186 New Cases, 118 Recoveries, 292 Active Cases Of Coronavirus Reported So Far In September
Texas Department of State Health Services had announced the 126th Hopkins County COVID death Monday. A total of 186 new cases, 118 additional recoveries and one coronavirus death have been reported for Hopkins County during the first 6 days of September 2021, leaving 392 Hopkins County residents who still actively had the virus at noon on Labor Day.
COVID Deaths
According to the DSHS County Trends dashboard, the latest confirmed COVID death among Hopkins County residents occurred on Sept. 1. That makes 42 Hopkins County residents who have died in 2021 as a direct result of coronavirus, and 11 of those deaths occurred in August, 126 county residents who’ve died from COVID-19 since July 17,2020. (Although the first Hopkins County COVID-19 case was confirmed on March 27, 2020, the county had no confirmed COVID deaths until July 17, 2020.) That’s 0.34 percent of the overall Hopkins population who’ve died from COVID-19. The fatality rate increases to 4.94 percent for all county residents who’ve had COVID since last year who have died from the virus.
DSHS only reports COVID deaths as those deaths for which COVID-19 is listed as a direct cause of death on the death certificate. A medical certifier, usually a doctor, determines the cause of death. DSHS does not include deaths of people who had COVID-19 but died of an unrelated cause, according to the DHS website.
(In other words, if person confirmed to have COVID was in a car wreck while on the way to the hospital or doctor, and perished as a result of injuries sustained in the crash, the cause of death would not be reported by the person certifying the death certificate or by DSHS as a COVID-19 fatality. Similarly, if a person who has cancer or heart disease is diagnosed with COVID and dies as a result of complications from the cancer or heart failure, the death would be listed as cancer or heart failure, not COVID.)
Fatalities are reported by where the person lived as listed on the death certificate. So, the death of a person from COVID, regardless of the place of death, would be counted in their home county’s COVID death count, not for the city or county where they died.
Case Counts
Last week, Aug. 29-Sept. 4, a total of 100 Hopkins County residents had received lab-confirmed positive COVID test results. Nine additional county residents tested positive on Sunday and 15 new lab-confirmed cases were reported on Sept. 6, 2021. That’s 124 new lab-confirmed cases in Hopkins County so far in September and 175 new lab confirmed cases since Aug. 29. A total of 1,474 Hopkins County residents have received positive lab tests results for COVID in 2021. Cumulatively. since March 12, 2021, that’s 2,553 confirmed COVID cases in people whose addresses include Hopkins County zip codes. That means 6.88 percent of all Hopkins County residents since last March have received lab confirmed COVID-19 test results.
DSHS uses the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention definition to identify confirmed COVID case. A person who has tested positive for COVID through a molecular test that looks for the virus’ genetic material is, according to the CDC, a confirmed case.
A total of 73 probable cases were also noted for Hopkins County last week, 60 of them during the first 4 days of September. Two additional probable cases have been reported this week, for a total of 75 probable cases in the past 9 days, 62 during the first 6 days of September. So far this year, 886 probable cases have been reported for Hopkins County. Since Nov. 1, 2020, when the state began tracking probable cases, 1,988 Hopkins County residents were reported as having probable COVID cases. That’s 6.34 percent of the overall population of Hopkins County considered to have COVID since March of 2020.
DSHS also uses the CDC definition when identifying and reporting probable COVID cases. A person who has either tested positive through an antigen test or has a combination of symptoms and a known exposure to someone with COVID-19 without a more likely diagnosis is considered by the CDC as a “probable case” of COVID.
Combined, Hopkins County has had 186 new cases reported during the first six days of September, and 250 new confirmed and probable cases reported since Aug. 29. Cumulatively, 2,360 Hopkins County residents have had COVID in 2021 and 4,541 since March 27, 2021. That’s 12.25 percent of the county population who’ve had COVID (lab-confirmed and probable cases) since March of last year.
A total of 147 Hopkins County residents were reported to have recovered from COVID-19 last week, 87 from Sept. 1-4, 2021. Fourteen additional recoveries were reported on Sunday and 17 on Monday, for a total of 118 Hopkins County residents who’ve gotten over the virus in September. The 31 new recoveries this week increase the total so far this year to 1,957. Cumulatively, that’s 4,024 of the 4,541 Hopkins County COVID cases reported as recovered.
The active COVID-19 case count remains high, but has continued to decline over the past three days, from 403 on Friday to 397 on Saturday, 395 Sunday and 392 Sept. 6. Last week, the daily case count was an average 385.25, with a low of 293 on Monday and peaking at 403 on Friday.
To put that into perspective, nine county residents tested positive and six recovered from Sept. 1-6, 2020, for a cumulative total on Sept. 6, 2020 of 252 cumulative cases (0.68 percent of the overall population) and 202 recoveries since March, with 12 active cases and eight COVID fatalities (0.2 percent of the total population and 3.17 percent of the overall cases.)
Hospital Reports
On Sept. 5, 2021, Trauma Service Area hospital which includes all hospitals in Northeast Texas including CHRISTUS Mother Frances Hospital Sulphur Springs, held at total of 194 COVID-19 patients, including 119 in general beds, 75 in ICU beds, 24 on ventilators and 20 who COVID patients who were admitted in the previous 24 hours.
That’s out of 843 total staffed hospital beds, which contained 653 patients, leaving 116 hospital beds and one adult ICU bed available, along with 59 available ventilators.
COVID Hospitalizations accounted for 23.01 percent of the total hospital capacity in TSA on Sept. 5, 2021, the second lowest in the past week, and down for the second time in as many days. Overall, COVID patients accounted for 23.57 percent of the hospital capacity in TSA F over the past 7 day (Aug. 30-Sept. 5) in TSA F.
