It’s been a month since Whatcom schools opened — what impact is COVID having?

Nearly one in three COVID-19 cases within Whatcom County has been among the county’s school-aged population since schools began opening their doors to students in early September. The Bellingham Herald’s analysis of the most recent age-group data on the Washington State Department of Health’s COVID-19 Data Dashboard found that there have been 567 COVID cases in residents 19 and younger over the four weeks between Aug. 29 and Sept. 25. Of those, 333 residents (59%) were 11 and younger, meaning they were too young to be vaccinated against COVID-19.