Whatcom County nearly sees number of COVID cases double for second straight month in May
Whatcom County’s number of new COVID-19 cases saw a big increase for the second straight month, but monthly case rates remained well below the peak seen earlier this year.
A total of 2,382 new COVID cases in Whatcom County were epidemiologically linked to the month of May, according to the latest update on the Washington State Department of Health COVID-19 Data Dashboard Friday, June 12. That’s an 84% increase over the 1,292 cases epidemiologically linked to April, which was a 103% increase over the 638 new cases seen in March within the county.
The 2,382 cases were the fifth most Whatcom has seen during any month of the pandemic, but is still well behind the 12,543 cases epidemiologically linked to January during the omicron surge.
COVID-related hospitalizations also were up 121% in May, with 73 patients admitted with COVID-related symptoms during the month, which was up from 33 in April. COVID-related deaths held relatively steady, though, with five in May, compared to four a month earlier.
Through Friday’s data update, Whatcom County has seen 680 new cases resulting in 18 hospitalizations and no deaths.
Here is the latest COVID data for Whatcom County reported on the state dashboard:
▪ 41,687 cases during the pandemic, including 36,426 confirmed cases and 5,261 probable cases, resulting from a positive antigen test not confirmed by a molecular test. Whatcom had a weekly infection rate of 217 new COVID cases per 100,000 residents for the most recently completed epidemiological data from May 26 to June 1, which was down from a rate of 280 one week earlier (May 19-25).
▪ 1,646 COVID-related hospitalizations during the pandemic. Whatcom has a weekly COVID-related hospitalization rate of 6.1 new patients per 100,000 residents for the most recently completed epidemiological data from May 26 to June 1, which was unchanged from one week earlier (May 19-25).
▪ 306 COVID-related deaths during the pandemic. Approximately 0.7% of all COVID cases in Whatcom County have resulted in death.
▪ 15.5% of the 3,271 COVID tests in Whatcom County reported to the state between May 25 and May 31 returned a positive result. That was down from the 16.2% of the 3,935 tests results reported a week earlier (May 18-24).
▪ 396,371 COVID vaccinations have been administered within the county, with 69.3% of all Whatcom County residents (157,930 people) completing an initial vaccination series. Of those eligible to receive a booster, 61.6% (91,401 people) have done so.
St. Joseph’s hospital in Bellingham reported Monday, June 13, that it was treating 18 COVID-related patients. Over the past week (June 7-13), it has averaged 19.1 COVID per day, which represent 7.6% of its 252 inpatient beds and is up from its average of 13.0 patients one week earlier (May 31 to June 6).
