Six more Whatcom residents’ deaths linked to COVID, but county’s pandemic case count drops
Whatcom County’s pandemic total of COVID-19 cases was adjusted down by eight cases Wednesday, but its COVID-related death total increased by six.
The county now has had 36,240 total COVID cases during the pandemic and 259 related deaths, according to the Washington State Department of Health COVID-19 Data Dashboard on Wednesday, Feb. 16.
The Department of Health has made adjustments to COVID data throughout the pandemic, as more information becomes available.
Wednesday’s update marks the second time in the past week that Whatcom’s COVID-related death total has increased by six.
The deaths reported Monday were for people who first tested positive for COVID on Oct. 30, Dec. 30, Jan. 10, Jan. 14, Jan. 18 and Jan. 27, The Bellingham Herald’s analysis of the state’s epidemiological data showed.
The four deaths epidemiologically linked to January brought that month’s total to 32, making it the deadliest month of the pandemic, as it surpassed December, 2021, which now has 30 epidemiological deaths. So far there has been one death epidemiologically linked to February.
Since Dec. 19, which is approximately when Whatcom County began to see the omicron surge, there have been 45 epidemiological deaths, The Herald found.
With 13,839 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. 10, 88% of the first 246 COVID-related deaths in the county were in residents 60 and older, including 119 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 and last updated Feb. 11 shows that between Dec. 19 and Feb. 5, 60% of Whatcom’s 45 reported deaths (27 deaths) have been among residents who are unvaccinated or partially vaccinated.
Other Whatcom numbers
The latest report on the state dashboard, which is now only updated on Monday, Wednesday and Friday evenings, also shows Whatcom County has:
▪ 31,736 confirmed cases during the pandemic — down 21 from the last report.
▪ 4,504 additional probable COVID cases during the pandemic — up 13 from the last report — resulting from positive antigen tests not confirmed by a molecular test.
▪ A weekly infection rate of 682 cases per 100,000 residents for the most recently completed epidemiological data Jan. 28 to Feb. 3 — down from 988 one week earlier (Jan. 21-27) and the lowest mark the county has seen since it had a rate of 678 Dec. 27 to Jan. 2.
▪ 1,414 COVID-related hospitalizations during the pandemic — up 18 from the last report.
▪ St. Joseph hospital in Bellingham reported it was treating 30 patients with COVID-related symptoms on Thursday, Feb. 17, which was unchanged from its last report.
▪ A weekly COVID-related hospitalization rate of 20.2 patients per 100,000 residents for the most recently completed epidemiological hospitalization data from Jan. 28 to Feb. 3 — down from 29.8 from a week earlier (Jan. 21-27).
▪ 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.
▪ 365,092 vaccinations administered during the pandemic — up 409 from the last report. The state reports 74.1% of Whatcom County’s total population has initiated vaccination and 67.6% has completed it. The state also reports Whatcom has administered 83,460 “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 117 counties nationwide also were listed in the “High” transmission category.
The CDC also estimates that 52.5% of Whatcom County’s fully-vaccinated population has received a booster dose.
Whatcom variant report
Omicron accounted for all but one of Whatcom County’s 45 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 417 confirmed omicron cases, according to the report. Whatcom also had one new confirmed delta variant case and has had 2,077 delta cases, which is the only other “variant of concern” currently being tracked by the state Department of Health.
Whatcom’s 3,297 total variant cases represent 11% of the 29,814 confirmed cases in the county since the first variant was reported Feb. 23, 2021.
Statewide, the report said that 2% of all confirmed molecular COVID-19 cases were sequenced during the month of January and 71,486 specimens (7.5% 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 11,584 vaccine “breakthrough” cases involving the delta variant, which represents 31% of the 37,018 confirmed delta variant cases in the state. There have been 6,912 omicron “breakthrough” cases, which represents 58% of the 11,900 confirmed cases in the state.
Also, the state reported that 4.1% of confirmed delta and 1% of confirmed omicron cases have resulted in hospitalization, while 1.2% of delta cases and 0.3% of omicron cases have resulted in death.
