Another COVID-related death reported, but Whatcom sees fewest cases in nearly 6 weeks
News of Whatcom County’s smallest reported increase of confirmed COVID-19 cases in more than a month on Wednesday was blunted by another resident’s death being linked to the respiratory illness.
Whatcom’s total number of COVID-related deaths grew to 153, according to the Washington State Department of Health’s COVID-19 Data Dashboard on Wednesday, Oct. 20.
The reported deaths was for a person who first tested positive for COVID-19 on Sept. 23, according to The Bellingham Herald’s analysis of the state’s epidemiological data — upping the county’s death total in September to 19 after there were 21 deaths epidemiologically linked to August.
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 4,451 total cases (confirmed and probable combined) in August and September, according to analysis of the state’s epidemiological data, 0.9% 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 person whose death was reported Wednesday, such as their age, gender, vaccination status or hometown, was released.
Before the death reported Wednesday, 75% of Whatcom County’s 40 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. 18.
For the entire pandemic before this week, 83% of Whatcom’s first 152 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 the death reported Wednesday) 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 43 COVID-related deaths in unvaccinated or partially vaccinated Whatcom County residents between Feb. 1 and Oct. 9, according to data released by the Whatcom County Health Department on Friday, Oct. 15, compared to 15 deaths of fully vaccinated residents during that same time frame.
Whatcom’s daily COVID numbers
Whatcom saw 17 new confirmed COVID cases reported by the state dashboard on Wednesday, as its total for the pandemic increased to 14,636 cases.
An additional 1,199 probable cases — resulting from a positive antigen test not confirmed by a molecular test — have been reported during the pandemic, an increase of 16 from the last report.
The 17 confirmed cases represent the smallest reported increase the county has seen since it had eight cases reported Aug. 10.
Whatcom’s 14-day infection rate stands at 373 cases per 100,000 residents for the most recently completed epidemiological data from Sept. 28 through Oct. 11, according to the dashboard, which is down from 426 one week earlier (Sept. 21 through Oct. 4).
The latest report on the state dashboard also shows Whatcom County has:
▪ 778 COVID-related hospitalizations during the pandemic — up two from the last report. St. Joseph hospital in Bellingham reported it was treating 27 patients with COVID-related symptoms on Thursday, Oct. 21 — up two from the last report.
▪ A weekly COVID-related hospitalization rate of 9.2 patients per 100,000 residents for the most recently completed epidemiological hospitalization data from Oct. 5-11 — up from 7.9 from a week earlier (Sept. 28-Oct. 4).
▪ 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.”
▪ 267,231 vaccinations administered during the pandemic — up 643 from the last report. The state reports 66.3% of Whatcom County’s total population has initiated vaccination and 61.2% has completed it.
Additionally, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Data Tracker Thursday listed Whatcom’s level of transmission as “High” — the highest of four categories. Thirty-eight of 39 counties in Washington state (all but Jefferson) were listed in the “High” transmission category, and 85.1% of all counties nationwide were “High.”
Whatcom’s COVID variant update
All but three of the 128 confirmed variant cases detected in Whatcom County over the past two weeks were the delta variant, according to the Washington State Department of Health’s latest SARS-CoV-2 Sequencing and Variants in Washington State report released Wednesday.
Since the delta variant was reported in Whatcom County in the July 6 report by the state, there have been 833 confirmed delta cases in the county according to the state. That represents 78% of the 1,067 total variant cases reported since then.
Whatcom also saw two new U.K. (or alpha) variant cases and one new New York (or iota) variant cases, the state reports
Whatcom County has at least one case of nine of the 10 variants currently being tracked in Washington state, but beyond the alpha (475 total cases), delta and gamma (253 total cases) variants, Whatcom has seen fewer than 50 cases of every other variant. A total of 1,629 variants have been reported in Whatcom County, which represents 20% of the 8,185 confirmed cases in the county since the first variant was reported Feb. 23.
Statewide, the report said that 7% of all confirmed molecular COVID-19 cases were sequenced during the month of September and 54,426 specimens (8.8% of all confirmed cases) have been sequenced since January, meaning variant counts are likely much higher.
Statewide, the Department of Health found there have been 5,235 vaccine “breakthrough” cases involving the delta variant, which represents 27% of the 19,162 confirmed delta variant cases in the state.
Whatcom schools COVID update
The COVID-19 dashboards on Whatcom County school district websites showed:
▪ Bellingham Public Schools has reported 76 total COVID-19 cases in its schools this school year, including one new case reported Wednesday at Options High School with possible exposure Oct. 11-15. 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 Wednesday.
▪ Lynden School District has reported 140 total COVID-19 cases in its schools this school year. It listed no new cases Wednesday.
▪ Meridian School District has reported 18 COVID-19 cases in its schools this school year. It listed no new cases Wednesday.
▪ Mount Baker School District has reported 26 COVID-19 cases in its schools this school year. No new cases were reported Wednesday.
▪ Ferndale School District reports that as of Wednesday, nine students or staff have had a positive test reported to the Whatcom County Health Department in the past seven days — an increase from seven in the last report. Six 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.
