Rate of COVID-19 Cases Continues Decline
Update March 25
By Will Johnson
Messenger Reporter
EAST TEXAS – The rate of COVID-19 cases continues to fall and, in an article published by CNN on Friday March 25, it was stated, “COVID-19 cases in the United States have fallen more than 95% from their peak in January, and on Friday, Hawaii will become the last state to roll back its indoor mask mandate. Testing has slowed, and states are scaling back on reporting surveillance data, too.”
Experts caution, however, the tracking of new COVID-19 cases is still important.
“With an infection that can rapidly spread, where we are today in the data isn’t necessarily going to be reflective of how bad it’s going to be tomorrow or the day after,” Michael LeVasseur, professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at Drexel University’s School of Public Health said. “There could be many, many more people who are infectious that you can encounter that you’re not seeing in the data.”
Across the state of Texas, the Texas Department of State Health Services (TxDSHS) reported 969 (last Thursday 1,738) newly confirmed cases of COVID-19 along with 61 (last Thursday 109) related fatalities, on Thursday, March 10.
So far in 2022, the TxDSHS indicated on March 24, there have been 472 confirmed cases in Houston County. There have also been 107 reported deaths since the pandemic began in 2020. On March 17, there were 466 confirmed cases and 107 deaths.
The first cases of COVID-19 were reported in Houston County on April 17, 2020, when it was learned three individuals had tested positive for the virus.
Meanwhile, in Anderson County, it was announced on Thursday, March 24 the county had a total of 120 active cases. There have also been 7,699 recoveries and 117 reported deaths. On March 17, there were 117 active cases and 117 deaths.
On Tuesday, March 31, 2020, it was reported Anderson County had its first confirmed case of the virus.
The number of 2022 confirmed cases and cumulative (2020-2022) fatalities per county – for those counties surrounding Houston and Anderson Counties – as of March 24 showed: Angelina – 1630 confirmed cases and 480 fatalities, on March 17 there were 1,619 confirmed cases with 474 fatalities; Cherokee – 946 confirmed cases and 253 fatalities, on March 17 there were 945 confirmed cases with 252 fatalities; Freestone – 430 confirmed cases and 82 fatalities, on March 17 there were 427 confirmed cases with 82 fatalities; Henderson – 5,638 confirmed cases and 421 fatalities, on March 17 there were 5,634 confirmed cases with 416 fatalities; Leon – 501 confirmed cases and 93 fatalities, on March 17 there were 496 confirmed cases with 92 fatalities; Madison – 400 confirmed cases and 53 fatalities, on March 17 there were 397 confirmed cases with 53 fatalities; Trinity – 413 confirmed cases and 72 fatalities, on March 17 there were 411 confirmed cases with 72 fatalities; and Walker – 4,254 confirmed cases and 211 fatalities, on March 17 there were 4,245 confirmed cases with 210 fatalities.
The Messenger first started tracking the spread of the virus in the East Texas area on Wednesday, March 25, 2020. At that time, TxDSHS reported 974 confirmed cases of the Coronavirus Disease and 12 deaths throughout 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 24, 2022, over 5.48 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 had been reported in Texas while 85,702 (on March 17 – 85,320) Texans had suffered a COVID-19 related death. Furthermore, 254 out of 254 – or 100% of counties in the state of Texas – now have at least one active case of COVID-19.
The March 24 update showed a total of 62,134,453 Coronavirus tests had been administered in Texas with 1,352 current hospitalizations, down from 1,697 on March 17. There have also been 45,071,300 vaccine doses given in Texas.
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 24, the positivity rate was 2.47%, up slightly from March 17, when the rate stood at 2.33%.
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 25, across the US there have been 79,894,015 confirmed cases of COVID-19 – an increase of 208,428 from March 18.
The CSSE further reported there were 976,073 US residents who had suffered a COVID-19 related death as of March 25 – an increase of 5,957 fatalities from March 18. So far in the US, 557,117,020 vaccine doses have been administered.
Worldwide, on March 25, as of 11:21 am, there have been 477,751,822 (on March 18 – 466,313,781) confirmed cases of COVID-19 with 6,111,844 (on March 18 – 6,067,720) deaths attributed to the virus. The CDC, WHO and the CSSE are also reporting 10,859,418,925 vaccine doses have been administered.
Will Johnson may be contacted via e-mail at [email protected].
