Every Monday, we update two charts on our COVID-19 Data Page showing local data that are not yet part of the interactive data dashboard. This week we’ve also added county-level metrics associated with Washington’s phased reopening plan. 

You may have noticed that the data in our COVID-19 Data Dashboard is only current through July 9 due to issues with the state database. It will be updated this evening. 

The two regularly updated charts include:

• A chart showing the percentage of confirmed cases by race and ethnicity.
• A map showing the rate of confirmed cases by geographic region in Whatcom County.

Whatcom-Specific Risk Assessment Dashboard Added

We’ve added a local, Whatcom County-specific version of the Washington State COVID-19 Risk Assessment Dashboard directly onto our data page. This dashboard features data about the metrics associated with the Safe Start Reopening plan:

• The rate of new cases over the past 14 days.
• How many hospital beds are in use. 
• How much testing has been performed in our county. 

Keep in mind that two of the metrics report the same thing in different ways: the number of individuals tested for each new case and the percent of people testing positive. To reopen safely, our goal is to have 50 people tested for each new case that is reported. That’s the same as having a 2% positivity rate. These two metrics are different perspectives on the same data.

Learn EVEN MORE about Data!

There is a lot of detailed information in our new data dashboard. Our Data Dashboard Explainer and COVID-19 Data FAQs are great reference tools to explain the data and answer your questions. Links to these documents are provided at the top of our COVID-19 Data page.  

We are committed to sharing accurate and relevant data about COVID-19 with our community. Data provides the information we need to safely “turn the dial” for reopening. We all want to have more contact with loved ones, friends, and co-workers and it will take a community wide effort to make sure we can all do so safely. Check back here regularly to monitor our community’s progress.