Holiday hangover? Whatcom smashes single-day record with 171 new COVID cases Thursday

Whatcom County smashed a record it had no interest in ever approaching, as the Washington State Department of Health reported 171 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, Jan. 7.

While that matched the 171 new cases the state Department of Health reported four days earlier, the cases reported Sunday, Jan. 3, represented three days of data — an average of 57 cases per day — following the New Year’s holiday and no data being released Saturday due to a processing error by the state.