Whatcom County’s weekly COVID case count increases, and two more related deaths reported
Whatcom County’s weekly count of new COVID-19 cases increased last week, and two more residents’ deaths were linked to the coronavirus.
Whatcom County has had 37,429 total cases (confirmed and probable combined) and 292 COVID-related deaths during the pandemic, according to the latest data released Friday, April 8, on the Washington State Department of Health COVID-19 Data Dashboard.
A total of 203 new COVID cases were reported in Whatcom last week, which was up from the 128 cases reported the week before.
With the exception of weekly increases seen the weeks of Feb. 20-26 and Feb. 27 to March 5, after the state reanalyzed data from the omicron surge and adjusted data, it was the first time Whatcom’s weekly number of cases has increased since late January.
The two deaths reported last week were for people who first tested positive for COVID-19 on Feb. 14 and March 29, The Bellingham Herald’s analysis of state epidemiological data found, bringing Whatcom’s epidemiological death totals for those months to 15 deaths in February and two in March.
So far there have been 66 deaths epidemiologically linked to cases in 2022, meaning 0.4% of the 16,040 cases this year have resulted in death, The Herald found.
As of data released Thursday, April 7, by the Whatcom County Health Department, 87% of the county’s first 291 COVID-related deaths were in residents 60 and older, including 135 deaths of people 80 and older.
Whatcom’s latest COVID numbers
St. Joseph hospital in Bellingham reported it was treating three patients for COVID-related symptoms on Monday, April 11, which was unchanged from its patient loads from Saturday and Sunday, April 9-10. Over the past seven days, the hospital’s daily snapshot has shown an average of 3.9 COVID-related patients per day, which represents 1.5% of the hospital’s 252 inpatient beds and is down from an average of 5.7 patients a week earlier.
The latest report on the state dashboard, which is updated on Monday, Wednesday and Friday evenings, shows Whatcom County has:
▪ 32,890 confirmed cases during the pandemic — up 191 cases from last week. Whatcom had 112 confirmed cases reported the week before.
▪ 4,539 additional probable COVID cases during the pandemic — up 12 cases from last week — resulting from positive antigen tests not confirmed by a molecular test. Whatcom had 16 probable cases reported the week before.
▪ A weekly infection rate of 58 cases per 100,000 residents for the most recently completed epidemiological data March 24-30 — down from 59 one week earlier (March 17-23).
▪ 1,526 COVID-related hospitalizations during the pandemic — up four from last week. Whatcom had five COVID-related hospitalizations reported last week.
▪ A weekly COVID-related hospitalization rate of 1.8 patients per 100,000 residents for the most recently completed epidemiological hospitalization data March 24-30 — down from 2.2 from a week earlier (March 17-23).
▪ 5,600 tests (molecular and antigen combined) completed during the most recently completed epidemiological data March 23-29, with 2.6% of the tests returning a positive result. A week earlier (March 16-22) the state reported 5,933 tests completed and 2.2% returning positive results. The state’s data does not include at-home rapid tests that were not reported.
▪ 881 confirmed omicron variant cases and 2,095 confirmed delta variant cases, according to the weekly SARS-CoV-2 Sequencing and Variants in Washington State released Wednesday, April 6. That was an increase of 37 omicron cases and no delta cases since last week’s report, though, with just 9% of all confirmed COVID cases in the state sequenced during the month of February, those numbers are likely much higher.
▪ 375,026 vaccinations administered during the pandemic — an increase of 3,459 from last week. Whatcom had 858 administered vaccine doses reported the week before. The state reports 74.9% of Whatcom County’s total population has initiated vaccination and 68.5% has completed it.
▪ 88,248 booster vaccine doses administered, meaning 61.3% of Whatcom’s residents eligible to receive a booster dose have done so.
Whatcom schools COVID update
Whatcom County school districts reported 33 COVID-19 cases in their schools during the final full week of March (March 20-26), though the Blaine School District did not report any new cases. That was up from the 27 cases reported the week before (March 13-19), which did include numbers from Blaine.
So far, there have been 21 cases reported the week of March 27 to April 2, though the Blaine, Ferndale and Mount Baker COVID dashboards have not yet been updated with data from last week.
Since returning from winter break, the seven districts have reported a total of 3,345 cases, or a weekly rate of approximately 12.7 cases per 1,000 students.
The COVID-19 dashboards on Whatcom County school district websites showed:
▪ Bellingham Public Schools has reported 952 total COVID-19 cases in its schools since winter break, or a weekly rate of 13.4 cases per 1,000 students, according to The Herald’s analysis. The district reported eight cases the week of March 27 to April 2, which was down four from the week before.
▪ Blaine School District has reported 548 total COVID-19 cases in its schools since winter break, or a weekly rate of 21.4 cases per 1,000 students, according to The Herald’s analysis. The district did not update its dashboard the week of March 27 to April 2.
▪ Lynden School District has reported 401 total COVID-19 cases in its schools since winter break, or a weekly rate of 9.2 cases per 1,000 students, according to The Herald’s analysis. The district reported one case the week of March 27 to April 2, which was one fewer than the week before.
▪ Meridian School District has reported 360 COVID-19 cases in its schools since winter break, or a weekly rate of 15.2 cases per 1,000 students, according to The Herald’s analysis. The district reported no cases the week of March 27 to April 2, which was six fewer than the week before.
▪ Mount Baker School District has reported 297 COVID-19 cases in its schools since winter break, or a weekly rate of 13.3 cases per 1,000 students, according to The Herald’s analysis. The district did not update its dashboard the week of March 27 to April 2.
▪ Nooksack Valley School District has reported 349 cases in its schools since winter break, or a weekly rate of 13.5 cases per 1,000 students, according to The Herald’s analysis. The district reported no cases the week of March 27 to April 2, which was one fewer than the week before.
▪ Ferndale School District reported Thursday, March 31, that 12 students or staff had positive COVID-19 tests reported to the Whatcom County Health Department. The dashboard was not updated last week due to Spring Break.
