WHATCOM COUNTY, Wash. – There have now been over 20,000 cases of COVID-19 in Whatcom County since the pandemic began.
“The data we are seeing right now on our Washington Health Department sites and other sites is reflective of what happened maybe around the Christmas holiday season,” said Peacehealth St. Joseph Chief Medical Officer Dr. Sudhakar Karlapudi.
Karlapudi said the latest data from the State Department of Health shows that 371 new cases were confirmed during the holiday weekend.
That’s the biggest increase in cases for Whatcom County since September.
“The current increase in cases reflects the highly infectious nature of omicron,” said Karlapudi. “By the end of this week, we will know the impact of how the virus has spread during travel for the Christmas holiday.”
So far this month, five people have died due to COVID-19 and another eight deaths are being investigated to determine if they were COVID-related.
But there is some good news when it comes to preventing future cases.
As of December 18th, 17,100 doses of the COVID vaccine have been administered.
Hospitalizations are also declining, dropping from 11 new admissions on December 1st to 3 as of the 18th.
“Today we are at 30 hospitalized patients from COVID,” said Karlapudi. “So, we are not at our peak from the hospitalization standpoint.”
You can find all the data on COVID cases on the State Department of Health’s website.
To listen to the full interview with Dr. Karlapudi, visit our Podcast page.