Having stayed comparatively unscathed for the reason that coronavirus outbreak started, Whatcom County is now heading arduous.
WHATCOM COUNTY, Washington – Whatcom County had comparatively few instances of coronavirus in 2020. Now the illness has lastly caught up with the area.
Ten months after the Bellingham’s Village Books pandemic, it is the identical story over and over.
“It is like Groundhog Day,” mentioned co-owner Kelly Evert. “It is actually.”
COVID-19 instances are rising quickly throughout the county and are presently reaching report ranges. The scenario is so severe that officers at St. Joseph Hospital lastly needed to ban guests to the constructing this week.
Leaders of the Nooksack and Lummi Indian tribes have now instructed their folks to hunt refuge within the reservations.
- It took the county 156 days to register its first 1,000 coronavirus instances.
- It took 100 days for the subsequent thousand.
- And solely 23 days to leap from 3,000 to 4,000 instances.
“It is formidable to see the numbers now,” mentioned Evert.
At the very least 80 eating places and bars have closed for the reason that starting of the pandemic.
The numbers for the bookstore are disappointing too, as a COVID Christmas will be seen in folks’s paperbacks.
“We shudder after we take into consideration what it could be like if we did not have the assist of the group,” mentioned co-owner Paul Hanson. “We’re actually unhappy in regards to the shops which have closed throughout this time and look ahead to seeing everybody on the opposite aspect of this tunnel.”
Canadian officers now say the border will stay closed to all non-essential journey for not less than one other 5 weeks.
RELATED: The US-Canada border closure has been prolonged to February 21
Canadian vacationers are an vital a part of Whatcom County’s economic system. Roughly 10 million guests cross the Washington border annually to eat and store. Evert mentioned their presence is sorely missed.
“You’ll be able to completely really feel it,” she defined. “Once I drive on the autobahn, it was very stuffed with automobiles. Now, not many automobiles drive to and from Canada at 5 o’clock.”
Ten months later, Hanson hopes to show the web page of this darkish chapter as quickly as attainable, feeling the deep results of the coronavirus.
“We have now a unbelievable workers and a unbelievable group. We’re all joyful to be on this foxhole collectively,” he mentioned. “We’ll get by this.”
