With two more COVID-related deaths reported Wednesday, Whatcom reaches dubious milestone

Whatcom County reached a milestone nobody wanted to see, as two more COVID-related deaths were reported Wednesday, Oct. 13, bringing the county’s pandemic total to 150, according to the Washington State Department of Health’s COVID-19 Data Dashboard. The county’s 150th death was reported 121 days after its 100th was reported June 14. After the first death was reported March 19, 2020, it took the county 221 days to reach 50 reported deaths on Oct. 26, 2020, and another 231 days to reach 100.

Wednesday’s reported deaths were for people who first tested positive for COVID-19 on Aug. 29 and Sept. 24, according to the state’s epidemiological data — upping the county’s death total in August to 20 and 17 in September, The Bellingham Herald’s analysis shows. August now ties January for Whatcom’s highest number of deaths in a month since the county saw 26 during the first month of the pandemic in March 2020.