Update on Spread of Coronavirus – March 19
Numbers Continue Decline
By Will Johnson
Messenger Reporter
HOUSTON COUNTY – On Friday, Feb. 19, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, reported the daily number of new cases of COVID-19 was at its lowest rate since October of 2020. She cautioned, however, that it was not time to relax the protocols established to help mitigate the disease.
As the rollout of the vaccine continues to gain traction, the numbers of newly reported cases are starting to show a downward trend across the nation. Even though it appears the health care industry has turned the corner on the disease, new variants of the virus are continually being found which indicate COVID-19 is – unfortunately – not going away any time soon.
Closer to home, the Texas Department of Health Services (TxDSHS) reported another 198 fatalities in the State of Texas related to the virus on Thursday, March 18.
In addition, the TxDSHS indicated on March 18, there were 60 estimated, active cases in Houston County with approximately 1,473 people who have recovered. There have also been 47 reported deaths. Last week, there were 63 active cases and 45 deaths.
The first cases of COVID-19 were reported in Houston County on April 17 of last year, when it was learned three individuals had tested positive for the virus.
Meanwhile, in Anderson County, it was announced on Thursday, March 18, the county had a total of 130 active cases. There have also been 3,003 recoveries and 75 reported deaths. Last week, there were 197 active cases and 75 deaths.
On Tuesday, March 31, 2020, 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 March 4, showed: Angelina – 128 active cases and 267 fatalities, last week there were 288 active cases with 265 fatalities; Cherokee – 0 active cases and 130 fatalities, last week there were no active cases with 129 fatalities; Freestone – 28 active cases and 47 fatalities, last week there were 17 active cases with 47 fatalities; Henderson – 368 active cases and 172 fatalities, last week there were 581 active cases with 171 fatalities; Leon – 31 active cases and 41 fatalities, last week there were 37 active cases with 40 fatalities; Madison – 43 active cases and 27 fatalities, last week there were 46 active cases with 27 fatalities; Trinity – 71 active cases and 23 fatalities, last week there were 61 active cases with 23 fatalities; and Walker – 35 active cases and 122 fatalities, last week there were 44 active cases with 119 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, 2020 – the only county with a confirmed case of the Coronavirus bordering Houston or Anderson County was Walker County.
By March 18, 2021, approximately 2.36 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 had been reported in Texas while 46,007 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 March 18 update showed a total of 24,507,017 Coronavirus tests had been administered with 3,846 current hospitalizations, down from 4,406 last week. The TxDSHS also reported 2,578,085 recoveries.
A Newsweek article published in July of 2020 stated – at that time – Texans were dying every six minutes and 16 seconds from the coronavirus. Last month, 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 March 18, the positivity rate was 6.47%, a decrease from last week when the rate stood at 7.13%.
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 March 19, across the US there were 29,674,098 confirmed cases of COVID-19 – an increase of 376,693 from a week ago but less than the total increase of 468,474 from two weeks ago.
The CSSE also reported there were 539,835 US residents had suffered a COVID-19 related death as of March 12 – an increase of 8,559 deaths from a week ago.
Worldwide, on March 19, as of 10:25 am, there were 121,958,304 (last week – 118,798,642) confirmed cases of COVID-19 with 2,693,889 (last week – 2,633,768) deaths attributed to the virus. The CDC, WHO and the CSSE are also reporting 69,081,888 (last week – 67,260,480) patients have recovered from the disease.
Will Johnson may be contacted via e-mail at [email protected].
