Update on Spread of Coronavirus – March 26
Numbers Continue Decline
By Will Johnson
Messenger Reporter
HOUSTON COUNTY – Just over a month ago, 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 132 fatalities in the State of Texas related to the virus on Thursday, March 25.
In addition, the TxDSHS indicated on March 25, there were 51 estimated, active cases in Houston County with approximately 1,486 people who have recovered. There have also been 49 reported deaths. Last week, there were 60 active cases and 47 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 25, the county had a total of 165 active cases. There have also been 3,003 recoveries and 76 reported deaths. Last week, there were 130 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 – 202 active cases and 268 fatalities, last week there were 128 active cases with 267 fatalities; Cherokee – 0 active cases and 133 fatalities, last week there were no active cases with 130 fatalities; Freestone – 23 active cases and 48 fatalities, last week there were 28 active cases with 47 fatalities; Henderson – 402 active cases and 176 fatalities, last week there were 368 active cases with 172 fatalities; Leon – 25 active cases and 41 fatalities, last week there were 31 active cases with 41 fatalities; Madison – 23 active cases and 28 fatalities, last week there were 43 active cases with 27 fatalities; Trinity – 71 active cases and 23 fatalities, last week there were 71 active cases with 23 fatalities; and Walker – 36 active cases and 122 fatalities, last week there were 35 active cases with 122 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 25, 2021, approximately 2.38 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 had been reported in Texas while 46,868 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 25 update showed a total of 25,120,308 Coronavirus tests had been administered with 3,410 current hospitalizations, down from 3,846 last week. The TxDSHS also reported 2,607,587 recoveries.
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 25, the positivity rate was 5.68%, a decrease from last week when the rate stood at 6.47%.
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 26, across the US there were 30,083,238 confirmed cases of COVID-19 – an increase of 409,140 from a week ago.
The CSSE also reported there were 546,880 US residents had suffered a COVID-19 related death as of March 26 – an increase of 7,045 deaths from a week ago.
Worldwide, on March 26, as of 9:27 am, there were 125,650,992 (last week – 121,958,304) confirmed cases of COVID-19 with 2,757,710 (last week – 2,693,889) deaths attributed to the virus. The CDC, WHO and the CSSE are also reporting 71,208,092 (last week – 69,081,888) patients have recovered from the disease.
Will Johnson may be contacted via e-mail at [email protected].
