Whatcom County hits 15,000 total COVID-19 cases during pandemic and sees two more deaths
Whatcom County hit 15,000 total COVID-19 cases during the pandemic and saw two more COVID-related deaths reported Wednesday, Oct. 6.
The two deaths are the seventh and eighth reported in the past six days on the Washington State Department of Health’s COVID-19 Data Dashboard and bring the county’s pandemic total to 142 linked to coronavirus.
The deaths were for people who first tested positive for COVID on Sept. 13 and 21, according to the state’s epidemiological data — upping the county’s death total in September to 11, The Bellingham Herald’s analysis shows.
With 2,198 total cases (confirmed and probable combined) in September, according to analysis of the state’s epidemiological data, 0.5% 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 whose deaths were reported Wednesday, such as their ages, genders, vaccination status or hometowns, was released.
Before the four deaths reported this week, 73% of Whatcom County’s 26 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, Oct. 4. For the entire pandemic before Monday, 83% of Whatcom’s first 138 deaths were in people 65 and older, according to analysis of the state data, which also showed that residents 65 and older accounted for 10.8% of all Whatcom cases through last week.
Whatcom’s daily COVID numbers
With the state’s Wednesday data report including 42 new confirmed cases and 16 probable cases, resulting from a positive antigen test not confirmed by a molecular test, Whatcom County has exactly 15,000 total cases during the pandemic — 13,886 confirmed cases and 1,114 probable cases.
It took more than 11 months for Whatcom County to surpass 5,000 total cases on Jan. 21 with 5,012 confirmed and 15 probable. It was less than five months later that the county reached 10,000 cases on July 12 with 9,584 confirmed and 433 probable, and it’s been less than three months since then to reach 15,000.
The latest report on the state dashboard also shows Whatcom County has:
▪ A 14-day infection rate of 412 cases per 100,000 residents for the most recently completed epidemiological data from Sept. 14-27 — lower than the 467 rate one week earlier (Sept. 7-20).
▪ 734 COVID-related hospitalizations during the pandemic — up three from the last report. St. Joseph hospital in Bellingham reported it was treating 28 patients with COVID-related symptoms on Thursday, Oct. 7 — up two from the last report.
▪ A weekly COVID-related hospitalization rate of 11.0 patients per 100,000 residents for the most recently completed epidemiological hospitalization data from Sept. 21-27 — up from 10.5 a week earlier (Sept. 14-20).
▪ 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.”
▪ 259,928 vaccinations administered during the pandemic — up 765 from the last report. The state reports 65.7% of Whatcom County’s total population has initiated vaccination and 60.5% has completed it.
Additionally, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Data Tracker Thursday 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 91.9% of all counties nationwide were “High.”
Whatcom’s COVID variant update
All 108 confirmed variant cases detected in Whatcom County over the past two weeks were the delta variant, according to the Washington State Department of Health’s latest SARS-CoV-2 Sequencing and Variants in Washington State report released Wednesday.
Since the delta variant was reported in Whatcom County in the July 6 report by the state, there have been 708 confirmed delta cases in the county according to the state. That represents 75% of the 938 total variant cases reported since then and more than 16% of the 4,361 total confirmed cases reported since then.
Whatcom County has at least one case of nine of the 10 variants currently being tracked in Washington state, but beyond the alpha (473 total cases), delta and gamma (253 total cases) variants, Whatcom has seen fewer than 50 cases of every other variant. A total of 1,501 variants have been reported in Whatcom County, which represents 20% of the 7,410 confirmed cases in the county since the first variant was reported Feb. 23.
Statewide, the report, which was changed to every other week, said that 10.7% of all confirmed molecular COVID-19 cases were sequenced during the month of August and 50,960 specimens (8.6% of all confirmed cases) have been sequenced since January, meaning variant counts are likely much higher.
Statewide, the Department of Health found there have been 4,377 vaccine “breakthrough” cases involving the delta variant, which represents 27% of the 16,142 confirmed delta variant cases in the state.
Whatcom schools COVID update
The COVID-19 dashboards on Whatcom County school district websites showed:
▪ Bellingham Public Schools has reported 55 total COVID-19 cases in its schools this school year, including six new cases reported Wednesday: one new case at Squalicum High School reported Sept. 27 to Oct. 1 (three cases had already been reported at the school during the same period), one new case at Sehome High School reported Sept. 27 to Oct. 1 (one case had already been reported at the school during the same period), two cases at Fairhaven Middle School reported Sept. 27 to Oct. 1, one case at Happy Valley Elementary School reported Sept. 27 to Oct. 1, and one case at Squalicum High School reported Oct. 4-8. Close contacts to the cases have been notified, according to the dashboard.
▪ Blaine School District has reported 77 total COVID-19 cases in its schools this school year, including eight new cases reported Wednesday: two cases at the elementary school reported from Sept. 27 to Oct. 3, three cases at the middle school reported Sept. 27 to Oct. 3 and three cases at the high school reported Sept. 27 to Oct. 3. None of the new cases required anyone else return to remote learning or quarantine.
▪ Lynden School District has reported 88 total COVID-19 cases in its schools through Sept. 20.
▪ Meridian School District has reported 13 COVID-19 cases in its schools this school year. It listed no new cases Wednesday.
▪ Mount Baker School District has reported 14 COVID-19 cases in its schools this school year. It listed no new cases Wednesday.
▪ Ferndale School District reports that as of Thursday, four students or staff have had a positive test reported to the Whatcom County Health Department in the past seven days, three of whom were on a school campus during their infectious period.
COVID case information could not be found on the Nooksack Valley School District website.
