Covid-19 in Whatcom County, by school district boundaries: April 17

As of April 19, all people 16 and older in the U.S. are now eligible for a Covid-19 vaccine. Every adult became eligible in Washington just a few days before on April 15.

Whatcom County has had a total of 7,759 confirmed cases of Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic and 290 probable cases (8,049 total cases), according to April 19 Washington State Department of Health (DOH) data. One person died in the past week, making the county’s death toll 89; the percent of deaths per total confirmed cases is 1.1 percent.

Blaine school district more than doubled its rate of Covid-19 cases over the past two weeks, jumping from 108 cases per 100,000 people last week to 296 this week. Ferndale nearly doubled its case rate, while all other counties saw declining case rates. Nooksack Valley had the lowest case rate at 72 per 100,000 people.

The county should receive at least 8,180 first doses of vaccine this week, although this number is likely to be higher once vaccine doses from the federal retail pharmacy program are counted.

About 26.5 percent of county residents are fully vaccinated and 38.9 percent have received at least one shot of Pfizer, Moderna or Johnson and Johnson, according to the department. (The Johnson and Johnson vaccine only requires one shot to be fully effective.) The department reports that 60,389 county residents are fully vaccinated and 88,872 residents have received their first shot.

The state department of health (DOH) is still temporarily banning the use of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine after it decided to stop the use of the vaccine April 13.

Statewide, 4,669,463 vaccine doses have been administered. About 25.4 percent of people in Washington are fully vaccinated and 37.4 percent have received one dose.

Washington state has had 361,104 confirmed cases since the start of the pandemic and 27,614 probable cases (probable cases come from an antigen test). In all, 5,407 people in Washington with the virus have died as of April 19 and 21,596 have been hospitalized.

For more Whatcom County information, visit whatcomcounty.us/covidvaccine and whatcomcounty.us/coviddata. State information is available at bit.ly/3r2URJj. Vaccine locations can be found at bit.ly/3nZiMqr. For CDC data, visit bit.ly/39Kt4qh.