COVID-19 case rates increasing in Whatcom County schools, state reports 5 more deaths

COVID-19 case rates in Whatcom County schools more than tripled the week after Spring Break compared to rates before the break, and they have continued to climb.

Though the Mount Baker School District has not yet updated its COVID-19 dashboard with data from the week of April 10-16, the six other school districts in the county reported a total 80 COVID cases that week. Based on student enrollment, that works out to approximately 4.0 cases per 1,000 students, The Bellingham Herald’s analysis found. That’s the highest rate county schools have seen since they averaged 4.9 cases per 1,000 students the week of Feb. 13-19.

The week before Spring Break (March 27 to April 2), all seven school districts reported 26 total cases, or approximately 1.2 per 1,000 students. There have been 98 cases reported so far last week, with just the Bellingham and Ferndale school districts reporting, which works out to a rate of 9.5 cases per 1,000 students in those two districts.

After seeing its number of COVID-related patients increase to a high of seven on Thursday, April 21, St. Joseph’s hospital in Bellingham reported that number has steadily decreased and stood at four patients as of Monday morning, April 25.