August 2021 has been the worst month yet, with the highest monthly COVID case count of 397 confirmed cases and 573 total cases reported for Hopkins County, and September is already off to a fast pace as well with 61 new COVID-19 cases reported by Texas Department of State Health Services on Sept. 1, 2021.
Prior to August 2021, the most lab-confirmed cases recorded for Hopkins County during a single month this year was 247 in January. The 397 lab-confirmed COVID cases recorded for Hopkins County in August even exceeds the previous pandemic high 323 lab-confirmed COVID-19 cases reported in October 2020.
If the first day of September 2021 is anything to go by, this month’s case count could be even higher than August, with 43 new lab-confirmed cases reported on Wednesday. The last time that many Hopkins County residents were reported to have lab-confirmed cases of COVID in a single day was Dec. 3, 2020; a total of 44 new confirmed cases were recorded that day. In fact, that’s more cases confirmed among Texans with a Hopkins County zip code on Sept. 1, 2021, than the cumulative 32 new confirmed cases reported during the entire month of April 2021. Overall, from Jan. 1-Sept. 1, 2021, 1,393 Hopkins County residents have receive lab-confirmed positive COVID-19 test results. Cumulatively, since March of 2020, 2,472 lab-confirmed COVID cases have been reported for Hopkins County.
So far, the most probable COVID cases reported in a single month since the state on Dec. 11 began daily reporting the number of cases identified through antigen testing or a combination of symptoms and a known exposure without a more likely diagnosis was 193 in December, followed by the 176 in August 2021 and 153 in January 2021. Eighteen new probable cases were logged for Hopkins County on Sept. 1, one more than on Aug. 4; the most probable cases reported for Hopkins County in a single day in 2021 so far has been 21 on Jan. 1, and so far during the pandemic has been 22 on Dec. 16, 2021. Overall, that’s 824 probable COVID cases reported in 2021 and 3,906 since the state began tracking the data last fall.
COVID Category 8/31/21 9/1/21 New Molecular Cases 22 43 Confirmed Cases 2429 2472 New probable Cases 10 18 Cumulative Probable Cases 1926 1944 Active Cases 324 368 Daily Recoveries 16 17 Total Recoveries 3906 3923 Cumulative Total cases 4355 4416 COVID Unit 27 25 Deaths 0 0 Total Fatalities 125 125
That’s 573 Hopkins County residents reported to have COVID-19 during the month of August, even more than the 483 new cases reported in December 2020 and 400 in January 2021. Cumulatively, since March 2020, a total of 4,416 COVID-19 cases have been recorded for Hopkins County, including the 61 new cases reported on Sept. 1.
Unfortunately, for the first time in more than 2 months COVID fatalities were reported for Hopkins County. Prior to Aug. 6, the last time a county resident died from COVID was May 30. While only four county residents died from the virus in May of 2021, 11 Hopkins County residents’ deaths in August have been confirmed by death certificate as a direct result of COVID-19 – the same number of COVID deaths reported for Hopkins County in both September and November of 2020. In 2021, the only month so far with more COIVD-19 deaths was January, when 15 died for the virus. The worst months of the pandemic so far in terms of deaths were October and December when 29 and 26 Hopkins County residents died from the virus. That brings the total number of COVID fatalities to 41 so far this year and 125 since the pandemic began during spring break in March of 2020 for Hopkins County.
A total of 368 Hopkins County residents were estimated to have recovered from COVID-19 as of Aug. 31, 2021, five more than in January 2021, but as many as reported in December, which included 810 recoveries on Dec. 11, the day DSHS started included probable new cases and recoveries. Overall, that’s 1,849 COVID recoveries in 2021 and 3,923 cumulatively for Hopkins County since the pandemic began in 2020.
That left 324 people who still actively had COVID-19 on Aug. 31, the most Hopkins County residents reported to actively have COVID during the first seven months of the year was 263 active cases on Jan. 23, 2021, and the most Hopkins County residents said to actively have COIVD-19 on any previous day during the pandemic was 273 on Dec. 14, 2020. The 324 active cases is quite a jump from the 108 on Aug. 1, 2021. In fact, July 31 was the first time since April 6, 2021 that the active case count has been a three digit number – the active case count for Hopkins dropped from 136 on April 6 to no cases from April 7-20, 2021. The active case count on Sept. 1 rose to 368.
