Another Whatcom COVID-related death reported by state — county’s 11th in past 10 days
Another Whatcom County resident’s death has been linked to COVID-19 — the county’s 11th coronavirus-related death reported in the past 10 days.
Whatcom has now had 165 COVID-related deaths during the pandemic, according to Washington State Department of Health’s COVID-19 Data Dashboard on Wednesday, Nov. 3
The death reported Wednesday was for a resident who first tested positive for COVID-19 on Oct. 3, The Bellingham Herald’s analysis of the state’s epidemiological data showed. It represents the 10th epidemiological deaths the county has seen in October and increased the county’s total number of deaths since Aug. 1 to 53, The Herald found.
With 6,372 total cases (confirmed and probable combined) in the county since Aug. 1, Whatcom has seen 0.8% of cases during that time frame result in death, The Herald’s analysis showed. That is better than the county’s pandemic death average of 1.0%, according to the state’s data, and the statewide 1.2% rate.
No other information about the person who died, such as their age, gender, vaccination status or hometown, was reported.
Before the death reported Wednesday and another reported Tuesday, 73% of Whatcom’s 51 deaths since Aug. 1 were in people 65 and older, according to The Herald’s analysis of the latest age-range data released by the state on Monday, Nov. 2.
For the entire pandemic before Tuesday’s report, 82% of Whatcom’s first 163 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.
There were seven deaths in Whatcom County residents in the 50-65 age group since Aug. 1, including four since Sept. 26. Additionally, there have been five deaths in the 35-49 age group and two in the 20-34 age group since Aug. 1, the state’s data shows.
The county has not had any deaths of anybody younger than 20 throughout the pandemic.
Before the four deaths reported this week, there were 47 COVID-related deaths in unvaccinated or partially vaccinated Whatcom County residents between Feb. 1 and Oct. 23, including 20 since Aug. 15, according to The Herald’s analysis of data released last week by the Whatcom County Health Department. For comparison, there were 16 deaths of fully vaccinated residents between Feb. 1 and Oct. 23, including 14 since Aug. 15.
Whatcom daily COVID data
The latest report on the state dashboard also shows Whatcom County has:
▪ 15,475 confirmed cases during the pandemic — up 30 cases from the last report, and Whatcom’s smallest reported increase since it had 17 cases reported Oct. 20.
▪ 1,3,11 probable COVID cases during the pandemic — up 18 from the last report — resulting from positive antigen tests not confirmed by a molecular test.
▪ A weekly infection rate of 206 cases per 100,000 residents for the most recently completed epidemiological data Oct. 19-25 — up from 183 one week earlier (Oct. 12-18). It is Whatcom’s first weekly infection rate higher than 200 since it was at 208 between Sept. 25 and Oct. 5.
▪ 847 COVID-related hospitalizations during the pandemic — up four from the last report. St. Joseph hospital in Bellingham reported it was treating 36 patients with COVID-related symptoms on Thursday, Nov. 4 — up two from its last report.
▪ A weekly COVID-related hospitalization rate of 15.4 patients per 100,000 residents for the most recently completed epidemiological hospitalization data from Oct. 19-25 — up from 9.2 from a week earlier (Oct. 12-18). The rate was Whatcom’s highest since it had 15.8 hospitalizations per 100,000 residents Sept. 6-12.
▪ The state was expected to begin reporting testing data again on Sunday, Oct. 31, after it paused that data on Sept. 15, but it now says that “an unexpected delay” will keep it from reporting that data again until Nov. 30.
▪ 278,339 vaccinations administered during the pandemic — up 1,245 from the last report. The state reports 67.0% of Whatcom County’s total population has initiated vaccination and 61.9% has completed it. The state also surpassed 5 million people initiating vaccination in Wednesday’s report, as 60.4% of the total population has begun vaccination.
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-seven of the 39 counties in Washington state were listed in the “High” transmission category (all but Columbia and Jefferson counties), and 73.0% of all counties nationwide were “High.”
Whatcom’s COVID variant update
All 177 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 1,010 confirmed delta cases in the county according to the state. That represents 81% of the 1,248 total variant cases reported since then.
In addition to delta, which the state classifies as a “variant of concern,” Whatcom County has at least one case of eight of the nine “variants being monitored” by the state. But beyond the alpha (475 total cases) and gamma (253 total cases) variants, Whatcom has seen fewer than 50 cases of every other variant.
A total of 1,810 variants have been reported in Whatcom County, which represents 20% of the 9,011 confirmed cases in the county since the first variant was reported Feb. 23.
Statewide, the report said that 6.6% of all confirmed molecular COVID-19 cases were sequenced during the month of September and 43,842 specimens (11.2% 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 5,324 vaccine “breakthrough” cases involving the delta variant, which represents 25% of the 21,477 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 111 total COVID-19 cases in its schools this school year. It listed no new cases Wednesday.
▪ Blaine School District has reported 123 total COVID-19 cases in its schools this school year, including 20 new cases reported Wednesday: five cases Oct. 18-24 and one case Oct. 25-31 at Blaine Primary; 2 cases Oct. 18-24 and two cases Oct. 25-31 at Blaine Elementary; four cases Oct. 18-24 and three cases Oct. 25-31 at Blaine Middle School; two cases Oct. 25-31 at Blaine High School; and one case among district staff reported Oct. 18-24.
▪ Lynden School District has reported 196 total COVID-19 cases in its schools this school year. It listed no new cases Wednesday.
▪ Meridian School District has reported 27 COVID-19 cases in its schools this school year. It listed no new cases Wednesday.
▪ Mount Baker School District has reported 33 COVID-19 cases in its schools this school year. It listed no new cases Wednesday.
▪ Ferndale School District reported Wednesday that seven students or staff have had a positive test reported to the Whatcom County Health Department in the past seven days — unchanged from the last report. Four 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, but Superintendent Mike Galley wrote that the district plans to soon begin releasing a weekly case count on the website in an Oct. 29 letter.
