Daily COVID-19 case and patient counts in COVID hospital units across the state have continued to decline over the last few week, but new cases do continue to be reported daily at the county, regional and state level. From March 1 to March 4 COVID-19 case counts in Hopkins County increased by 22, while only three recoveries were reported; three COVID-19 fatalities have also been confirmed for Hopkins County in the last seven days.
COVID-19 Case Counts
Since Monday, a dozen Hopkins County residents received positive molecular COVID-19 tests results — three each on March 1 and 4, four on March 2 and two on March three. That’s 49 less than the first four days of December, 33 less than Jan. 1-4, 28 less than Feb. 1-4, its still nearly twice as many as were reported July 1-4. In the last seven days, 22 new lab-confirmed molecular COVID-19 cases have been reported for Hopkins County, increasing the cumulative total since March 27, 2020, the day Hopkins County officials were notified of the first known case of COVID-19 in a county resident, to 1,523 on March 4, 2021, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services March 4 COVID-19 Case Counts dashboard and Confirmed Cases Over Time By County report.
Ten additional probable COVID-19 cases were also reported for Hopkins County during the first four days of March, which is 25 fewer new cases than were reported Feb. 1-4 and 32 less than from Jan. 1-4. Cumulatively, 1,523 probable COVID-19 cases have been reported for Hopkins County. That’s 1,523 Hopkins County residents who have either received a positive antigen COVID-19 test result or who have had a combination of symptoms and a known exposure to someone with COVID-19 without a more likely diagnosis. That number likely should be higher as DSHS did not initially require healthcare providers to report antigen and probable cases when the additional testing methods first became available and and were utilized.
That’s 7.93 percent of the population reported to have had either a lab-confirmed or probable case of COVID-19 since March 21, 2020, the date the state began tracking and reporting COVID-19 cases to counties.
Only three Hopkins County residents were reported March 1-4 to have recovered from COVID-19, two on Wednesday and one on Thursday. That’s significantly less than in previous months: 25 recoveries were reported from Feb. 1-4, 42 from Jan. 1-4 and 82 from Dec. 1-4. Cumulatively, 2,664 of the combined 2,942 Hopkins County residents reported since March 27, 2020 to have COVID-19 have recovered from the virus, according to DSHS March 4 COVID-19 Case Counts dashboard and the New Probable Cases over Time by County report.
Over the last week, three additional Hopkins County COVID-19 fatalities were confirmed by cause on death certificates. Cumulatively, that’s 103 Hopkins County residents (0.28 percent of the total population) who have died in just under a year as a direct result of COVID-19. Three of the last four deaths reported occurred in February, increasing the total so far for February to four — one each on Feb. 7, Feb. 10, Feb. 20 and Feb. 26. The fourth death is an older case that had not yet been reported to DSHS; it reportedly occurred on Dec. 23, one in a stretch from Dec. 22-25 in which daily COVID-19 deaths occurred, according to the DSHS March 4 COVID-19 Fatalities over Time by County report. That’s a 6.76 percent fatality rate of confirmed COVID-19 cases and 3.5 percent among all COVID-19 cases, confirmed and probable.
That left 175 Hopkins County residents who, as of Thursday afternoon, March 4, still had COVID-19.
The patient count in the COVID unit at CHRISTUS Mother Frances Hospital-Sulphur Springs has continued to decrease from 10-14 patients in February down the last three days to single digit numbers: nine on Tuesday, seven Wednesday and six Thursday.
The 54 COVID-19 patients accounted for only 4.87 percent of the total hospital capacity on March 3 in Trauma Service Area F, which includes most of Northeast Texas including Hopkins County, and has remained below 14 percent (143 cases) since Jan. 31. TSA-F hasn’t had a COVID hospital percentage that low since July 17, 2020, according to the DSHS report. On Feb. 3 the 134 COVID patients accounted for 12.33 percent of the hospital capacity in TSA-F. On Jan. 3, 210 COVID-19 patients accounted for 20.21 percent of the area hospital capacity.
COVID hospitalizations across the state have continued to decline over the last 2 months, declining from 13,308 patients in Texas hospitals on Jan. 4 to 10,523 on Feb. 2 and 5,263 on March 3.
