Covid-19 in Whatcom County, by school district boundaries: August 7

Forty-two cases of the Delta variant have been detected in Whatcom County since the first case was reported early July, according to August 11 Washington State Department of Health (DOH) data.

Bev Mayhew, a spokesperson for PeaceHealth, said the number of Covid-19 hospitalizations at PeaceHealth St. Joseph Medical Center in Bellingham is surging, and continuing to rise with patients being admitted from all age groups. According to the hospital, the majority of Covid-19 patients are unvaccinated.

PeaceHealth St. Joseph Hospital is treating 25 people with confirmed Covid-19 cases, a 16-person increase from last week.

Whatcom County has had a total of 10,709 confirmed and probable cases of Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic, according to August 9 DOH data. The number of Covid-19 deaths in the county remains at 109.

The Blaine school district area has the highest Covid-19 case rate in the county at 254 cases per 100,000 people, a 33 percent increase from last week. Covid-19 case rates increased in every school district area. Blaine school district has had 30 confirmed cases since last week.

As of August 8, 56.4 percent of all county residents are fully vaccinated and 5.4 percent are either waiting for their second dose or received their last vaccine dose less than two weeks ago, according to the department. The department reports 128,612 county residents are fully vaccinated and 12,196 are in the process of becoming fully vaccinated.

Right now, 53.2 percent of the state’s total population is fully vaccinated and 62.4 percent of people eligible for the Covid-19 vaccine are fully vaccinated.

Washington state has had 495,357 confirmed and probable cases since the start of the pandemic (the 44,609 probable cases came from an antigen test). In all, 6,187 people in Washington with the virus have died (51 in the last week). In the state, 27,076 have been hospitalized (849 in the last week).

For more Whatcom County information, visit whatcomcounty.us/covidvaccine and whatcomcounty.us/coviddata. State information is available at bit.ly/3r2URJj.  For CDC data, visit bit.ly/39Kt4qh