COVID infection rates climb in all 7 Whatcom regions, but all still in CDC’s ‘low’ range

The weekly COVID-19 infection rates in all seven Whatcom County school district regions increased last week, according to the most recent data, but all seven would remain in the “low” community level used by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.

One week after seeing all seven regions post weekly infection rates below 10 for the first time since the Whatcom County Health Department began reporting regional data within the county, all seven regions now find themselves with double-figure rates, and one is knocking on the door of moving back over 100. But as a whole, Whatcom County remained well within CDC’s “low” community level for a fifth straight week.

The Washington State Department of Health COVID-19 Data Dashboard showed Whatcom had a weekly infection rate of 54 new cases per 100,000 residents and a weekly infection rate of 2.2 new patients per 100,000 residents for the most recently completed epidemiological data March 15-21.

St. Joseph’s hospital in Bellingham reported it was treating seven COVID-related patients on Friday, April 1, which was unchanged from its last two reports and gave it an average daily snapshot of 6.1 patients over the past week. That represents 2.4% of the hospital’s 252 inpatient beds, meaning the county, as a whole, is well below all three thresholds used by the CDC to determine COVID community levels.