Gregg County’s COVID-19 community spread up 66% since Christmas Eve

Published 5:50 pm Tuesday, December 28, 2021

COVID-19 community transmission levels are rising in East Texas as other areas of the country are seeing a surge.

All seven counties in NET Health’s have reached moderate community spread levels of the virus, with Gregg County’s rate increasing almost 67% from Thursday to Tuesday. 

The county’s seven-day rolling rate of COVID-19 infection increased to 16.71, previously reported Thursday at a minimal community spread level of 10.02. Gregg County has the second-lowest community spread level in the public health district’s jurisdiction.

The moderate community spread window consists of a rate between 10 to 35 and indicates sustained transmission with confirmed exposure within congregate settings and potential for rapid increase in cases. 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 leads the way with the highest rate of 27.61, nearly 80% higher than Thursday. 

In Gregg County, 96 new COVID-19 cases were reported — 33 confirmed and 64 probable — in the county as of Tuesday.

Gregg County’s active cases have increased more than 19% since Thursday, NET Health data show — from 216 to 258.

According to NET Health, probable cases are attributed to patients who have received positive antigen tests, until the individual has been administered a Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test. If a person’s PCR laboratory result is positive, that becomes a confirmed case.

There have been 19,786 COVID-19 cases in Gregg County since the pandemic began, with 19,243 total recoveries, according to NET Health.

Three Gregg County jail inmates have an active diagnosis of COVID-19 as of Tuesday. There have been no virus-related jail deaths reported this week, according to the district.

In Gregg County, 54.36% of people age 5 and older had received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine as of Tuesday, while 47.63% of residents 5 and older had been fully vaccinated, according to the state. State data shows 88.13% of people 65 and older had been vaccinated with at least one dose as of Tuesday, while 80.80% of that population had been fully vaccinated. As of Nov. 4, children 5 to 11 years of age are included in vaccination numbers and rates.

On Tuesday, there were 113 COVID-19 patients hospitalized in the state’s 19-county Trauma Region G, approximately 19 more than there were on Thursday. Of COVID patients hospitalized, 31 of those are in ICUs and 21 patients are on ventilators. In the first half of September, hospitalizations reached 822, the highest number of single-day COVID-19 hospitalizations in the region since the pandemic began.