Whatcom sees smallest increase of COVID cases in a month, but 4 new deaths also reported
Whatcom County had its smallest increase of new COVID-19 cases reported in more than a month on Wednesday, but also saw 33 new COVID-related hospitalizations and four more deaths added to its pandemic totals.
The four deaths reported Wednesday, Feb. 9, on the Washington State Department of Health COVID-19 Data Dashboard brought Whatcom’s pandemic total to 246.
One of the deaths reported Wednesday was for a person who first tested positive for COVID in 2020 (Sept. 10), The Bellingham Herald’s analysis of the state’s epidemiological data showed, while the other three all first tested postive in the past 30 days — Jan. 12, Jan. 17 and Feb. 1. The most recent was Whatcom’s first death epidemiologically linked to February, while there have now been 22 epidemiological deaths in January.
Since Dec. 19, which is approximately when Whatcom County began to see the omicron surge, there have been 33 epidemiological deaths, The Herald found.
With 13,195 total cases (confirmed and probable combined) in the county since Dec. 19 Whatcom has seen 0.3% 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 0.7% of cases.
No other information about the people whose deaths were reported Wednesday, such as their age, gender, vaccination status or hometown, was reported.
Through data reported by the Whatcom County Health Department Thursday, Feb. 3, 89% of the first 239 COVID-related deaths in the county were in residents 60 and older, including 115 deaths in residents 80 and older. Though the county has not seen any deaths of people younger than 30, the data shows, the deaths of five residents in their 30s and 13 residents in their 40s have been linked to COVID-19.
The Herald’s analysis of data reported weekly by the county also shows that between Dec. 19 and Jan. 29, 63% of Whatcom’s 41 reported deaths (26 deaths) have been among residents who are unvaccinated or partially vaccinated.
Other Whatcom numbers
Whatcom County had 245 total cases (confirmed and probable combined) reported by the state on Wednesday, upping its pandemic total to 35,385 cases.
The two-day increase of 245 cases is the smallest increase the county has seen since 234 cases were reported Jan. 5, which represented only one day of new data.
The latest report on the state dashboard, which is now only updated on Monday, Wednesday and Friday evenings, also shows Whatcom County has:
▪ 31,092 confirmed cases during the pandemic — up 209 from the last report.
▪ 4,293 additional probable COVID cases during the pandemic — up 36 from the last report — resulting from positive antigen tests not confirmed by a molecular test.
▪ A weekly infection rate of 1,150 cases per 100,000 residents for the most recently completed epidemiological data Jan. 21-27 — down from 1,352 one week earlier (Jan. 14-20).
▪ 1,379 COVID-related hospitalizations during the pandemic — up 33 from the last report.
▪ St. Joseph hospital in Bellingham reported it was treating 39 patients with COVID-related symptoms on Thursday, Feb. 10, which was down one from its last report and matched the lowest snapshot the hospital has seen in 2022 (Jan. 1).
▪ A weekly COVID-related hospitalization rate of 31.6 patients per 100,000 residents for the most recently completed epidemiological hospitalization data from Jan. 21-27 — up from 28.1 from a week earlier (Jan. 14-20).
▪ 348,103 total tests (molecular and antigen combined). The state reported that an “unexpected delay” has once again pushed back the resumption of its reporting of testing data until approximately Feb. 28.
▪ 362,493 vaccinations administered during the pandemic — up 521 from the last report. The state reports 73.9% of Whatcom County’s total population has initiated vaccination and 67.3% has completed it. The state also reports Whatcom has administered 81,821 “additional doses,” which includes third doses for immunocompromised residents and booster doses, have been administered.
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. All of the 39 counties in Washington state and all but 20 counties nationwide also were listed in the “High” transmission category.
The CDC also estimates that 51.7% of Whatcom County’s fully-vaccinated population has received a booster dose.
Whatcom variant report
Omicron accounted for all 77 of Whatcom County’s new confirmed variant cases reported in the Department of Health’s latest SARA-CoV-2 Sequencing and Variants in Washington State report released Wednesday.
Whatcom County has now seen 373 confirmed omicron cases, according to the report. Whatcom also has 2,076 confirmed delta variant cases, which is the only other “variant of concern” currently being tracked by the State Department of Health.
Whatcom’s 3,252 total variant cases represent 11% of the 28,706 confirmed cases in the county since the first variant was reported Feb. 23, 2021.
Statewide, the report said that 1.6% of all confirmed molecular COVID-19 cases were sequenced during the month of January and 69,745 specimens (7.4% of all confirmed cases) have been sequenced since January 2021, meaning variant counts are likely much higher.
The Department of Health found there have been 11,549 vaccine “breakthrough” cases involving the delta variant, which represents 31% of the 36,982 confirmed delta variant cases in the state. There have been 5,856 omicron “breakthrough” cases, which represents 57% of the 10,225 confirmed cases in the state.
Also, the state reported that 4.1% of confirmed delta and 0.9% of confirmed omicron cases have resulted in hospitalization, while 1.2% of delta cases and 0.2% of omicron cases have resulted in death.
Whatcom long-term care update
Whatcom County had 21 new COVID-19 cases and three new COVID-related deaths associated with its long-term care facilities reported last week, according to the Washington State Department of Health’s latest COVID-19 Long-Term Care Report.
According to the report, which was released Wednesday and reflected data through Monday, Feb. 7, Whatcom County long-term care facilities have had 927 confirmed cases during the pandemic. The number of COVID-related deaths related to Whatcom’s long-term care facilities climbed to 93, according to the state’s data.
The 927 cases mean that long-term care facilities had 3% of the total cases reported in Whatcom County as of Feb. 7, while the 93 related deaths represented 38% of the county’s death total.
Statewide, long-term care facilities have been associated with 34,200 cases (2% of the state’s total cases) and 3,430 related deaths (31% of the state’s death total).
Whatcom schools COVID update
The COVID-19 dashboards on Whatcom County school district websites showed:
▪ Bellingham Public Schools has reported 739 COVID-19 cases in its schools since winter break and listed no new cases since Feb. 4.
▪ Blaine School District reported 417 total COVID-19 cases in its schools since winter break and listed no new cases since Feb. 6
▪ Lynden School District reported 337 total COVID-19 cases in its schools since winter break, including 57 new cases with a possible exposure window of Jan. 31 to Feb. 4: 13 cases at Bernice Vossbeck Elementary, six cases at Fisher Elementary, 11 cases at Isom Elementary, seven cases at Lynden Middle School, 19 cases at Lynden High and one case at the preschool.
▪ Meridian School District reported 310 COVID-19 cases in its schools since winter break and listed no new cases since Feb. 4.
▪ Mount Baker School District reported 259 COVID-19 cases in its schools since winter break and listed no new cases since Feb. 4.
▪ Nooksack Valley School District reported 290 COVID-19 cases since returning from winter break, including 43 new cases with a possible exposure window of Jan. 30 to Feb. 5: eight cases at Nooksack High, 11 cases at Nooksack Middle School, 12 cases at Nooksack Elementary, eight cases at Everson Elementary and four cases at Sumas Elementary.
▪ Ferndale School District reported that as of Thursday, 38 students or staff had a positive test reported to the Whatcom County Health Department in the past seven days — down five from the last report. Twenty-two of those people were on a school campus during their infectious period.
