Smith County’s active cases of COVID-19 decline as community spread remains in pandemic-low levels

Published 5:08 pm Thursday, November 4, 2021

COVID-19 infections in Smith County are continuing on a downward trend.

Thursday’s report from the Northeast Texas Public Health District showed Smith County’s number of total active cases in the county dropped by more than 18% to 818. Additionally, community spread levels of COVID-19 have dropped nearly 4% since Monday, continuing the pandemic-low trend.

The county’s community spread remains at the lowest level of “moderate” the county has seen, at 11.23.

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 10 to 35 new cases per day for seven consecutive days.

As of Thursday, three of the seven counties covered by NET Health are seeing moderate community spread of the virus. Thursday, Van Zandt and Henderson County joined Anderson and Gregg County in being the only counties seeing “minimal” community spread levels of the virus. As of Thursday, Rains County had moved up to moderate spread with Wood and Smith counties.

Minimal community spread occurs 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.

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 92 new total cases Thursday, with 55 new confirmed cases and 37 new probable cases. There are now 818 total active cases within the county, as opposed to the 1,006 total active cases reported Thursday in Smith County.

According to NET Health, there were 83 East Texans being treated for COVID-19 at Tyler hospitals on Thursday. The last time Smith County saw a similarly low local hospitalization rate was in August. Thursday’s data is 78% lower than the high hospitalization rate of 389, which was reached just two months 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 Thursday’s report represents the past 72 hours, from noon Monday to noon Thursday.

On Thursday, there were 161 COVID-19 patients hospitalized in the state’s 19-county Trauma Region G, approximately 27 fewer than there were on Monday. Of COVID patients hospitalized, 79 of those are in ICUs and 62 patients are on ventilators. In early September, hospitalizations reached 822, the highest number of single-day COVID-19 hospitalizations in the region since the pandemic began.

In Smith County, 56.43% of people 12 and older had received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, while 49.92% of people 12 and older had been fully vaccinated, according to the state.

State data shows 83.21% of people 65 and older in the county had been vaccinated with at least one dose on Thursday, while 76.90% of that population had been fully vaccinated.

Other Counties

Gregg County had 161 confirmed active cases and 149 probable active cases Thursday. Confirmed recoveries were at 8,810, while there were 9,934 probable recoveries, according to NET Health.

Henderson County had 114 confirmed active cases and 72 probable active cases, NET Health said. Confirmed recoveries were at 6,157, and there were 3,290 probable recoveries in the county, NET Health said.

Van Zandt County had 112 confirmed active cases and 90 probable active cases, NET Health said. Confirmed recoveries were at 4,516, and 3,269 people had likely recovered in Van Zandt County, NET Health reported.

Anderson County had 73 confirmed active cases and 100 probable active cases, NET Health said. Confirmed recoveries were at 2,469, and probable recoveries were at 2,851, the health district reported.

Wood County had 97 confirmed active cases and 84 probable active cases, NET Health said. Confirmed recoveries in Wood County were at 3,378 with 2,868 probable recoveries, NET Health said.

Rains County had 12 confirmed active and 14 probable active diagnoses, NET Health said. Confirmed recoveries were at 713 with 763 probable recoveries, according to NET Health.