As news of U.S. loosening border restrictions breaks, Whatcom sees 46 new COVID cases
On the day that news broke that vaccinated visitors from Canada and Mexico would be able to cross the land borders into the U.S. beginning in November, 46 more Whatcom County residents tested positive for COVID-19.
The county has now seen 14,238 confirmed COVID cases during the pandemic, according to the Washington State Department of Health’s COVID-19 Data Dashboard on Tuesday, Oct. 12.
An additional 1,139 probable cases, resulting from a positive antigen test not confirmed by a molecular test, have been reported in Whatcom — unchanged from the previous report.
The state also reports the county has a two-week infection rate of 412 cases per 100,000 residents, based on the most recently completed epidemiological data from Sept. 20 to Oct. 3. That is down from a rate of 421 one week earlier (Sept. 13-26).
The latest report on the state dashboard also shows Whatcom County has:
▪ 751 COVID-related hospitalizations during the pandemic — unchanged from the last report, though the state reported hospitalization data is incomplete due to a data processing interruption. St. Joseph hospital in Bellingham reported it was treating 26 patients with COVID-related symptoms on Wednesday, Oct. 13 — down one from the last report.
▪ A weekly COVID-related hospitalization rate of 8.8 patients per 100,000 residents for the most recently completed epidemiological hospitalization data from Sept. 27 through Oct. 3 — down from 10.1 from a week earlier (Sept. 20-26).
▪ 148 COVID-related deaths during the pandemic — unchanged from the last report, though the state-reported death data is incomplete due to a data processing interruption.
▪ 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.”
▪ 263,235 vaccinations administered during the pandemic. The state reports 66.0% of Whatcom County’s total population has initiated vaccination and 60.8% 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. Thirty-eight of 39 counties in Washington state (all but Jefferson County) were listed in the “High” transmission category, and 89.2% 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 65 total COVID-19 cases in its schools this school year, including two new cases listed Tuesday at Squalicum High School that were reported Oct. 4-8. Three cases had previously been reported at Squalicum during the same time period. Close contacts of all cases 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 Tuesday.
▪ Lynden School District has reported 88 total COVID-19 cases in its schools. No updates have been provided since Sept. 29.
▪ Meridian School District has reported 15 COVID-19 cases in its schools this school year. It listed no new cases Tuesday.
▪ Mount Baker School District has reported 19 COVID-19 cases in its schools this school year. No new cases were reported Tuesday.
▪ Ferndale School District reports that as of Tuesday, 13 students or staff have had a positive test reported to the Whatcom County Health Department in the past seven days — an increase from six in the last report. Twelve of those people were on a school campus during their infectious period.
COVID case information could not be found on the Nooksack Valley School District website.
