Gregg County’s community spread levels reach idle state

Published 5:06 pm Thursday, September 23, 2021

Approximately 279 total new COVID-19 related cases in Gregg County have been reported Thursday, along with a 50% decrease in the rate of community spread of the virus in the county since last Thursday.

The Northeast Texas Public Health District’s twice-weekly report showed 279 new cases of COVID-19 in Gregg County: 74 new confirmed cases along with 205 probable cases. Total active cases within the county are now at 3,834.

According to NET Health, there were 356 East Texans being treated for COVID-19 at Tyler hospitals on Thursday, which is slightly lower than a peak high of 389 set earlier this month on Labor Day weekend.

Data gathered in Thursday’s report represents the past 72 hours, from noon Monday to noon Thursday.

In data released Thursday, Gregg County’s seven-day rolling rate of infection stayed the same as Monday at 74.11. The rate remains more than double NET Health’s threshold for “substantial” community spread. However it is about half what it was the week of Sept. 3 through 9 when the seven-day rolling rate reached 142.92.

The spread level is determined by taking the average number of all COVID-19 positive cases from the previous seven days. That number is then divided by the population of the county and multiplied by 100,000.

All seven counties covered by NET Health on Thursday again had “substantial” levels of community spread. Substantial community spread represents “large-scale, uncontrolled community transmission,” according to NET Health.

On Thursday, the latest day for which data was available, there were 723 COVID-19 patients hospitalized in the state’s 19-county Trauma Region G, 264 of those were in ICUs. Earlier this month, hospitalizations reached 822, the highest number of single-day COVID-19 hospitalizations in the region since the pandemic began.

Hospitalizations in recent weeks have surpassed a peak in January when the single-day number of patients peaked at 684 on Jan. 6.

In Gregg County, 55.65% of people 12 and older had received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, while 47.39% of people 12 and older had been fully vaccinated, according to the state.

State data shows 84.00% of people aged 65 and older in the county had been vaccinated with at least one dose on Thursday, while 77.15% of that population had been fully vaccinated.

Total active cases of COVID-19 in the county increased on Thursday from 3,651 to 3,834 as the total number of recoveries in the county soared from 14,133 to 14,222.