Covid-19 in Whatcom County, by school district: July 31

Thirty-six cases of the Delta variant have been detected in Whatcom County since the first case was reported early July. The Washington State Department of Health (DOH) said in an August 3 press release that Covid-19 hospitalizations are the highest they’ve been in 2021.

State hospitalizations have increased more than 20 percent from last week, according to DOH. The Delta variant now makes up 76 percent of DNA sequenced cases of Covid-19 across Washington.

Whatcom County has had a total of 10,452 confirmed and probable cases of Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic, according to August 2 DOH data. The county had one death in the past week, increasing the number of deaths to 109.

PeaceHealth St. Joseph Hospital is treating nine people with confirmed Covid-19 cases, a two-person increase from last week, according to PeaceHealth.

Covid-19 case rates increased in every school district, except for Mount Baker. Blaine school district increased from 121 to 190 cases per 100,000 people last week. The school district has had 25 confirmed cases since last week.

As of August 1, 56 percent of all county residents are fully vaccinated and 5.2 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 127,689 county residents are fully vaccinated and 11,833 are in the process of becoming fully vaccinated.

Statewide, 8,179,883 vaccine doses have been administered. Right now, 52.8 percent of the state’s total population is fully vaccinated and 62 percent of people eligible for the Covid-19 vaccine are fully vaccinated.

Washington state has had 481,357 confirmed and probable cases since the start of the pandemic (the 42,216 probable cases came from an antigen test). In all, 6,136 people in Washington with the virus have died (80 in the last week, which is almost double the week before). In the state, 27,076 have been hospitalized (510 in the last week).

Governor Jay Inslee announced late July the state will follow CDC guidance recommending people wear a mask indoors when Covid-19 may be transmitted more easily.

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