Whatcom sees 290th COVID-related death, but infection, hospitalization rates remain steady

Another Whatcom County resident’s death has been linked to COVID-19, but infection and hospital rates continued to remain steady.

Whatcom has now had 290 COVID-related deaths during the pandemic, the Washington State Department of Health COVID-19 Data Dashboard reported on Wednesday, March 30.

Whatcom had 41 new COVID-19 cases reported by the state on Wednesday, bringing its pandemic total to 37,191 cases.

St. Joseph hospital in Bellingham reported it was treating seven COVID-related patients Thursday, March 31, which was unchanged from Wednesday’s report. Over the past week, the hospital’s daily snapshot of COVID-related patients is 6.0 per day, which represents 2.4% of the 252 inpatient beds at the hospital and is up from an average of 5.3 patients one week earlier.