Whatcom County sees 2 more COVID-related deaths, 58 more cases reported Friday
Whatcom County added two more COVID-related deaths to its pandemic total Friday, Oct. 15, according to the Washington State Department of Health’s COVID-19 Data Dashboard, as the total climbed to 152.
The reported deaths were for people who first tested positive for COVID-19 on Aug. 7 and Sept. 20, according to the state’s epidemiological data — upping the county’s death total in August to 21 and 18 in September, The Bellingham Herald’s analysis shows. August now has Whatcom’s highest number of deaths in a month since the county saw 26 during the first month of the pandemic in March 2020.
There has been one death of a person who first tested positive for COVID in October, so far, according to the state’s data.
With 4,449 total cases (confirmed and probable combined) in August and September, according to analysis of the state’s epidemiological data, 0.8% of all Whatcom County cases during that time frame resulted in death. That is better than 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 two deaths reported Friday and two others reported Wednesday, 75% of Whatcom County’s 36 epidemiological deaths in August, September and October 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. 11.
For the entire pandemic before this week, 83% of Whatcom’s first 148 deaths were in people 65 and older, according to analysis of the state data, which also showed that residents 65 and older accounted for 11% of all Whatcom cases through last week.
In August, September and October (before Wednesday’s and Friday’s deaths were reported) there were five deaths in Whatcom County of people in the 50-65 age group, three in the 35-49 age group and one in the 20-34 age group, the data shows. The county has not had any deaths of anybody younger than 20 throughout the pandemic.
Additionally, there were 40 COVID-related deaths in unvaccinated or partially vaccinated Whatcom County residents between Feb. 1 and Oct. 2, according to data released by the Whatcom County Health Department on Friday, Oct. 8, and 15 deaths of fully vaccinated residents during that same time frame.
Whatcom’s daily COVID numbers
The latest report on the state dashboard also shows Whatcom County has:
▪ 14,396 confirmed cases during the pandemic — up 58 cases from the last report.
▪ 1,174 probable COVID cases during the pandemic — up 14 from the last report — resulting from positive antigen tests not confirmed by a molecular test.
▪ A 14-day infection rate of 409 cases per 100,000 residents for the most recently completed epidemiological data from Sept. 23 through Oct. 6 — higher than the 404 rate one week earlier (Sept. 16-29).
▪ 765 COVID-related hospitalizations during the pandemic — up six from the last report. St. Joseph hospital in Bellingham reported it was treating 27 patients with COVID-related symptoms on Friday — 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. 30 through Oct. 6 — down from 11.4 from a week earlier (Sept. 23-29).
▪ 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.”
▪ 264,802 vaccinations administered during the pandemic — up 914 from the last report. The state reports 66.1% of Whatcom County’s total population has initiated vaccination and 61.0% 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 87.7% of all counties nationwide were “High.”
This story was originally published October 16, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
