Whatcom’s COVID-related hospitalization rate creeps up, as 15 more residents hospitalized

Whatcom County had 15 new COVID-related hospitalizations reported by the state on Tuesday, as its weekly hospitalization rate crept back into double digits. Whatcom County now has had 940 residents hospitalized with COVID-19 symptoms, according to the Washington State Department of Health’s COVID-19 Data Dashboard on Tuesday, Nov. 30. St. Joseph hospital reported Wednesday, Dec. 1, that it was treating 29 COVID-related patients, which is down one from its last report.

But Whatcom’s COVID-related hospitalization rate increased to 10.5 per 100,000 residents for the most recently completed epidemiological data from Nov. 15-21, the state reported. That is higher than the 9.7 rate from one week earlier (Nov. 8-14) and the first time the county had a rate higher than 10 since Nov. 13.

In the four weeks between Oct. 31 and Nov. 27, 75% of Whatcom County’s 84 COVID-related hospitalizations have been in residents 50 and older, including 40 hospitalizations (48%) among residents 65 and older, The Bellingham Herald’s analysis of age-range data released by the state on Monday, Nov. 28, shows.