COVID numbers rising

By Chris Edwards
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TYLER COUNTY – The Tyler County Emergency Management office is once again reporting countywide COVID numbers.

Emergency Management Coordinator Ken Jobe said that his office would begin updating the numbers again once they surpassed 20 cases and will continue until they decrease again. The last reportage was in mid-October. At present, Emergency Management is reporting 108 active cases in the county.

Jobe gave an update via social media on Friday, Dec. 30, which represents a sharp increase from the initial update provided two days’ prior, which showed 45 active cases in the county.

At present, Emergency Management is reporting 2,635 total cases since reporting began in March 2020 with the first confirmed case in Tyler County. There have been 2,454 recovered cases and 73 deaths from COVID complications.

“This is an attempt to keep citizens informed of the status of our county,” said Jobe. “I will post updated counts as I receive them from the health department,” he added.

According to the latest figures, there have been 18,004 doses of vaccines administered in the county, with 8,541 people having received at least one dose, or 39.73% of the population. There have been, according to Department of State Health Services, 35.41% of the county’s residents are fully vaccinated.

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At the statewide level, hospitalizations are increasing. The numbers from the DSHS show that as of Dec. 29, hospitalizations for coronavirus patients is up by 2,147 from the previous week.

The number of average new cases has also increased across the state, with 5,412 cases up from the seven-day average reported a week prior to Dec. 29.

DSHS reports that 59.02% of Texans are fully vaccinated, and 69.31% of the population has received at least one dose.

The surge in positive cases, according to state health officials, is attributable to the omicron variant. Officials say the variant is more transmissible than the delta variant and the original viral strain.

The rise surpassed 10% by mid-December, and put Texas in a “red zone” rating. This rating for positive case numbers means that federal officials encourage more restrictions to limit the spread of the virus.

Last week Gov. Greg Abbott asked the federal government to open additional testing sites in some of Texas’s most populated counties and to send new shipments of monoclonal antibody treatments. 

For updates, follow the Tyler County Emergency Management Facebook page.