On 2nd anniversary of county’s first reported case, Whatcom adds 4 COVID-related deaths
Two years to the day after the Whatcom County Health Department reported the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in the county, the state reported that four more residents’ deaths have been linked to the coronavirus.
Whatcom now has had 278 COVID-related deaths during the pandemic, according to the Washington State Department of Health COVID-19 Data Dashboard on Wednesday, March 9.
The deaths reported Wednesday were for people who first tested positive for COVID on Jan. 30, Feb. 3, Feb. 7 and Feb. 11, The Bellingham Herald’s analysis of state epidemiological data showed. So far, Whatcom County has had a pandemic-high 38 deaths epidemiologically linked to January and another 13 in February.
With 15,275 total cases (confirmed and probable combined) in the county in 2022, Whatcom has seen 0.3% of cases this year result in death, The Herald’s analysis showed. That is better than the county’s total pandemic death average of 0.8% of cases.
No other information about the people whose deaths were reported Wednesday, such as their age, gender, vaccination status or hometown, was reported.
Data reported by the Whatcom County Health Department Thursday, March 3, shows 87% of the first 271 COVID-related deaths in the county were in residents 60 and older, including 129 deaths in residents 80 and older. The data also shows Whatcom has had one death of a person between 10 and 19, five deaths of people in their 30s and 15 in their 40s.
The county health department has not updated vaccine breakthrough death totals the past three weeks, but between Aug. 22, 2021, and Feb. 12, approximately 61% of deaths were among the county’s unvaccinated residents.
Whatcom latest COVID numbers
Whatcom had 55 total new cases reported on the state dashboard on Wednesday.
The latest report on the state dashboard, which is updated on Monday, Wednesday and Friday evenings, shows Whatcom County has:
▪ 32,201 confirmed cases during the pandemic — up 40 from the last report. Whatcom saw a total of 260 new confirmed cases reported last week.
▪ 4,462 additional probable COVID cases during the pandemic — up 15 from the last report — resulting from positive antigen tests not confirmed by a molecular test. Whatcom saw a total of 33 new probable cases reported last week.
▪ A weekly infection rate of 123 cases per 100,000 residents for the most recently completed epidemiological data Feb. 22-28 — down from 169 one week earlier (Feb. 15-21).
▪ 1,450 COVID-related hospitalizations during the pandemic — up eight from the last report.
▪ St. Joseph hospital in Bellingham reported it was treating five patients with COVID-related symptoms on Thursday, March 10, which is down one from its reports on Tuesday and Wednesday and the lowest number it has reported since July 25.
▪ A weekly COVID-related hospitalization rate of 5.7 patients per 100,000 residents for the most recently completed epidemiological hospitalization data Feb. 22-28 — down from 7.9 from a week earlier (Feb. 15-21).
▪ 368,918 vaccinations administered during the pandemic — up 161 from the last report. The state reports 74.5% of Whatcom County’s total population has initiated vaccination and 68.1% has completed it.
▪ 86,065 booster vaccine doses administered and 60.8% of Whatcom’s residents to receive a booster dose have done so.
▪ 711 confirmed omicron variant cases and 2,082 confirmed delta variant cases, according to the weekly SARS-CoV-2 Sequencing and Variants in Washington State released Wednesday. That was an increase of 56 omicron cases and one delta case since last week’s report, though with just 2.3% of all confirmed COVID cases in the state sequenced during the month of January, those numbers are likely much higher.
▪ 1,002 cases associated with its long-term care facilities, which have resulted in 98 deaths, according to the latest COVID-19 Long-term Care Report released March 4. That is an increase of 75 cases and five deaths since the last report on Feb. 7.
