COVID-19 Cases Continue Decline

Update Feb. 18

By Will Johnson

Messenger Reporter

EAST TEXAS – The good news is the number of new cases of COVID-19 continues to drop. The bad news is over 2,000 Americans “… are still dying every day from Covid-19,” a CNN article reported on Wednesday, Feb. 16.

The article, written by Deidre McPhillips and Holly Yan further stated, “The US is now averaging 136,190 new Covid-19 cases a day, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. That’s a 44% plunge from last week. New Covid-19 cases have plummeted to about one-sixth of the peak of more than 800,000 cases per day a month ago.”

Across the state of Texas, the Texas Department of State Health Services (TxDSHS) reported 5,950 newly confirmed cases of COVID-19 along with 287 related fatalities, on Thursday, Feb. 17.

So far in 2022, the TxDSHS indicated on Feb. 17, there were 417 confirmed cases in Houston County. There have also been 101 reported deaths since the pandemic began in 2020. On Feb. 10, there were 411 confirmed cases and 98 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, Feb. 17 the county had a total of 1,382 active cases. There have also been 6,295 recoveries and 117 reported deaths. On Feb. 10, there were 1,676 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 Feb. 17 showed: Angelina – 1,577 confirmed cases and 459 fatalities, on Feb. 10 there were 1,525 confirmed cases with 456 fatalities; Cherokee – 910 confirmed cases and 243 fatalities, on Feb. 10 there were 868 confirmed cases with 238 fatalities; Freestone – 402 confirmed cases and 81 fatalities, on Feb. 10 there were 382 confirmed cases with 81 fatalities; Henderson – 5,520 confirmed cases and 396 fatalities, on Feb. 10 there were 5,329 confirmed cases with 387 fatalities; Leon – 464 confirmed cases and 86 fatalities, on Feb. 10 there were 445 confirmed cases with 81 fatalities; Madison – 376 confirmed cases and 50 fatalities, on Feb. 10 there were 355 confirmed cases with 50 fatalities; Trinity – 373 confirmed cases and 70 fatalities, on Feb. 10 there were 362 confirmed cases with 69 fatalities; and Walker – 4,405 confirmed cases and 203 fatalities, on Feb. 10 there were 3,893 confirmed cases with 200 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 Feb. 17, 2022, over 5.39 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 had been reported in Texas while 81,844 (on Feb. 10 – 80,310) 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 Feb. 17 update showed a total of 59,261,433 Coronavirus tests had been administered in Texas with 6,470 current hospitalizations, down from 8,946 on Feb. 10. There have also been 43,990,92 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 Feb. 17, the positivity rate was 11.5%, down significantly from Feb. 10, when the rate stood at 17.85%.

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 Feb. 18, across the US there have been 78,287,928 confirmed cases of COVID-19 – an increase of 786,242 from Feb. 11.

The CSSE further reported there were 932,157 US residents who had suffered a COVID-19 related death as of Feb. 18 – an increase of 15,717 fatalities from Feb. 11. So far in the US, 547,050,787 vaccine doses have been administered.

Worldwide, on Feb. 18, as of 11:21 am, there have been 420,778,073 (on Feb. 11 – 407,446,539) confirmed cases of COVID-19 with 5,867,844 (on Feb. 4 – 5,795,805) deaths attributed to the virus. The CDC, WHO and the CSSE are also reporting 10,316,116,763 vaccine doses have been administered.

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