CDC moves Whatcom’s COVID transmission level to ‘moderate’ as cases, hospitalizations slow
With Whatcom County’s COVID-19 cases and hospitalization rates continuing to improve, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Data Tracker moved the county’s transmission level down two levels to “moderate” for the first time since late last summer.
But the county also received a reminder of the continued seriousness of the pandemic’s impact, as the state reported two more Whatcom residents’ deaths were linked to COVID-19 Wednesday, Feb. 23.
After seeing its pandemic case total adjusted down in the last two reports on the Washington State Department of Health COVID-19 Data Dashboard last week, Whatcom’s total increased by just 35 cases on Wednesday.
Wednesday’s numbers represented five days of data, as the dashboard was not updated Monday, Feb. 21, due to the President’s Day holiday.
Whatcom saw 80 new confirmed COVID-19 cases reported by the state, and its number of probable cases (resulting from a positive antigen test not confirmed by a molecular test) adjusted down by 45. Whatcom now has 31,809 confirmed cases and 4,402 probable cases.
Additionally, Whatcom’s weekly COVID-19 infection rate dropped below 500 cases per 100,000 residents for the first time since Dec. 29. It now stands at 468 cases per 100,000 residents for the most recently completed epidemiological data from Feb. 4 to Feb. 10, which is down from a rate of 680 one week earlier (Jan. 27 to Feb. 3).
St. Joseph hospital in Bellingham also reported it was treating 15 COVID-related patients on Thursday, Feb. 24, its smallest daily snapshot since it reported 14 on Aug. 6. The state reported only one new COVID-related hospitalization in Whatcom on Wednesday, as the county has now had 1,420 during the pandemic.
Those decreasing numbers likely played a role in the CDC moving Whatcom’s transmission level to “moderate” for the first time since the onset of the delta surge late last summer. Since then, the county’s transmission level has remained “hHigh” — the highest of four categories used by the CDC and where 85% of counties nationwide remained Thursday.
The CDC currently has one county in Washington state (Lincoln County) listed with “low” transmission, seven in “moderate,” eight in “substantial” and the remaining 23 counties still in “high.”
Whatcom’s latest deaths
With the two deaths reported Wednesday, Whatcom now has seen 262 related to COVID during the pandemic.
The deaths reported Wednesday were for people who first tested positive for COVID on Jan. 20 and Jan. 27, The Bellingham Herald’s analysis of the state’s epidemiological data showed. Whatcom has now had a pandemic-high 34 COVID-related deaths epidemiologically linked to January, while there have been two deaths so far in February.
Since Dec. 19, which is approximately when Whatcom County began to see the omicron surge, there have been 48 epidemiological deaths, The Herald found.
With 13,91 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 Friday, Feb. 18, 88% of the first 257 COVID-related deaths in the county were in residents 60 and older, including 123 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 14 residents in their 40s have been linked to COVID-19.
The Herald’s analysis of data reported by the county and last updated Feb. 11 also 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:
▪ A weekly COVID-related hospitalization rate of 20.6 patients per 100,000 residents for the most recently completed epidemiological hospitalization data from Feb. 4 to 10 — up from 19.7 from a week earlier (Jan. 27 to Feb. 3).
▪ 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.
▪ 366,571 vaccinations administered during the pandemic — up 1,025 from the last report. The state reports 74.3% of Whatcom County’s total population has initiated vaccination and 67.7% has completed it. The state also reports Whatcom has administered 84,482 “additional doses,” which includes third doses for immunocompromised residents and booster doses, have been administered.
▪ 493 confirmed omicron variant cases and 2,079 confirmed delta variant cases, according to the weekly SARS-CoV-2 Sequencing and Variants in Washington State released Wednesday. That was an increase of 76 omicron cases and two delta cases since last week’s report, though with just 2.2% of all confirmed COVID cases in the state sequenced during the month of January, those numbers are likely much higher.
