Gregg County reaches pandemic-high of new COVID-19 cases in single month

Published 7:00 pm Thursday, January 27, 2022

Gregg County has hit a pandemic-high of new COVID-19 cases in a single month.

Through the first 27 days of January, 4,168 new cases of the virus have been reported in the county, according to Northeast Texas Public Health District data.

That surpasses the 4,099 new COVID-19 cases recorded in September 2021.

Also Thursday, NET Health reported a community spread level of 146.26 Gregg County, which is a 36% increase from a week ago, when that data was last updated. At that time, the level was at 107.53.

NET Health reported 445 new total Gregg County virus in Thursday’s data — 239 confirmed and 206 probable — since Monday.

On Thursday, there were 4,436 active cases in the county compared with 3,997 reported Monday, which is an increase of 11%.

Gregg County on Thursday had the third-highest level of community spread among counties in the NET Health area, following closely behind Smith County with a spread level of 160.74. Anderson County had the lowest spread level at 56.66.

The number of COVID-19 patients in the state’s 19-county Trauma Region G, which includes Longview and Tyler, also continues to increase. On Thursday, 497 patients were hospitalized in the region, an increase of 43 since Monday’s report. The number includes 101 patients in ICUs and 73 patients 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.

As of Thursday in Gregg County, 55.85% of people 5 and older had received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, while 48.62% of people 5 and older had been fully vaccinated, according to the state. State data shows 88.86% of people 65 and older in the county had been vaccinated with at least one dose on Thursday, while 81.17% 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.

Thursday’s NET Health report represents data from noon Monday to noon Thursday.