One of Whatcom County’s seven regions reaches a COVID-19 vaccination milestone
One of Whatcom County’s seven school district regions reached the milestone of having 80% of its population initiate vaccination, while six regions saw their COVID-19 infection rates decrease last week.
Four out of five people living within the region covered by Bellingham Public Schools have initiated vaccination, according to the Whatcom County Health Department’s latest location data released on Tuesday, Dec. 21. The region covered by the Blaine School District is the only other region to have more than 70% of residents initiating vaccination, according to the health department’s data, while the Mount Baker region has yet to reach 50% beginning vaccination.
Meanwhile, Bellingham was joined by five other school district regions in seeing its number of new COVID-19 infections per 100,000 over the past two weeks go down.
The region covered by the Nooksack Valley School District was the only region that did not have a decreased rate last week, though that region did not increase, either.
Despite the good news, all seven regions have two-week infection rates of at least 200 cases per 100,000 residents, according to the health department data.
The county health department releases weekly data on the location of COVID-19 cases using school districts as geographical boundaries, including each region’s number of total cases during the pandemic, infection rate, hospitalization rate, percentage of residents who have initiated vaccination and a breakdown of case rates by age. Data in this week’s report was through Saturday, Dec. 18.
Overall, Whatcom County saw a 2.0% growth in cases with 376 new cases between Dec. 12 and 18 — down from the 487 new cases the county reported the previous week.
With 863 cases in the past two weeks, Whatcom County has an overall two-week infection rate of 384 cases per 100,000 residents, based on 225,300 residents in the county. Four of the county’s regions had infection rates lower than that mark and a third matched that mark, according to the county’s data this week.
As of Monday, Dec. 20, the Washington State Department of Health reported that 69% of all Whatcom County residents had initiated vaccination and 64% had completed it.
Here is what the health department’s latest data showed for the seven regions in the county:
Bellingham: Up 2.2% (146 cases) since the Dec. 14 report to 6,845 total cases, but the rate of new infections per 100,000 residents in the past 14 days decreased from 204 last week to 200 this week. Approximately 80% of residents in the region have initiated vaccination, and the region has seen six COVID-related hospitalizations per 100,000 in the past two weeks.
Blaine: Up 1.9% (29 cases) since the Dec. 14 report to 1,533 total cases, but the rate of new infections per 100,000 residents in the past 14 days decreased from 371 last week to 297 this week. Approximately 72% of residents in the region have initiated vaccination, and the region has seen 16 COVID-related hospitalizations per 100,000 residents in the past two weeks.
Ferndale: Up 1.5% (56 cases) since the Dec. 14 report to 3,788 total cases, but the rate of new infections per 100,000 residents in the past 14 days decreased from 553 last week to 328 this week. Approximately 68% of residents in the region have initiated vaccination, and the region has seen 22 COVID-related hospitalizations per 100,000 residents in the past two weeks.
Lynden: Up 1.8% (61 cases) since the Dec. 14 report to 3,388 total cases, but the rate of new infections per 100,000 residents in the past 14 days decreased from 502 last week to 456 this week. Approximately 56% of residents in the region have initiated vaccination, and the region has seen nine COVID-related hospitalizations per 100,000 residents in the past two weeks.
Meridian: Up 2.2% (24 cases) since the Dec. 14 report to 1,134 total cases, but the rate of new infections per 100,000 residents in the past 14 days decreased from 446 last week to 419 this week. Approximately 65% of residents in the region have initiated vaccination, and the region has seen 18 COVID-related hospitalizations per 100,000 residents in the past two weeks.
Mount Baker: Up 2.8% (32 cases) since the Dec. 14 report to 1,195 total cases, but the rate of new infections per 100,000 residents in the past 14 days decreased from 392 last week to 361 this week. Approximately 48% of residents in the region have initiated vaccination, and the region has seen 12 COVID-related hospitalizations per 100,000 residents in the past two weeks.
Nooksack Valley: Up 1.9% (28 cases) since the Dec. 14 report to 1,503 total cases, but the rate of new infections per 100,000 residents in the past 14 days remained at 445 this week. Approximately 53% of residents in the region have initiated vaccination, and the region has seen nine COVID-related hospitalizations per 100,000 residents in the past two weeks.
This story was originally published December 22, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
