Update on Spread of Coronavirus – Sept. 4
Area Numbers Show Mixed Results
By Will Johnson
Messenger Reporter
HOUSTON COUNTY – The number of active COVID-19 cases in East Texas saw a slight increase this week. Even though everyone wishes the virus would disappear, it doesn’t appear it’s going away any time soon as the Texas Department of State Health Services (TxDSHS) reported another 140 fatalities related to the virus on Friday, Sept. 4.
This week, on Sept. 4, Emergency Management Coordinator Roger Dickey reported there were 24 active cases in the county with an additional 174 people who had recovered. There have also been four reported deaths. Last week, there were 19 active cases.
The first cases of COVID-19 were reported in Houston County on April 17, when it was learned three individuals had tested positive for the virus.
Meanwhile, in Anderson County, County Judge Robert Johnston announced on Thursday, Sept. 3, Anderson County had a total of 469 active cases. There have also been 339 recoveries and 12 reported deaths. Last week there were 447 active cases.
On Tuesday, March 31, it was reported that Anderson County had its first confirmed case of the virus.
The number of active cases per county – for those counties surrounding Houston and Anderson Counties – as of Sept. 4 showed: Angelina – 175, up from 134 last week; Cherokee – 226, down from 518 last week; Freestone – 200, down from 217 last week; Henderson – 123, down from 335 last week; Leon – 46, up from 28 last week; Madison – 18, down from 234 last week; Trinity – 16, up from 6 last week; and Walker – 418, up from 390.
The Messenger first started tracking the spread of the virus in the East Texas area on Wednesday, March 25. At that time, the Texas Department of State Health Services (TxDSHS) reported 974 confirmed cases of the Coronavirus Disease and 12 deaths in the Lone Star State.
Also on that Wednesday, the TxDSHS indicated 82 out of 254 counties in the state of Texas had at least one confirmed case of COVID-19. Of those counties – as of March 25 – the only county with a confirmed case of the Coronavirus bordering Houston or Anderson County was Walker County.
By Sept. 4, 630,829 confirmed cases of COVID-19 have been reported and 13,231 Texans have suffered a COVID-19 related death. Furthermore, 251 out of 254 – or 99% of counties in the state of Texas – now have at least one active case of COVID-19.
After issuing a stay-at-home executive order on April 2, less than a month later – on May 1 – Gov. Gregg Abbott began to open the state of Texas back up. Unfortunately, the spread of the virus does not appear to have slowed down and on Wednesday, July 15, the state of Texas reported the largest single-day spike of new cases with 10,791.
The Sept. 4 update showed 5,586,408 Coronavirus tests had been administered with 3,889 current hospitalizations, down from 4,422 last week. The TxDSHS also reported 532,223 recoveries.
Since May 1, when the governor began reopening the state, until Sept.4, the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 has risen from 29,229 to 630,829 for an increase of 601,600. The number of Texans who suffered COVID-19 related deaths has gone from 816 on May 1 to 13,231 on Sept. 4, an increase of 12,415. A Newsweek article published on July 29 stated – at that time – Texans were dying every six minutes and 16 seconds from the coronavirus.
Another metric touted by state officials has been the positivity rate. The positivity rate is found by dividing the number of new cases (previous 7 days) by the number of new test results (previous 7 days).
On Thursday, Sept. 3, the positivity rate was 9.74%, a decrease from last week’s rate of 12.31% and the lowest since June 22.
Moving to the national stage, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), along with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Johns Hopkins Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE), as of April 17, across the US there were 699,105 cases of COVID-19.
By early June, the number of positive COVID-19 cases had eclipsed the 2 million mark and on Sept. 4, the number of positive cases reported was 6,191,294 – an increase of 318,170 from the previous week.
On April 17, the number of Coronavirus related deaths in the US stood 36,773. By late May, a grim milestone was reached as the death toll in the US surpassed the 100,000 mark. By Sept. 4, the CSSE reported 187,484 US residents had suffered a COVID-19 related death, an increase of 7,393 deaths from last week.
The organizations also reported 2,266,957 patients have recovered in the US.
Worldwide, on Sept. 4, as of 9:28 am, there were 26,437,886 (last-week – 24,499,834) confirmed cases of COVID-19 with 871,205 (last week – 832,608) deaths attributed to the virus. The CDC, WHO and the CSSE are also reporting 17,573,533 (last week – 16,040,117) patients have recovered from the disease.
Will Johnson may be contacted via e-mail at [email protected].
