Covid-19 in Whatcom County, by school district boundaries: January 8

Nearly all Whatcom County school district areas have Covid-19 case rates in the 1,000s, the highest most areas have ever been since the start of the pandemic because of the highly transmissible omicron variant.

There have been 203 new Covid-19 cases in the Blaine school district area and 2,675 new cases throughout Whatcom County in the past week, according to Whatcom County Health Department data.

The Ferndale school district area had the highest Covid-19 cases in the county, with 1,316 cases per 100,000 people. Blaine school district had the fourth highest case rate with 1,077 cases per 100,000, which is nearly double the previous week. Mount Baker school district had the lowest case rate at 890 cases per 100,000.

Whatcom County has had 21,510 confirmed and probable Covid-19 cases since the start of the pandemic, according to January 3 Washington State Department of Health data. The death toll in Whatcom County is now at 211 for Covid-19 deaths, which accounts for .9 percent of total cases. In the state, 10,026 people have died from the virus.

On January 11, 53 people at PeaceHealth St. Joseph Medical Center in Bellingham had either been admitted for Covid-19 or tested positive for Covid-19 after being admitted for another reason. Since the beginning of the pandemic, 1,087 people have been hospitalized for Covid-19 in Whatcom County.

Covid-19 case rates continue to increase among all age groups. People 18-24 years old have the highest Covid-19 transmissions in the county, with 2,056 cases per 100,000 people, and people 25-44 years old follow with 1,988 cases per 100,000.

Blaine has the second highest Covid-19 vaccination rates in the county, at 74 percent, which follows Bellingham, 81 percent, at the highest. Mount Baker has the lowest vaccine rates at 49 percent. Residents aged 25-49-years-old have the highest vaccine rates among age groups in the county, with 90.5 percent of people having initiated the vaccine and 82 percent fully vaccinated.

The Whatcom County Health Department released a weekly Covid-19 report for December 25, 2021 through January 1, 2022. Six vaccinated people and 15 unvaccinated people were hospitalized that week. Of the 1,384 cases, 578 were from people fully vaccinated and 806 were from people not vaccinated. Seven people died that week: An unvaccinated man in his 40s, an unvaccinated man in his 50s, an unvaccinated man in his 60s, two unvaccinated men in their 70s, an unvaccinated woman in her 70s and a vaccinated woman in her 100s.

The Washington State Department of Health (DOH) has begun tracking Covid-19 reinfection cases among those vaccinated and unvaccinated in Washington state.

According to the first report, 1.7 percent of total cases, or 4,404 people, were reinfected with Covid-19 September 1, 2021 through December 26, 2021. Of those who reported their cases to the state, 5.1 percent were hospitalized and 0.9 percent died from being reinfected by the virus. Nearly 60 percent of people reinfected were unvaccinated.

Reinfection hinges upon Covid-19 risk exposure, vaccination status and underlying health conditions, according to DOH. Reinfection data can be viewed on the state’s Covid-19 dashboard at bit.ly/3r2URJj.

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.