Update on Spread of Coronavirus – Jan. 8

One US Death every 40 Seconds

By Will Johnson

Messenger Reporter

HOUSTON COUNTY – On Thursday, Jan. 7, the New York Times reported, “There were at least 3,963 COVID-19 deaths and another 255,730 cases were diagnosed. The U.S. has averaged 230,610 cases a day for the past week, numbers that are higher than the worst-case scenarios envisaged by experts early in the crisis.”

While everyone wishes the virus would disappear, it doesn’t appear it’s going away any time soon, despite those who said it would magically disappear after the election on Nov. 3.

Closer to home, the Texas Department of State Health Services (TxDSHS) reported another 393 fatalities in the state of Texas related to the virus on Thursday, Jan 7.

In addition, the TxDSHS indicated on Jan. 7, there were 142 estimated, active cases in Houston County with approximately 1,025 people who have recovered. There have also been 25 reported deaths. Two weeks ago, there were 55 active cases and 21 deaths. 

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, Jan. 7, Anderson County had a total of 624 active cases. There have also been 1,894 recoveries and 62 reported deaths. Two weeks ago, there were 511 active cases and 57 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 Jan. 7, showed:  Angelina – 976, up from 1,000 two weeks ago; Cherokee – 336, up from 136 two weeks ago; Freestone – 91, down from 134 two weeks ago; Henderson – 1,290, down from 1,324 two weeks ago; Leon – 89, down from 107 two weeks ago; Madison – 70, down from 86 two weeks ago; Trinity – 76, up from 25 two weeks ago; and Walker – 565, down from 181 two weeks ago.

The Messenger first started tracking the spread of the virus in the East Texas area on Wednesday, March 25, 2020 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 Jan. 7, 1,666,487 confirmed cases of COVID-19 had been reported in Texas while 28,938 Texans have suffered a COVID-19 related death. Furthermore, 254 out of 254 – or 100% of counties in the state of Texas – now have or have had at least one active case of COVID-19.  

The Jan. 7 update showed 16,566,000 total Coronavirus tests had been administered with 13,784 current hospitalizations, up from 9,628 two weeks ago. The TxDSHS also reported 1,522,105 recoveries.    

Since May 1, when the governor began reopening the state, until Jan. 7, the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 has risen from 29,229 to 1,666,487 for an increase of 1,637,258. The number of Texans who suffered COVID-19 related deaths has gone from 816 on May 1 to 28,938 on Jan. 7, an increase of 28,122.

A Newsweek article published in July of 2020 stated – at that time – Texans were dying every six minutes and 16 seconds from the coronavirus. In December of 2020, CNN reported a nationwide average of one COVID-19 death every 40 seconds.

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 Jan. 7, the positivity rate was 20.68%, an increase from two weeks ago when the rate stood at 14.03%.   

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 Jan. 8, the number of positive cases reported was 21,617,462 – an increase of 4,241,072 from two weeks ago.      

On April 17, the number of Coronavirus related deaths in the US stood at 36,773. By late May, a grim milestone was reached as the death toll in the US surpassed the 100,000 mark. Two months ago, it was reported over 200,000 US residents had perished due to the virus and by Jan. 8, the CSSE reported 365,882 US residents had suffered a COVID-19 related death, an increase of 53,160 deaths from two weeks ago.       

Worldwide, on Jan. 8, as of 3:26 pm, there were 88,389,886 (two weeks ago – 75,438,513) confirmed cases of COVID-19 with 1,905,159 (two weeks ago – 1,670,818) deaths attributed to the virus. The CDC, WHO and the CSSE are also reporting 49,250,228 (two weeks ago – 42,580,379) patients have recovered from the disease. 

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