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Whatcom County’s weekly COVID-19 infection rate last week dropped below 200 for the first time since late April, and the state reduced the number of COVID-related deaths in the county by four.

Whatcom County now has had a total of 43,069 COVID cases during the pandemic, according to the latest report Friday, July 1, by the Washington State Department of Health COVID-19 Data Dashboard, including 37,707 confirmed cases and 5,362 probable cases, resulting from a positive antigen test not confirmed by a molecular test. The county’s 466 reported cases last week were up from the 435 reported by the state a week earlier.

But Whatcom’s weekly COVID-19 infection rate dropped to 191 new cases per 100,000 residents for the most recently completed epidemiological data from June 16 to June 22. That was down from the county’s rate of 208 one week earlier (June 9-15) and the lowest rate Whatcom County has seen since it stood at 183 for April 20-26.

St. Joseph’s hospital in Bellingham reported it was treating 14 COVID-related patients on Tuesday, July 5. Over the past week, the hospital’s daily snapshot has averaged 14.6 COVID-related patients per day, which is up from 10.4 one week earlier (June 21-27) and represents 5.8% of the hospital’s 252 inpatient beds.