BELLINGHAM, Wash. — Whatcom County is teetering on the edge of non-compliance as we look to move to Phase 3 of the “safe start” re-opening plan.
To move to the next phase we can only average four new cases per day, but the County Health Department says we’ve been exceeding that.
And cases among young people are ratcheting up, with 74% of the new cases diagnosed in June among people under 30.
The department says that’s likely due to recent social gatherings.
And outbreaks have moved from long term care facilities to workplaces and social gatherings as we’ve become more active.
Bright spots are the expanded availability of COVID-19 tests and adequate capacity in our local health care system.