Update on Spread of Coronavirus – Jan. 29

Local Active Cases Down, Death Toll Up

By Will Johnson

Messenger Reporter

HOUSTON COUNTY – On Wednesday, Jan. 27 CNN reported, “The country averaged 3,349 COVID-19 deaths a day across a week as of Tuesday. That’s very close to a pandemic peak average of 3,355 reached on January 13 – and far ahead of the averages around 1,000 just in mid-November.”

With the slower than expected roll-out of the vaccine and the new variants found in the virus, it doesn’t appear the disease is going away any time soon, despite the naysayers.

Closer to home, the Texas Department of Health Services (TxDSHS) reported another 471 fatalities in the state of Texas related to the virus on Thursday, Jan 28.

In addition, the TxDSHS indicated on Jan. 28, there were 96 estimated, active cases in Houston County with approximately 1,299 people who have recovered. There have also been 32 reported deaths. Last week, there were 131 active cases and 31 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. 28, Anderson County had a total of 901 active cases. There have also been 2,010 recoveries and 72 reported deaths. Last week, there were 815 active cases and 64 deaths.   

On Tuesday, March 31, it was reported 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. 28, showed:  Angelina – 821 active cases and 213 fatalities, last week there were 1,112 active cases with 200 fatalities; Cherokee – 90 active cases and 103 fatalities, last week there were 145 active cases with 98 fatalities; Freestone – 49 active cases and 33 fatalities, last week there were 58 active cases with 30 fatalities; Henderson – 1,777 active cases and 123 fatalities, last week there were 1,609 active cases with 110 fatalities; Leon – 63 active cases and 33 fatalities, last week there were 94 active cases with 28 fatalities; Madison – 44 active cases and 21 fatalities, last week there were 51 active cases with 21 fatalities; Trinity – 79 active cases and 19 fatalities, last week there were 49 active cases with 13 fatalities; and Walker – 716 active cases and 106 fatalities, last week there were 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 of last year. At that time, 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. 28, 2,018,127 confirmed cases of COVID-19 had been reported in Texas while 35,639 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. 28 update showed 19,593,108 total Coronavirus tests had been administered with 12,380 current hospitalizations, down from 13,564 last week. The TxDSHS also reported 1,894,564 recoveries.    

Since May 1, when the governor began reopening the state, until Jan. 28, the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 has risen from 29,229 to 2,018,127 for an increase of 1,988,898. The number of Texans who suffered COVID-19 related deaths has gone from 816 on May 1 to 35,369 on Jan. 28, an increase of 34,553.

A Newsweek article published in July of 2020 stated – at that time – Texans were dying every six minutes and 16 seconds from the coronavirus. Earlier this month, CNN reported a nationwide average of one COVID-19 death every 30 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. 28, the positivity rate was 15.5%, a decrease from last week when the rate stood at 16.51%.   

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 Jan. 29, across the US there were 25,817,479 confirmed cases of COVID-19 – an increase of 1,160,678 from last week.      

On Jan. 29, the CSSE reported 434,696 US residents had suffered a COVID-19 related death, an increase of 23,531 deaths from a week ago.       

Worldwide, on Jan. 29, as of 1:22 pm, there were 101,803,875 (last week – 97,746,797) confirmed cases of COVID-19 with 2,198,644 (last week – 2,097,263) deaths attributed to the virus. The CDC, WHO and the CSSE are also reporting 56,243,058 (last week – 53,896,966) patients have recovered from the disease. 

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