Hopkins County/Sulphur Springs Emergency Management officials in the Nov. 30 COVID-19 update reported 90 active COVID-19 cases in Hopkins County and 25 patients in the COVID Unit at CHRISTUS Mother Frances Hospital-Sulphur Springs. Texas Department of State Health Services also on Monday, Nov. 30 reported the COVID-19 percentage of hospital patients in Trauma Service Area F remained above 15 percent for the third consecutive day in a row.
HC/SSEM Nov. 30 COVID-19 Update
According to the HC/SSEM Nov. 30 COVID-19 update, 35 Hopkins County residents received positive lab-confirmed molecular COIVD-19 results over the last week. According to DSHS reports, two Hopkins County residents tested positive for COVID-19 on Nov. 24, seven on Nov. 25, 21 on Nov. 26, four on Nov. 28 and one on Nov. 30. That increases the active case count from 56 last Monday, Nov. 23, to 90 on Monday, Nov. 30, according to DSHS Case Counts dashboard and Data Over Time by County reports.
That also makes 138 additional Hopkins County residents who received positive molecular COVID-19 test results this month, That’s less than half the total number of new cases reported in October, but still more than any other month since the pandemic began. From March-June 24, only 50 Hopkins County residents had received positive COVID-19 results. The totals picked up from there, with 89 reported during July, 91 new cases in August, 118 in September and 323 new cases in October. That makes a total of 833 Hopkins County residents (2.25 percent of the population) who have received positive molecular COVID-19 test results.
An additional 47 Hopkins County residents received positive COVID-19 antigen test results over the last week, the fewest number of antigen positives reported since September. That could be due in part to the fact that many medical clinics were closed one or more day last week in observance of Thanksgiving.
Positive antigen test results are considered by the case to be “probable” cases and are not included in the daily case counts reported by DSHS and weekly by HC/SSEM.
While DSHS and HC/SSEM have reported no recoveries by patients who tested positive on molecular tests for COIVD-19 since the 42 recoveries reported Nov. 9, DSHS notified HC/SSEM on Monday, Nov. 30 that 55 Hopkins County residents who had received positive antigen results were considered to have recovered from the virus on Monday. That makes 744 of 823 residents who received positive antigen results who have recovered since March, according to the Nov. 30 COVID-19 update.
Combined, that’s 82 positive COVID-19 results (molecular and antigen) received by Hopkins County residents in the last week. That leaves 90 active molecular cases and 79 active probable antigen cases Monday, according to the Nov. 30 COVID-19 update.
Hospital Reports
HC/SSEM officials in the Nov. 30 COVID-19 update also reported 25 patients in the COVID-19 unit at CHRISUS Mother Frances Hospital-Sulphur Springs, a new record high reported for the COVID unit since HC/SSEM began reporting them in August.. On only one of the last five hospital reports from HC/SSEM has the patient count at CMFH-SS been less than 20: there were 22 patients in the COVID unit on Nov. 23, 24 on Nov. 24 and 27, and 22 on Nov. 26, and 19 on Nov. 25. That’s 25 beds filled out of a possible 35 beds available for COVID-19 patients.
In Trauma Service Area F, which includes most of Northeast Texas, including Hopkins County and CMFH-SS, there were reported to be 1,056 total staffed beds, including 965 total staffed inpatient beds, leaving 382 available hospital beds, six available ICU beds and 66 available ventilators as of 4:50 p.m. Nov. 30, according to the DSHS Nov. 30 report.
DSHS reported that 169 COVID patients accounted for 16 percent of the 583 hospitalizations in Trauma Service Area F on Monday, that’s down from 16.25 percent on Sunday.
Monday, Nov. 30, marked the third consecutive day COVID-19 patients have accounted for more than 15 percent of the total capacity of all hospitals in the region; COVID-19 hospitalizations accounted for 15.76 percent of total hospitalizations on Nov. 28.
The state monitors COVID-19 percentages of total hospital capacity daily to determine “high hospitalizations” among TSAs.
According to Governor’s Executive Order GA-32 enacted on Oct. 14, when a TSA’s hospitalized molecular lab-confirmed COVID-19 patient percentage exceeds 15 percent of the total capacity for seven consecutive days, the TSA is considered to have a high COVID-19 hospitalization requires more stringent COVID-19 guidelines and requirements for those areas. That means with “any business establishment that otherwise would have a 75 percent occupancy or operating limit” will be reduced to operating at 50 percent occupancy. For additional information about GA-32 click here.
Across the state there are 8,900 lab-confirmed positive COIVD-19 patients in Texas hospitals, Three were 63,412 total staffed hospital beds, 57,580 total staffed inpatient beds, 13,020 available ICU beds, 840 available ICU beds, 7,404 available ventilators in Texas hospitals late Monday afternoon, Nov. 30, according to the DHS report.
HHS COVID-19 Reports
One additional resident death was reported at Sulphur Springs Health & Rehab, for a total of seven COVID-19 resident fatalities reported at the facility as of Nov. 13 and a total of 38 resident fatalities at Sulphur Springs nursing home as of Nov. 16, the most recent COVID-19 nursing facility data available from HHS on Nov. 30.
There were 12 active employee and five active resident COVID-19 cases reported for the four nursing facilities in Sulphur Springs, one more than on Nov. 10 but 4 less than on Nov. 13.
On Nov. 16, Carriage House Manor continued to have four active employee cases (up from 1 on Nov. 10) and four active resident cases (up two from Nov. 10).
Rock Creek Health and Rehab had five active employee cases (up from none on Nov. 10) but no resident cases on Nov. 16 (down from one on Nov. 10), according to arrest reports.
SSHR’s active employee count dropped from 10 on Nov. 10 to six on Nov. 13 and two on Nov. 16. SSHR was reported to have three COVID-19 cases on Nov. 10, down from 13 n Nov. 9, but only one active resident case on Nov. 16.
Sunny Springs Nursing & Rehab picked up one active COVID-19 case on Nov. 13 and still had one on Nov. 16. The facility had no active COVID-19 cases on Nov. 16, according to the Nov. 30 HHS Covid-19 nursing facility report.
The only active COIVD-19 case reported Nov. 16 for Sulphur Springs assisted living facilities was an employee at Wesley House, HHS reported on Nov. 30.
There were no active COIVD-19 cases reported for Hopkins County licensed child care centers, school-age programs, and before and after-school programs on Nov. 29.
COVID-19 Fatalities
Of the 833 Hopkins County residents (2.24 percent of the population) who have received positive molecular results, 52 (6.24 percent) residents were confirmed by death certificate to have died from COVID-19.
Only one other county in the eight counties immediately around Hopkins had a higher fatality rate among positive cases: 8 percent (18 residents) of the 225 Red River County residents who have received positive COVID-19 results died from the virus.
Two other counties have had more fatalities than Hopkins, but also have larger populations and more positive molecular COVID-19 cases, so their fatality percentages are lower than those of Hopkins County, according to the Nov. 30 DSHS Case Counts dashboards.
Hunt County as of Nov. 30 had received confirmation 59 of the 2,740 residents who have tested positive on molecular tests died from COVID-19. That’s a positivity percentage of 2.78 percent of the population, and a death rate of 2.15 percent among positive cases and 0.06 percent among the overall population.
In Lamar County, 67 of the 2,674 positive cases have died from COVID-19. That’s a positivity rate of 5.37 percent among the overall population, and death rates of 2.5 percent of COVID-19 positive residents and 0.13 percent of the overall population.
Only two other counties have had more residents test positive for COVID, but both have had fewer deaths, so their COVID-19 fatality percentages are smaller as well.
In Wood County, 891 of the more than 45,500 residents have tested positive for COVID-19 since March, for a positivity rate of 1.96 percent. Of the 891 positive cases, there have been 49 COVID-19 fatalities. That’s 0.11 percent of the total population of Wood County and 5.5 percent of positive cases that have resulted in death due COVID-19.
In Titus County, which has about 4,250 fewer residents than Hopkins County, 1,793 residents (5.47 percent) have tested positive for COVID-19 since March, including 41 residents who died from COVID-19. That’s a COVID-19 fatality rate of 2.29 percent among infected Titus County residents and 0.13 percent of the total population.
A second COVID-19 fatality has been reported from among the 50 Delta County residents who have tested positive for COVID-19. That’s a COVID-19 positivity rate of 0.94 percent percent, but death rates of 4. percent of infected residents and 0.04 percent of the Delta County population of just over 5,300.
Ten (4.02 percent) of the 249 COIVD-19 positive residents in Franklin County have died from COVID-19.
