16 cases per day and saw its case total increase by 2,051.
Additionally, Whatcom saw 312 probable cases reported in August — by far the highest total the county has seen during the pandemic, beating out 119 probable cases reported in February.
Whatcom also had 79 COVID-related hospitalizations reported in August, second only to the 91 reported in January and more than 2½ times more than the 30 reported in July.
Whatcom long-term care update
Whatcom County had 16 new COVID-19 cases and two COVID-related deaths 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.
According to the report, which was released Tuesday and reflected data through Aug. 30, Whatcom County long-term care facilities have had 454 confirmed cases during the pandemic. The number of COVID-related deaths related to Whatcom’s long-term care facilities increased to 53, according to the state’s data.
The 454 cases mean that long-term care facilities had 3.9% of the total cases reported in Whatcom County as of Aug. 30, while the 53 related deaths represent 46.5% of the county’s death total.
Statewide, long-term care facilities have been associated with 22,094 cases (4% of the state’s total cases) and 2,759 related deaths (42% of the state’s death total).
