Smith County’s COVID-19 spread falls 57%, drops a level to ‘moderate’

Published 4:39 pm Monday, October 18, 2021

The Northeast Texas Public Health District reported in Monday’s bi-weekly update that Smith County’s community spread level of COVID-19 has moved down a benchmark, from “substantial” community spread to “moderate” spread.

Additionally, Smith County’s community spread level fell 57% since the last NET Health report on Thursday. Smith County’s community spread now stands at 17.24, down from 40.38 last week.

Across the region, Rains and Henderson counties are the first NET Health counties to reach the level of “minimal” community spread.

Moderate community spread indicates sustained transmission with confirmed exposure within congregate settings and potential for a rapid increase in cases and occurs when the county sees from 10 to 35 new cases per day for seven consecutive days. Minimal community spread happens when there’s evidence of isolated cases or limited community transmission, case investigations underway and there is no evidence of exposure in large congregate settings and when the county sees zero to 10 new cases of the virus for seven consecutive days.

Wood, Gregg, Van Zandt and Anderson counties remain in “moderate” community spread of the virus as of Monday.

The level of community spread 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.

Smith County saw 88 new total cases Monday, with 53 new confirmed cases and 39 new probable cases. There are now 2,910 total active cases within the county.

According to NET Health, there were 153 East Texans being treated for COVID-19 at Tyler hospitals on Monday. The last time Smith County saw a similarly low local hospitalization rate was in August. Monday’s data is 60% lower than the high hospitalization rate of 389, which was reached just over a month ago in Tyler.

No Smith County jail inmates had an active diagnosis of COVID-19, according to NET Health. One inmate has died due to COVID-19.

Data gathered in Monday’s report represents the past 96 hours, from noon Thursday to noon Monday.

On Monday, there were 310 COVID-19 patients hospitalized in the state’s 19-county Trauma Region G, approximately 40 fewer than there were on Thursday. Of COVID patients hospitalized, 132 of those are in ICUs and 119 patients are on ventilators. Earlier in September, hospitalizations reached 822, the highest number of single-day COVID-19 hospitalizations in the region since the pandemic began.

In Smith County, 55.82% of people 12 and older had received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, while 49.00% of people 12 and older had been fully vaccinated, according to the state.

State data shows 82.72% of people aged 65 and older in the county had been vaccinated with at least one dose on Monday, while 76.38% of that population had been fully vaccinated.

Other Counties

Gregg County had 474 confirmed active cases and 632 probable active cases Monday. Confirmed recoveries were at 8,384, while there were 9,372 probable recoveries, according to NET Health.

Henderson County had 355 confirmed active cases and 195 probable active cases, NET Health said. Confirmed recoveries were at 5,837, and there were 3,106 probable recoveries in the county, NET Health said.

Van Zandt County had 393 confirmed active cases and 336 probable active cases, NET Health said. Confirmed recoveries were at 4,171, and 2,897 people had likely recovered in Van Zandt County, NET Health reported.

Anderson County had 107 confirmed active cases and 279 probable active cases, NET Health said. Confirmed recoveries were at 2,401, and probable recoveries were at 2,627, the health district reported.

Wood County had 289 confirmed active cases and 248 probable active cases, NET Health said. Confirmed recoveries in Wood County were at 3,132, and there were 2,628 probable recoveries, NET Health said.

Rains County had 67 confirmed active and 72 probable active diagnoses, NET Health said. Confirmed recoveries were at 653, and there were 692 probable recoveries, according to NET Health.