COVID transmission rates across the Country, state and county continue to be high this week, increasing 2.7 percent across the United States over the past 7 days compared to the previous 7, according to the Centers for Disease Control. A total of 627,752 active cases were reported in Texas, including 483 Hopkins County residents who actively had COVID-19 at 1:40 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 11, 2022, according to Texas Department of State Health Sources COVID-19 Case Count dashboard.
A total of 46,795 new Texas COVID-19 cases were confirmed by testing on Jan. 11, 2022, up from approximately 42,000 new confirmed COVID-19 cases among Texans on Monday. While that’s the most new cases confirmed for Texas in the past 7 days, the record so far this month has been the estimated 51,500 new COVID-19 cases reported on Jan. 3. Another 9,864 probable Texas cases and 110 new Texas COVID-19 fatalities confirmed on Jan. 11, 2022.
The positivity rate for Hopkins County for the 7 days ending Jan. 11 was 44.32 percent, according to the CDC 7-day Metrics.
In 2021, a total of 120 Hopkins County residents had been confirmed as new cases during the first 11 days of January. Nearly that many Hopkins County residents were reported to have been confirmed COVID-19 cases during the first 7 days of 2022. A total of 115 Hopkins County residents received confirmation by testing that they had COVID from Jan. 1-7, and another 81 county residents have been confirmed during the past 4 days to have COVID including 13 on Jan. 11. That’s 26 more Hopkins County residents confirmed to have COVID-19 during the first 11 days of 2022 than during the entire month of December 2021.
In addition to the 196 Hopkins County residents who have received confirmation this month that they have are COVID-19 positive, 94 Hopkins County residents were reported as probable COVID-19 cases during the first 11 days of January 2022, (59 Jan. 1-7 and 35 Jan. 8-11, including three new probable cases on Tuesday). A total of 876 new probable COVID cases were recorded in December, 697 of them on Dec. 21 which increased active case count from 101 to 845 on the Texas Department of State Health Services’ COVID-19 dashboard.
Sulphur Springs and Hopkins County officials maintain that December’s totals, especially those for Dec. 21, are inaccurate, that the state was aware of the inaccuracy. They expected the error to be corrected within days of notification. While the active case count dropped from 878 on Jan. 3 to 320 on Jan. 4, 2022 (that’s 558 recoveries and 41 new cases), the new case counts from Dec. 21-Jan. 3 did not change. In the last 7 days, the active case count has continued to rise daily, it’s still not as high as the active case count on Jan. 3.
Cumulatively, 4,265,186 confirmed COVID-19 cases have been reported for Texas since March of 2020, 882,320 probable Texas COVID-19 cases since DSHS began tracking the data in the latter half of 2020. Of those, 4,421,256 have recovered from the virus and 75,397 died from COVID, leaving 627,742 active COVID-19 cases among Texans as of 1:40 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 11, 2022. In the last 7-days along 551 Texas residents have died from COVID-19, according to the CDC COVID-19 Integrated County View data. Over the seven days ending Jan. 10, 345,708 new COVID cases have been reported for Texas, according to the CDC.
Hopkins County has had a total of 3,590 confirmed COVID cases and 3,113 probable COVID cases, for cumulative total of 6,703 COVID cases. Of those, 6,065 Hopkins County residents are reported to have recovered from the COVID-19 (including 6 new recoveries reported Jan. 11). Unfortunately, 154 Hopkins County residents died from COVID-19 – 84 in 2020, 69 in 2021 and one on Jan. 3, 2021. That leaves 483 Hopkins County residents reported to actively had COVID-19 on Jan. 11, 2022.
According to the DSHS data, the month started with 483 being tested for COVID-19, and has continued to average around 125 being tested in Hopkins County daily.
A total of 11,040 lab-confirmed COVID-19 patients were in Texas hospitals on Jan. 10, 2022, including 8,506 adult COVID patients in general beds, 2,137 adult COVID patients in ICU beds, 397 pediatric COVID patients out of a total of 1,846.3 confirmed COVID-19 admissions and 1,183 COVID patients on ventilators on Jan. 10, according to the DSHS COVID Testing and Hospitalizations dashboard. The 7-day average for new hospital admissions was 1,723, according to CDC and DSHS data.
Across Region F Trauma Service Area, which includes all hospitals across Northeast Texas, 111 lab-confirmed COVID-19 patients were in the hospital, including 81 adults in general beds, 29 adults in ICU beds, and one pediatric COVID patient, and eight COVID patients on ventilators. Overall, 12 COIVD-19 patients were admitted to hospital across TSA F in the 24-hours reported on Jan. 11. These are out of a total 827 staffed hospital beds, 735 staffed inpatient beds across the region. That left 17 available staffed hospital beds, eight adult ICU beds and 141 available ventilators in TSA F on Jan. 10. For TSA F, that’s an increase of 5.33% in COVID-19 hospitalizations out of the total hospital capacity over the 7 days from Jan. 4 to Jan. 10, 2022.
According to the CDC 7-day metrics posted Jan. 12, Hopkins County has had a total of 17 new hospital admissions over the past 7 days, an uptick of 3.94% overall. ICU hospitalizations in Hopkins County over the 7-day period ending Jan. 9 had declined 2.86 percent, according to the CDC Hospitalizations in Hopkins County, Texas report. Local emergency management officials have reported less than 10 COVID patients admitted to the hospital during daily reports given generally a couple of times each week.
The number of people being vaccinated for COVID-19 continues to rise as well. Across the state 61.8 percent of Texans over age 5 had been fully vaccinated as of Jan. 10, according to the CDC data. with 14 additional people receiving at least one dose of the vaccine on Monday, nine more fully vaccinated and 31 getting an COVID booster on Jan. 10 in Hopkins County. Overall, that makes 16,261 in Hopkins County who have gotten at least one dose of COVID vaccine, 14,223 who are fully vaccinated and 4,112 who’d gotten a booster shot as of Jan. 10, 2022, according to the DSHS COVID 19 Testing and Hospitalizations dashboard.
According to the CDC 7-day Metrics, 40.2% of the Hopkins County population ages 5 and up who are eligible had been vaccinated for COVID as of the Jan. 12 report.
Need to be tested? Texas DSHS’s COVID-19 dashboard has a link for “Testing Information” which provides information about the various testing options and types of COVID-19 tests, but also information for self-testing, a list of authorized tests, and COVID-19 test collection sites (call ahead or schedule online to verify availability of tests at that location as well as criteria for testing, what to expect and symptoms for COVID.
Looking for a place to get a COVID-19 vaccine, or information on who is eligible to get which tests and boosters? Most pharmacies offer at least one or more of the vaccines and boosts that have received at least FDA emergency authorization use. CHRISTUS Mother Frances Hospital Sulphur Springs offers a COVID Vaccine Clinic every Friday morning from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. in the main lobby of the hospital. The available vaccines include Moderna (2-doses, ages 18 and older) and Pfizer (2-doses, ages 12 and older) and Johnson & Johnson (1-dose, ages 18 and older), including all three brands of boosters for fully vaccinated people. Appointments not required, but parent/guardian must accompany anyone 17 and younger
DSHS also has COVID-19 Vaccine Information and National Vaccine Finder tabs, and the latest guidance for fully vaccinated people as well as recommendations for schools, public transportation and healthcare settings, all accessible on or from the main COVID-19 dashboard.
