Whatcom returns to CDC’s ‘medium’ COVID risk level, but 3 regions in county at ‘low’ level

Whatcom County returned to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control an Prevention “medium” community COVID-19 risk level on Thursday, meaning masking is once again recommended for those who are at high risk of serious complications from COVID and those who could expose those at high risk.

But if the CDC boiled its data down to the school district level, three of the seven regions within the county would actually receive “low” grades, The Bellingham Herald found by analyzing the latest location data released Thursday, June 9, by the Whatcom County Health Department. The regions covered by the Meridian, Mount Baker and Nooksack Valley school districts all had weekly COVID infection and hospitalization rates that would qualify them for the “low” community level, where masking is recommended only for those experiencing symptoms, who test positive or have been possibly exposed to someone with COVID, The Herald’s analysis found.

But “medium” rankings in the Bellingham, Blaine, Ferndale and Lynden regions were enough to push the county, as a whole, back into the “medium” community level for the third time since the CDC began releasing county-by-county risk levels earlier this spring and the second time in the past three weeks.