With 2 more COVID-related deaths reported Thursday, Whatcom has seen 10 in last week
Two more Whatcom County residents’ deaths have been linked to COVID-19, the Washington State Department of Health’s COVID-19 Data Dashboard reported Thursday, Oct. 7, meaning 10 COVID-related deaths have been reported in the past week.
The two deaths bring the county’s pandemic total to 144 linked to coronavirus. They also meant Whatcom’s COVID-related death rate climbed to approximately 1.0% of all cases, which is still better than that the statewide rate of 1.2%.
The deaths were for people who first tested positive for COVID on Sept. 6 and Oct. 2, according to the state’s epidemiological data — upping the county’s death total in September to 12 and marking the first death from October, The Bellingham Herald’s analysis shows.
With 2,210 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. There have been 203 cases epidemiologically linked to October, so far, meaning 0.4% of cases this month have resulted in death.
No other information about the people whose deaths were reported Thursday, such as their ages, genders, vaccination status or hometowns, was released.
Before the six deaths reported since Monday, Oct. 4, 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.. 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
The latest report on the state dashboard also shows Whatcom County has:
▪ 13,970 confirmed cases during the pandemic — up 84 cases from the last report.
▪ 1,126 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 401 cases per 100,000 residents for the most recently completed epidemiological data from Sept. 15-28 — lower than the 452 rate one week earlier (Sept. 8-21).
▪ 737 COVID-related hospitalizations during the pandemic — up three from the last report. St. Joseph hospital in Bellingham reported it was treating 33 patients with COVID-related symptoms on Friday, Oct. 8 — up five from the last report.
▪ A weekly COVID-related hospitalization rate of 10.5 patients per 100,000 residents for the most recently completed epidemiological hospitalization data from Sept. 22-28 — unchanged from a week earlier (Sept. 15-21).
▪ 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. 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 Friday listed Whatcom’s level of transmission as “High” — the highest of four categories. Thirty-eight of 39 counties in Washington state (all but Jefferson County) were listed in the “High” transmission category, and 91.6% of all counties nationwide were “High.”
Whatcom schools COVID update
The COVID-19 dashboards on Whatcom County school district websites showed:
▪ Bellingham Public Schools has reported 56 total COVID-19 cases in its schools this school year, including one new case reported between Sept. 27 and Oct. 1 at Columbia Elementary School. Close contacts to the case have been notified, according to the dashboard.
▪ Blaine School District has reported 76 total COVID-19 cases in its schools this school year. It listed no new cases Thursday.
▪ 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 Thursday.
▪ Mount Baker School District has reported 18 COVID-19 cases in its schools this school year, including four new cases: two cases reported Oct. 4 at Acme Elementary, one case reported Oct. 4 at Kendall Elementary and one case reported Sept. 29 at Mount Baker High School. Only the cases at Acme Elementary required more than one person to quarantine.
▪ 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.
This story was originally published October 8, 2021 at 8:23 AM.
