Whatcom County has had 658 probable and confirmed Covid-19 cases since last week and 12,388 in total since the start of the pandemic, according to August 31 Washington State Department of Health data. Five people in Whatcom County died from Covid-19, increasing the total deaths to 116.
Three of the people who died were fully vaccinated: a man in his 50s, a man in his 80s and a man in his 90s. In total, five fully vaccinated people have died from Covid-19 in Whatcom County. Four fully vaccinated individuals were hospitalized the week of August 15, and 27 have been hospitalized in total.
Dr. Sudhakar Karlapudi, chief medical officer at PeaceHealth St. Joseph Medical Center, said in a recent media conference that the majority of patients admitted for Covid-19 are still unvaccinated, and those who are fully vaccinated are often released within a few days.
On August 31, 37 people at PeaceHealth had either been admitted for Covid-19 or tested positive for Covid-19 after being admitted for another reason.
Among the Covid-19 cases reported this week, 147, or 26 percent, were breakthrough cases infecting individuals fully vaccinated. According to the health department, the delta variant was found in 98 percent of sequenced Covid-19 specimens as of the most recent data on August 7.
The Blaine school district area has the fourth highest Covid-19 case rate in the county at 487 cases per 100,000 people. Covid-19 case rates increased in every school district area except Meridian. Blaine school district has had 49 confirmed cases since last week.
Whatcom County Covid-19 cases have increased nine-fold since July 4, according to the health department.
Vaccine rates are lowest among the county’s Hispanic population with 38.5 percent of people vaccinated, according to the health department’s weekly Covid-19 data report that was released August 26. As of August 21, about 395 vaccine doses were given daily in the county, which is a 32 percent increase from the previous week.
For more Whatcom County information, visit whatcomcounty.us/covidvaccine and whatcomcounty.us/coviddata. State information is available at bit.ly/3r2URJj. For CDC data, visit bit.ly/39Kt4qh.
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