Update on Spread of Coronavirus – Jan. 22

One COVID-19 US Death every 30 Seconds

By Will Johnson

Messenger Reporter

HOUSTON COUNTY – On Friday, Jan. 8 NPR reported, “The U.S. has for the first time recorded more than 4,000 deaths in one day from complications of COVID-19 as Johns Hopkins University’s Coronavirus Resource Center reported 4,085 coronavirus-related deaths on Jan. 7.”

While everyone wishes the virus would disappear, it doesn’t appear it’s going away any time soon, despite the naysayers.

Closer to home, the Texas Department of State Health Services (TxDSHS) reported another 441 fatalities in the state of Texas related to the virus on Thursday, Jan 21.

In addition, the TxDSHS indicated on Jan. 21, there were 131 estimated, active cases in Houston County with approximately 1,210 people who have recovered. There have also been 31 reported deaths. Last week, there were 130 active cases and 28 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. 21, Anderson County had a total of 815 active cases. There have also been 2,010 recoveries and 64 reported deaths. Last week, there were 757 active cases and 64 deaths.   

On Tuesday, March 31, it was reported that Anderson County had its first confirmed case of the virus.

The number of active cases and fatalities per county – for those counties surrounding Houston and Anderson Counties, as of Jan. 21, showed:  Angelina – 1,112 active cases with 200 fatalities; Cherokee – 145 active cases with 98 fatalities; Freestone – 58 active cases with 30 fatalities; Henderson – 1,609 active cases with 110 fatalities; Leon – 94 active cases with 28 fatalities; Madison – 51 active cases with 21 fatalities; Trinity – 49 active cases with 13 fatalities; and Walker – 918 active cases with 96 fatalities.

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. 21, 1,917,513 confirmed cases of COVID-19 had been reported in Texas while 33,285 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. 21 update showed 18,648,388 total Coronavirus tests had been administered with 13,564 current hospitalizations, down from 14,052 last week. The TxDSHS also reported 1,763,247 recoveries.    

Since May 1, when the governor began reopening the state, until Jan. 21, the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 has risen from 29,229 to 1,917,513 for an increase of 1,888,284. The number of Texans who suffered COVID-19 related deaths has gone from 816 on May 1 to 33,285 on Jan. 21, an increase of 32,469.

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. 21, the positivity rate was 16.51%, a decrease from last week when the rate stood at 17.73%.   

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. 22, the number of positive cases reported were 24,656,801 – an increase of 1,294,751 from last week.      

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. Three months ago, it was reported over 200,000 US residents had perished due to the virus and by Jan. 21, the CSSE reported 411,165 US residents had suffered a COVID-19 related death, an increase of 21,808 deaths from two weeks ago.       

Worldwide, on Jan. 22, as of 11:22 am, there were 97,746,797 (last week – 93,418,283) confirmed cases of COVID-19 with 2,097,263 (last week – 2,000,905) deaths attributed to the virus. The CDC, WHO and the CSSE are also reporting 53,896,966 (two weeks ago – 51,536,442) patients have recovered from the disease. 

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