Whatcom County sees four more COVID-related deaths reported Friday
Four more Whatcom County residents have suffered deaths related to COVID-19, the Washington State Department of Health’s COVID-19 Data Dashboard reported Friday, Oct. 1.
The four deaths bring Whatcom’s total of COVID-related deaths during the pandemic to 138.
The deaths were for a people who first tested positive for COVID on May 2, Sept. 15, Sept. 26 and Sept. 27, according to the state’s epidemiological data — upping the county’s death total in May to 10 and in September to seven, The Bellingham Herald’s analysis shows.
With 1,777 total cases (confirmed and probable combined) in September, according to the state’s epidemiological data, 0.3% of all Whatcom County cases resulted in death last month, which is better than the county’s pandemic average of 0.9% and August’s 0.9% rate when it saw 19 deaths. Statewide, 1.2% of all COVID cases have resulted in death, according to the state dashboard.
No other information about the people’s whose deaths were reported Friday, such as their ages, genders, vaccination status or hometowns, was released.
Before the deaths reported Friday, 70% of Whatcom County’s 23 epidemiological deaths in August and September were in people 65 and older, according to The Herald’s analysis of the latest age-range data released by the state on Monday, Sept. 27. For the entire pandemic before Friday, 84% of Whatcom’s first 134 deaths were in people 65 and older, according to analysis of the state data, which also showed that residents 65 and older accounted for 10.7% of all Whatcom cases through last week.
In August and September there also have been three deaths in Whatcom County of people in the 50-65 age group, three in the 35-49 age group and one in the 20-34 age group, the data shows. The county has not had any deaths of anybody younger than 20 throughout the pandemic.
Whatcom’s daily numbers
The latest report on the state dashboard shows Whatcom County has:
▪ 13,618 confirmed cases during the pandemic — up 57 cases from the last report.
▪ 1,064 probable COVID cases during the pandemic — up 11 from the last report — resulting from positive antigen tests not confirmed by a molecular test.
▪ A 14-day infection rate of 433 cases per 100,000 residents for the most recently completed epidemiological data from Sept. 9-22 — lower than the 502 rate one week earlier (Sept. 2-15).
▪ 720 COVID-related hospitalizations during the pandemic — up four from the last report. St. Joseph hospital in Bellingham reported it was treating 20 patients with COVID-related symptoms on Friday — down two from the last report.
▪ A weekly COVID-related hospitalization rate of 10.1 patients per 100,000 residents for the most recently completed epidemiological hospitalization data from Sept. 16-22 — down from 10.5 a week earlier (Sept. 9-15).
▪ The state has stopped updating the number of completed tests until Oct. 31, as it works “to increase its capacity to process the increased testing data volume received in the last few months.”
▪ 257,068 vaccinations administered during the pandemic — up 880 from the last report. The state reports 65.5% of Whatcom County’s total population has initiated vaccination and 60.1% 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 93.8% of all counties nationwide were “High.”
This story was originally published October 2, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
