With two more COVID-releated deaths reported Thursday, Whatcom has seen 14 in past 2 weeks
Whatcom County continues to feel the impact of the more than three-month-long delta surge, as the county now has had 14 COVID-related deaths reported in the past two weeks.
Whatcom had two more deaths linked to COVID-19 reported by the Washington State Department of Health’s COVID-19 Data Dashboard on Thursday, Nov. 4, bringing its pandemic total to 167.
The deaths reported Thursday were for residents who first tested positive for COVID-19 on Oct. 21 and Oct. 27, The Bellingham Herald’s analysis of the state’s epidemiological data showed. They represent the 11th and 12th epidemiological deaths the county has seen in October and increased the county’s total number of deaths since Aug. 1 to 55, The Herald found.
With 6,445 total cases (confirmed and probable combined) in the county since Aug. 1, Whatcom has seen 0.9% of cases during that time frame result in death, The Herald’s analysis showed. That is still 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 people who died, such as their age, gender, vaccination status or hometown, was reported.
Before the four deaths reported Tuesday through Thursday, 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.
As of Monday’s age-range report, there were seven deaths in Whatcom County residents in the 50-65 age group since Aug. 1, including four since Sept. 26. Additionally, there had 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 also had not had any deaths of anybody younger than 20 throughout the pandemic.
Before the six deaths reported so far 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:
▪ 15,532 confirmed cases during the pandemic — up 57 cases from the last report.
▪ 1,327 probable COVID cases during the pandemic — up 16 from the last report — resulting from positive antigen tests not confirmed by a molecular test.
▪ A weekly infection rate of 199 cases per 100,000 residents for the most recently completed epidemiological data Oct. 20-26 — up from 190 one week earlier (Oct. 13-19).
▪ 850 COVID-related hospitalizations during the pandemic — up three from the last report. St. Joseph hospital in Bellingham reported it was treating 36 patients with COVID-related symptoms on Friday, Nov. 5 — unchanged from its last report.
▪ A weekly COVID-related hospitalization rate of 16.2 patients per 100,000 residents for the most recently completed epidemiological hospitalization data from Oct. 20-26 — up from 9.2 from a week earlier (Oct. 13-19). The rate was Whatcom’s highest since it had 18.4 hospitalizations per 100,000 residents Sept. 4-10.
▪ 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. 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 Friday listed Whatcom’s level of transmission as “High” — the highest of four categories. Thirty-eight of the 39 counties in Washington state were listed in the “High” transmission category along with 72.56% of all counties nationwide. Washington’s Columbia County transmission was listed as moderate, one of 2.7% in the country.
Whatcom schools COVID update
The COVID-19 dashboards on Whatcom County school district websites showed:
▪ Bellingham Public Schools has reported 114 total COVID-19 cases in its schools this school year, including three new reported cases Thursday: one new case with a possible exposure window of Oct. 25-29 at Shuksan Middle School; one case with a possible exposure window of Nov. 1-5 at Sehome High; and one case with a possible exposure window of Nov. 1-5 at Cordata Elementary. Two cases with the same window at Shuksan had previously been reported. All on-site close contacts have been notified, according to the district.
▪ Blaine School District has reported 123 total COVID-19 cases in its schools this school year. It listed no new cases Thursday.
▪ Lynden School District has reported 196 total COVID-19 cases in its schools this school year. It listed no new cases Thursday.
▪ Meridian School District has reported 27 COVID-19 cases in its schools this school year. It listed no new cases Thursday.
▪ Mount Baker School District has previously reported 33 COVID-19 cases in its schools this school year. The district’s dashboard was not functioning Friday morning.
▪ Ferndale School District reported Thursday that 12 students or staff have had a positive test reported to the Whatcom County Health Department in the past seven days — up five 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.
