Whatcom owns state’s fifth-highest COVID breakthrough percentage, but that’s expected
Between February and September, Whatcom County had the fifth-highest percentage of breakthrough COVID-19 cases among Washington state’s 39 counties, according to data released Thursday but with a high vaccination rate, that’s totally expected.
Whatcom had 1,499 breakthrough cases between February and September, which represented 18.9% of its 7,480 cases during the time frame, according to the Washington State Department of Health’s COVID-19 Cases, Hospitalizations and Deaths by Vaccination Status report released Oct. 14.
The only counties with a higher percentage of cases seen in fully vaccinated residents, according to the report, were Clallam (20.8%), Walla Walla (21.2%), King (22.9%) and Jefferson (28.3%). The state average was 16.9%, as there have been 51,144 cases among fully vaccinated residents in 286,443 total cases, the report showed.
Whatcom has the third-highest vaccination percentage among residents 12 and older, with 68.3% of its population fully vaccinated according to the report. The only counties with better percentages are Jefferson (74.9%) and King (78.6%).
Seeing counties with high vaccination percentages also having higher breakthrough percentages is expected, according to the report.
“If the exposure to COVID-19 stays the same, as more individuals are vaccinated, more cases, hospitalizations, and deaths will be in vaccinated individuals, as they will continue to make up more and more of the population. For example, if 100% of the population was vaccinated, 100% of cases would be among vaccinated people,” the report stated.
That was also seen in which age groups were effected with the most breakthroughs, as 36.1% of cases among residents 65 and older statewide were breakthrough cases, while 79.1% of that age group is fully vaccinated. Meanwhile residents between ages 12 and 17 have a breakthrough percentage of 4.7% statewide and a vaccination rate of 49.9%.
Though it didn’t break down data to the county level, the report showed that statewide 12% of COVID-related hospitalizations between February and September (2,232 of 17,445) and 16.8% of COVID-related deaths (497 of 2,753) were in fully vaccinated people.
Between Feb. 1 and Oct. 2, Whatcom County had 49 COVID-related hospitalizations and 15 COVID-related deaths in fully vaccinated residents, according to data released Oct. 8 by the Whatcom County Health Department. That represents 11.3% of the county’s 435 COVID-related hospitalizations and and 27.3% of its deaths during that period, The Bellingham Herald’s data analysis shows.
Whatcom’s daily COVID numbers
The latest report on the state Department of Health COVID-19 Data Dashboard shows Whatcom County has:
▪ 14,388 confirmed cases during the pandemic — up 50 cases from the last report.
▪ 1,160 probable COVID cases during the pandemic — up seven from the last report — resulting from positive antigen tests not confirmed by a molecular test.
▪ A 14-day infection rate of 414 cases per 100,000 residents for the most recently completed epidemiological data from Sept. 22 through Oct. 5 — higher than the 406 rate one week earlier (Sept. 15-28).
▪ 759 COVID-related hospitalizations during the pandemic — up five from the last report. St. Joseph hospital in Bellingham reported it was treating 27 patients with COVID-related symptoms on Friday, Oct. 15 — up five from the last report.
▪ A weekly COVID-related hospitalization rate of 7.9 patients per 100,000 residents for the most recently completed epidemiological hospitalization data from Sept. 29 through Oct. 5 — down from 10.5 from a week earlier (Sept. 22-28).
▪ 150 COVID-related deaths during the pandemic — unchanged from the last report.
▪ 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.”
▪ 263,888 vaccinations administered during the pandemic. The state reports 66.1% of Whatcom County’s total population has initiated vaccination and 60.9% 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 88.5% 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 68 total COVID-19 cases in its schools this school year. It listed no new cases Thursday.
▪ 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 124 total COVID-19 cases in its schools. It reported 21 new cases Sept. 27-Oct. 1 (two at Bernice Vossbeck Elementary, seven at Fisher Elementary, four at Isom Elementary, one at Lynden Academy, two at Lynden Middle School and five at Lynden High School) and 15 new cases between Oct. 4 and 8 (three at Bernice Vossbeck Elementary, one at Fisher Elementary, five at Lynden Middle School and three at Lynden High School).
▪ Meridian School District has reported 15 COVID-19 cases in its schools this school year. It listed no new cases Thursday.
▪ Mount Baker School District has reported 26 COVID-19 cases in its schools this school year, including seven new cases listed Thursday: one case reported Oct. 8 at Acme Elementary, one case reported Oct. 11 at Harmony Elementary, one case reported Oct. 13 at Harmony Elementary, one case reported Oct. 7 at Mount Baker Junior High School, two cases reported Oct. 7 at Mount Baker High School and one case reported Oct. 12 at Mount Baker High School. Affected individuals and any close contacts in each case have been quarantined, according to the district’s dashboard.
▪ Ferndale School District reports that as of Thursday, 19 students or staff have had a positive test reported to the Whatcom County Health Department in the past seven days — an increase from two in the last report. Of those, 17 were on a school campus during their infectious period.
COVID case information could not be found on the Nooksack Valley School District website.
