Whatcom sees 3 deaths Thursday and tops 5,000 total COVID-19 cases with 73 confirmed

It took Whatcom County only 13 days to surpass another dubious milestone during the COVID-19 pandemic, as the 73 cases reported by the Washington State Department of Health dashboard Thursday, Jan. 21, pushed the county over past 5,000 total confirmed cases.

Making Thursday’s numbers release even more difficult was the reporting of three additional related deaths.

Statewide, 125 deaths were reported Thursday, and the dashboard said the high number was due to the clearing of a “data processing backlog” from Jan. 14-20.