Whatcom sees another death and surpasses 15,000 COVID cases, but hospital reports decrease
Whatcom County surpassed 15,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases during the pandemic and had another related death added to its total, according to the Washington State Department of Health’s COVID-19 Data Dashboard on Tuesday, Oct. 26.
Meanwhile, St. Joseph’s hospital in Bellingham reported that the number of COVID-related patients it was treating had dropped 14% from Tuesday’s pandemic record high.
With 49 new confirmed cases reported Tuesday, Whatcom County now has had 15,016 confirmed cases during the first 20 months of the pandemic.
It took Whatcom County 85 days to move from its 10,000th confirmed case on Aug. 4 to its 15,000th. That was after it took the county 318 days to record its 5,000th case on Jan. 21, and 91 days to record its second 5,000 cases.
The county also has seen an additional 1,228 probable cases, resulting from a positive antigen test not confirmed by a molecular test, which was an increase of four from the last report.
Whatcom’s 14-day infection rate stands at 354 cases per 100,000 residents for the most recently completed epidemiological data from Oct. 4-17, according to the state dashboard, which is down from 381 one week earlier (Sept. 27-Oct. 10).
Whatcom’s latest COVID death
The death reported Tuesday was Whatcom’s 156th related to COVID during the pandemic, and it was for a person who first tested positive for COVID on Oct. 16, according to The Bellingham Herald’s analysis of the state’s epidemiological data.
Their death represents the third person to first test positive for COVID during October and die. There were 20 epidemiological deaths in September after there were 21 in August.
With 5,829 total cases (confirmed and probable combined) in August, September and October, according to The Herald’s 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% of 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 Tuesday, such as their age, gender, vaccination status or hometown, was released.
Before the death reported Tuesday, 74% of Whatcom County’s 43 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. 25.
For the entire pandemic before Tuesday’s reported death, 83% of Whatcom’s first 155 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 Tuesday) there were five deaths in Whatcom County residents in the 50-65 age group, four in the 35-49 age group and two in the 20-34 age group, the state’s data shows. The county has not had any deaths of anybody younger than 20 throughout the pandemic.
Additionally, there were 45 COVID-related deaths in unvaccinated or partially vaccinated Whatcom County residents between Feb. 1 and Oct. 16, according to The Herald’s analysis of data released by the Whatcom County Health Department, compared to 16 deaths of fully vaccinated residents during that same time frame.
Hospitalizations drop from record high
St. Joseph’s hospital reported that it was treating 36 patients with COVID-related symptoms on Wednesday, Oct. 27, which was down six from Tuesday’s pandemic record-high of 42.
Of those 42 COVID-related patients Tuesday, six were vaccinated and 33 were unvaccinated, including one patient who was too young to receive the vaccine, Whatcom County Co-Health Officer Dr. Greg Thompson told the Whatcom County Council during its meeting on Tuesday. The vaccination status of the three remaining patients had not yet been reported.
Thompson also reported that 12 of the 42 patients Tuesday were in the Intensive Care Unit, and 11 of those were unvaccinated.
The state dashboard reported nine new COVID-related hospitalizations in Tuesday’s report, with a pandemic total of 810.
Whatcom’s weekly COVID-related hospitalization rate stands at 9.7 patients per 100,000 residents for the most recently completed epidemiological hospitalization data from Oct. 11-17 — down from 10.5 a week earlier (Oct. 4-10).
The Herald’s analysis of data reported by the Whatcom County Health Department showed that between Feb. 1 and Oct. 16 there were 421 COVID-related hospitalizations of unvaccinated or partially vaccinated residents, compared to 59 COVID-related hospitalizations of fully vaccinated residents during the same period.
Whatcom’s daily COVID numbers
The latest report on the state dashboard also shows Whatcom County has:
▪ On Sept. 15, the state 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.”
▪ 270,724 vaccinations administered during the pandemic. The state reports 66.6% of Whatcom County’s total population has initiated vaccination and 61.5% 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. All 39 counties in Washington state were listed in the “High” transmission category, and 78.9% 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 96 total COVID-19 cases in its schools this school year, including four new cases reported Tuesday with possible exposure Oct. 11-15: two cases at Lowell Elementary, one case at Fairhaven Middle School and one new case at Squalicum High. Squalicum had two cases with the same exposure window previously reported by the district. Close contacts of all cases have been notified, according to the dashboard.
▪ Blaine School District has reported 82 total COVID-19 cases this school year. No new cases were reported Tuesday.
▪ Lynden School District has reported 140 total COVID-19 cases this school year. No new cases were reported Tuesday.
▪ Meridian School District has reported 21 COVID-19 cases in this school year. No new cases were reported Tuesday.
▪ Mount Baker School District has reported 26 COVID-19 cases this school year. No new cases were reported Tuesday.
▪ Ferndale School District reports that as of Tuesday, 14 students or staff have had a positive test reported to the Whatcom County Health Department in the past seven days — an increase from three 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.
—Robert Mittendorf (rmittendorf@bhamherald.com) contributed to this story.
This story was originally published October 27, 2021 at 10:16 AM.
