Whatcom County surpasses 18,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases and sees another related death
Before the holiday weekend, Whatcom County surpassed 18,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases and saw another COVID-related death reported Thursday.
The reported death brought Whatcom’s pandemic COVID-related death total to 193, according to the Washington State Department of Health’s COVID-19 Data Dashboard on Thursday, Dec. 23, and was the eighth death reported by the state last week.
The death reported Thursday was for a person who first tested positive for COVID-19 on Dec. 5, The Bellingham Herald’s analysis of the state’s epidemiological data found, bringing the county’s epidemiological death total for December to four.
Since Aug. 1, the beginning of the most recent surge, there have been 81 epidemiological deaths, The Herald found, which is 42% of the county’s pandemic total.
With 9,201 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 better than the county’s total pandemic death average of 1.0%, according to the state’s data, and the statewide 1.2% rate for the pandemic.
No other information about the person whose death was reported Thursday, such as their age, gender, vaccination status or hometown, was reported.
Before the death reported Thursday and five others Wednesday and Tuesday, 75% of Whatcom’s 75 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, Dec. 20. An additional eight deaths (11%) were in people between 50 and 64, while eight (11%) were in people between 35 and 49.
Though data Monday, Dec. 20, no COVID-related deaths have been seen in any Whatcom residents younger than 30 during the pandemic, according to data released by the Whatcom County Health Department.
Before the eight deaths reported last week, there were 59 COVID-related deaths in unvaccinated or partially vaccinated Whatcom County residents between Feb. 1 and Dec. 11, including 32 since Aug. 22, according to The Herald’s analysis of the latest data released Friday, Dec. 17, by the Whatcom County Health Department. For comparison, there were 25 deaths of fully vaccinated residents between Feb. 1 and Dec. 11, including 20 since Aug. 22.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a person is still considered “fully vaccinated” two weeks after receiving their second dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine or the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine. Booster and third doses are not yet factored in.
More Whatcom numbers
Despite the holiday week and only four days of reports, Whatcom County saw its weekly number of confirmed COVID-19 cases reported by the state increase by almost 14% last week.
With 88 new confirmed COVID-19 cases reported Thursday on the Washington State Department of Health’s COVID-19 Data Dashboard, Whatcom finished the week with 302 new confirmed cases reported. That was up from 266 cases reported the previous week (Dec. 12-18).
Whatcom now has 18,025 confirmed cases during the pandemic.
Other Whatcom County COVID data released Thursday on the state dashboard shows that:
▪ Whatcom saw an additional three probable cases reported Thursday, resulting from a positive antigen test not confirmed by a molecular test, bringing its pandemic total to 1,589 probable cases. Whatcom had 31 probable cases reported last week — 13 fewer than the week before.
▪ Whatcom’s weekly infection rate stands at 140 cases per 100,000 residents based on the state’s most recently completed data from Dec. 8-14, which is down from 182 from the week before (Dec. 1-7). Whatcom has the 11th-highest weekly infection rate of the 39 counties in the state, according to the state dashboard.
▪ With three COVID-related hospitalizations reported Thursday, Whatcom has seen 1,008 hospitalizations reported during the pandemic. The county had 14 hospitalizations reported last week, which was down two from the week before.
▪ Whatcom’s weekly hospitalization rate stands at 7.5 COVID-related hospitalizations per 100,000 residents for the most recently completed data from Dec. 8-14, which is down from 12.7 the week before (Nov. 25 to Dec. 1). Whatcom has the 14th-highest weekly hospitalization rate of the 39 counties in the state, according to the state dashboard.
▪ St. Joseph hospital in Bellingham reported that it was treating 26 patients for COVID-related symptoms on Monday, Dec. 27, which was up three from 23 on Sunday, but down one from the last report on Thursday.
▪ The state’s vaccination report on Wednesday showed the county has now administered 325,273 vaccine doses in Whatcom County — an increase of 4,742 last week. The state reported 53,278 additional doses, which include extra doses administered to immunocompromised residents and booster shots, have been administered in the county.
▪ The state estimated that 69.1% of the total population in the county has initiated vaccination and 63.6% had completed it. Both percentages were ahead of the averages across the state, which reported that 68.0% of the state’s total population initiated vaccination and 62.5% are fully vaccinated.
▪ The state is still working “to increase its capacity to process the increased testing data volume received in the last few months” by Dec.. 30.
▪ The statewide Effective Reproductive Number (R-effective) shows that each person who tests positive for COVID-19 is estimated to infect 1.24 others as of Dec. 4, which is up from 0.77 on Nov. 25. Anything above 1.0 means that transmission of the disease is increasing.
The CDC’s COVID Data Tracker on Monday continued to list the level of transmission in Whatcom County as “High” (the highest of four classifications). Thirty-one of Washington state’s 39 counties and 82% of counties nationwide are listed in the “High” category.
Base Camp outbreak
The Lighthouse Mission Ministries’ homeless shelter in downtown Bellingham discovered an outbreak of 16 COVID-19 cases among its guests late last week, according to a news release Friday, Dec. 24.
Two Base Camp guests tested positive on Thursday, Dec. 23, and a facility-wide test that night showed 14 more positive cases among guests, but none among staff, according to the release.
All 16 guests and one other close contact were transported to Bellingham’s isolation and quarantine facility.
“We are still welcoming people in pending negative COVID tests, and we strongly urge all people on the streets to take shelter inside this weekend,” Lighthouse Mission Ministries Chief Operating Officer Bridget Reeves said in the release. “We do not want folks to spend the night outside in zero-degree weather.”
Lighthouse Mission continues to follow the protocols developed with the Whatcom County Health Department, according to the release, including monthly facility-wide testing, requiring a negative test result for entry or re-entry to the facility, cleaning the facility thoroughly every day, requiring masks among staff and guests and checking for symptoms among all staff.
This story was originally published December 27, 2021 at 9:54 AM.
