School nurses Kristee Moreno and Janice Brooks spends her morning administering rapid COVID-19 tests, on Jan. 13, at Judson Middle School.

In Northeast Texas Public Health District’s second COVID-19 update of February, data show Smith County is seeing lower transmission levels of the virus and a decline in hospitalizations.

As of Monday, the county’s community transmission level has decreased by more than 17% since Thursday and Tyler’s COVID hospitalizations have declined to 272 after being in the 300-range for nearly a week.

The community transmission level on Monday is reported as 140.67, according to NET Health, compared to Thursday’s report of 170.50.

Smith County still has the highest rate of community spread levels among counties covered by NET Health. Gregg County follows with a level of 97.50. The NET Health county with the lowest community spread level is Anderson County at 65.07.

Monday’s report shows after Tyler hospitals were hovering near a pandemic peak of COVID-19 patients in hospital beds, the number has decreased since Thursday’s report. NET Health reported 272 East Texans treated for COVID-19 at Tyler hospitals, 29 less than those reported Thursday. The previous peak of hospitalizations was in September 2021 when that number reached 389.

The number of COVID-19 patients in the state’s 19-county Trauma Region G, which includes Tyler and Longview, shows a decline as well. On Monday, 485 patients were hospitalized in the region, a decrease of 50 since Thursday’s report. Hospitalizations include 117 patients in ICUs and 92 patients on ventilators. In September 2021, hospitalizations reached 822, the highest number of single-day COVID-19 hospitalizations in the region since the pandemic began.

Active cases of the virus in Smith County have increased by about 5% since Thursday. NET Health’s report shows active cases within the county are at 13,619, compared to 13,010 reported Thursday.

There have also been 625 new COVID-19 cases reported in the county since Monday. The last time Smith County saw a similar number of new cases was Jan. 3.

Of new cases reported Monday, 405 are confirmed and 220 are probable. NET Health defines probable cases as those that are attributed to patients who have received positive antigen tests, until the person has been administered a Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test. If a person’s PCR laboratory result is positive, that becomes a confirmed case.

A total of 11,244 cases were reported in the county throughout January. On Jan. 24, Smith County surpassed a pandemic high of new COVID-19 cases in a single month since NET Health began reporting data in September 2020. The previous pandemic high of new virus cases was September 2021, when the county saw a total of 8,351 new cases, according to NET Health. January’s new COVID cases in the county topped the previous record by 2,893 new cases.

So far in February, the county has seen 2,289 new cases. Comparatively, there were 1,382 new cases reported in December and 504 new cases in November, according to NET Health.

As of Monday in Smith County, vaccination rates hardly changed since Thursday. Approximately 55.17% of people aged 5 and older had received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, while 48.57% of people aged 5 and older had been fully vaccinated, according to the state. State data shows 85.86% of people 65 and older in the county had been vaccinated with at least one dose as of Monday, while 79.34% 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.

At the Smith County Jail as of Monday, three inmates had an active diagnosis of COVID-19, and one inmate has died due to COVID-19, according to NET Health. The Smith County Jail’s in-person visitation remains canceled due to the recent uptick in cases.

There have been 52,138 total COVID-19 cases in Smith County since the pandemic began and 38,081 total recoveries, according to NET Health.

Other counties

• Gregg County had 371 new cases — 165 confirmed, 206 probable — reported since Thursday. There were 5,491 total active cases within the county.
• Henderson County had 231 new cases — 186 confirmed, 45 probable — reported since Thursday. There were 2,745 total active cases within the county.
• Van Zandt County had 107 new cases — 74 confirmed, 33 probable — reported since Thursday. There were 2,270 total active cases within the county.
• Rains County had 24 new cases — 17 confirmed, seven probable — reported since Thursday and there were 363 total active cases within the county.
• Wood County had 133 new cases — 85 confirmed, 48 probable — reported since Thursday. There were 1,813 total active cases within the county.
• Anderson County had 146 new cases — 40 confirmed, 106 probable — reported since Thursday. There were 1,447 total active cases within the county.

Total recoveries and total active cases include probable and confirmed data. Data gathered in Monday’s report represents data from noon Thursday to noon Monday.