Whatcom sees four COVID-related deaths reported for second consecutive Friday
For the second straight Friday, Whatcom County had four COVID-related deaths added to its pandemic total on the Washington State Department of Health’s COVID-19 Data Dashboard Oct. 8.
The four deaths bring the county’s pandemic total to 148 linked to coronavirus, including 14 reported in the first eight days of October.
The deaths were for people who first tested positive for COVID on Sept. 4, 15 and 17 (two people), according to the state’s epidemiological data — upping the county’s death total in September to 16, The Bellingham Herald’s analysis shows. That comes after 19 were epidemiologically linked to August. There has been one death so far in October.
With 2,211 total cases (confirmed and probable combined) in September, according to analysis of the state’s epidemiological data, 0.7% of all Whatcom County cases resulted in death last month. That is better the the county’s pandemic death rate of 1.0% cases resulting in death and the statewide average of 1.2%, according to the state dashboard.
No other information about the people whose deaths were reported Friday, such as their ages, genders, vaccination status or hometowns, was released.
Before the 10 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:
▪ 14,038 confirmed cases during the pandemic — up 68 cases from the last report. Whatcom County surpassed 14,000 confirmed cases on the same day the state passed 600,000 cases in the pandemic. It took Whatcom 18 days to move from 13,000 confirmed cases (on Sept. 20) to 14,000.
▪ 1,128 probable COVID cases during the pandemic — up two from the last report — resulting from positive antigen tests not confirmed by a molecular test.
▪ A 14-day infection rate of 400 cases per 100,000 residents for the most recently completed epidemiological data from Sept. 16-29 — lower than the 438 rate one week earlier (Sept. 9-22).
▪ 741 COVID-related hospitalizations during the pandemic — up four from the last report. St. Joseph hospital in Bellingham reported it was treating 33 patients with COVID-related symptoms on Friday — up five from the last report.
▪ A weekly COVID-related hospitalization rate of 11.8 patients per 100,000 residents for the most recently completed epidemiological hospitalization data from Sept. 23-29 — up from 10.1 from a week earlier (Sept. 16-22).
▪ 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.”
▪ 261,463 vaccinations administered during the pandemic — up 1,535 from the last report. The state reports 65.9% of Whatcom County’s total population has initiated vaccination and 60.7% has completed it. The county surpassed 150,000 residents (150,250) initiating vaccination.
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 long-term care update
Whatcom County had 31 new COVID-19 cases and four 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 Wednesday, Oct. 6, and reflected data through Monday, Whatcom County long-term care facilities have had 539 confirmed cases during the pandemic. The number of COVID-related deaths related to Whatcom’s long-term care facilities increased to 63, according to the state’s data.
The 539 cases mean that long-term care facilities had 4% of the total cases reported in Whatcom County as of Sept. 20, while the 63 related deaths represent 45% of the county’s death total.
Statewide, long-term care facilities have been associated with 24,114 cases (4% of the state’s total cases) and 2,945 related deaths (37% of the state’s death total).
This story was originally published October 9, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
