Covid-19 in Whatcom County, by school district boundaries: January 15

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(Ed note: The Whatcom County health department’s Covid-19 data dashboard was missing data and not fully complete by press time. A health department spokesperson told The Northern Light it was likely the missing data caused the Covid-19 case rate decreases seen in some county areas.)  

Some areas in Whatcom County are seeing declining Covid-19 case rates from last week, while others are still trending upward as the omicron variant spreads across the county.

There have been 5,929 confirmed and probable Covid-19 cases in Whatcom County in the past week, which is 21.6 percent of the county’s total Covid-19 cases since the start of the pandemic, according to Whatcom County Health Department data. (Probable cases come from a positive antigen test). Blaine school district has had 185 people test positive for Covid-19 in the past week.

Nooksack Valley and Lynden were the two school district areas that increased in case rates from last week, according to the county’s Covid-19 dashboard.

The Ferndale school district area had the highest Covid-19 cases in the county, with 1,490 cases per 100,000 people. Blaine school district had the second lowest case rate with 982 cases per 100,000. Mount Baker school district had the lowest case rate at 809 cases per 100,000. 

Seven county residents died from Covid-19 in the past week, bringing the virus’ death toll now up to 218 people. The number of deaths in Whatcom County accounts for .8 percent of total cases. 

PeaceHealth St. Joseph Medical Center beat another record on the number of patients the Bellingham hospital had infected with Covid-19. On January 18, 79 PeaceHealth patients had either been admitted for Covid-19 or tested positive for Covid-19 after being admitted for another reason. 

Covid-19 case rates began to decrease among all age groups in the past week. Children 5-17 years old have the highest Covid-19 transmissions in the county, with 2,111 cases per 100,000 people. People 18-24 years old followed with 1,843 cases per 100,000.

The Whatcom County health department released a weekly Covid-19 report for January 2 through January 8. Sixteen vaccinated people and 29 unvaccinated people were hospitalized that week for Covid-19. Of the 3,169 cases, 1,227 were from people fully vaccinated and 1,942 were from people not vaccinated. Six people died that week: An unvaccinated woman in her 30s, two unvaccinated men in their 70s, a vaccinated man in his 60s and a vaccinated man in his 70s.

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.

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