Update on Spread of Coronavirus – Sept. 18

Statewide Numbers Show Slight Increase

By Will Johnson

Messenger Reporter

HOUSTON COUNTY – The number of active COVID-19 cases in East Texas saw a slight decrease 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 123 fatalities related to the virus on Friday, Sept. 18.

This week, on Sept. 18, Houston County Emergency Management Coordinator Roger Dickey reported there were 19 active cases in the county with an additional 212 people who have recovered. There have also been five reported deaths. Last week, there were 23 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. 17, Anderson County had a total of 555 active cases. There have also been 400 recoveries and 15 reported deaths. Last week there were 541 active cases and 13 deaths.   

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. 18, showed:  Angelina – 267, up from 204 last week; Cherokee – 634, up from 583 last week; Freestone – 56, up from 54 last week; Henderson – 182, down from 420 last week; Leon – 32, down from 41 last week; Madison – 26, up from 0 last week; Trinity – 8, up from 1 last week; and Walker – 189, down from 256.

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. 18, 682,241 confirmed cases of COVID-19 had been reported and 14,713 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. On Thursday, Sept. 17, the governor further relaxed restrictions on businesses and lifted certain restrictions on nursing home visits.    

The Sept. 18 update showed 5,885,282 total Coronavirus tests had been administered with 3,465 current hospitalizations, down from 3,172 last week. The TxDSHS also reported 600,662 recoveries.    

Since May 1, when the governor began reopening the state, until Sept. 18, the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 has risen from 29,229 to 682,241 for an increase of 653,012. The number of Texans who suffered COVID-19 related deaths has gone from 816 on May 1 to 14,713 on Sept. 18, an increase of 13,897. 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. 17, the positivity rate was 7.26%, an increase from last week’s rate of 6.9%.    

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. 18, the number of positive cases reported was 6,705,114 – an increase of 274,254 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. 18, the CSSE reported 198,197 US residents had suffered a COVID-19 related death, an increase of 5,581 deaths from last week.       

The organizations also reported 2,540,334 patients have recovered in the US.

Worldwide, on Sept. 18, as of 2:22 pm, there were 30,306,469 (last-week – 28,287,928) confirmed cases of COVID-19 with 948,147 (last week – 911,591) deaths attributed to the virus. The CDC, WHO and the CSSE are also reporting 20,626,515 (last week –19,052,460) patients have recovered from the disease. 

Will Johnson may be contacted via e-mail at [email protected].