The number of new virus cases is on the rise in Whatcom County

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After a lull, the number of new confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Whatcom County is on the rise again. In the week ending May 2, 29 people in Whatcom County tested positive for the new coronavirus, up from 11 the previous week and 15 the week before.  

In total, 319 in Whatcom County have tested positive for the virus and 27 have died. The health department revised the death toll down from 28, as someone previously included in the total was discovered to have died for reasons other than Covid-19, though they did have the virus.

Many of the new cases are a part of clusters of cases of people who came into contact at small private gatherings or other specific places, county health officials said at a May 4 online media briefing.  

Some of the increase could also be explained by an increase in local ability to test for the virus, and the health department broadening its recommendations for who should seek testing. The county encouraged all people with symptoms to seek testing in an April 30 press release; previously testing was limited to those with symptoms who also met additional criteria, such as being an essential worker, for example.

Of the 3,128 total test results tracked by the county health department, 502 of those results came back since April 28. Each test result, whether positive or negative, represents a single individual; those tested more than once are only counted once in the numbers the health department publishes, health department communications specialist Melissa Morin said. The number of test results isn't a perfect measure of how many have been tested, as there is a delay due to some labs not reporting results electronically, health department director Erika Lautenbach said.

 As of May 4, the percent of positive test results out of total test results for Whatcom County is 10.2 percent. That’s improved a percentage point in the past week – Whatcom County's percent positive on April 28 was 11.2 percent – but it lags the state’s percent positive rate, which was 7.2 percent as of May 2.

Health department officials say Whatcom County has the ability to test about 2,400 people a week, but have tested just over 3,100 in the past two months. Though local testing capacity far exceeds the number of people getting tested, people without symptoms or people without a referral from a health care provider cannot get tested at the county's drive-through testing site in Bellingham.

In the May 4 media briefing, Lautenbach said doing so brings up issues about how to limit testing for people who seek it repeatedly, and other “logistical and practical considerations.”

“We recognize that there’s more capacity but we also don’t want to overwhelm the system and not be able to test folks who are symptomatic because we’ve opened it up to asymptomatic individuals,” she said.

Morin, the health department's communications specialist, added that some people without symptoms are getting tested, including people who are close contacts of confirmed cases or when there is an outbreak associated with a business or nursing facility.

While the county has the ability to collect an estimated 2,400 test specimens per week, county health officials estimate that up to 10 times that amount could be processed by local labs and the state's public health lab.

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