Whatcom County’s weekly reported new COVID cases tick up, as state reports 2 new deaths

The number of new COVID-19 cases reported in Whatcom County ticked up slightly for a second straight week, and the county had two more deaths linked to COVID.

Whatcom County now has had a total of 43,552 COVID cases reported during the pandemic, according to the Friday, July 8, report on the Washington State Department of Health COVID-19 Data Dashboard, including 38,154 confirmed cases and 5,398 probable cases, resulting from a positive antigen test not confirmed by a molecular test. The county’s 483 new reported cases last week were up from the 466 reported by the state a week earlier, which was up from 435 cases reported the week of June 19-25.

Whatcom’s weekly COVID-19 reported case rate increased to 204 new cases per 100,000 residents for the most recently completed epidemiological data from June 23 to June 29, up from a rate of 191 from one week earlier (June 16-22). St. Joseph’s hospital in Bellingham reported it was treating seven COVID-related patients on Monday, July 11. Over the past week, the hospital’s daily snapshot has averaged 12.7 COVID-related patients per day, which is down from 14.6 one week earlier (June 28 to July 3) and represents 5.0% of the hospital’s 252 inpatient beds.