Gregg County new COVID-19 cases in single digitals

Published 5:00 pm Monday, March 21, 2022

New cases of COVID-19 in Gregg County remained in the single digits in the past four days, public health officials announced on Monday.

The Northeast Texas Public Health District reported just six new cases of the virus since Thursday in its biweekly reported released Monday. Of those half-dozen cases, just one was a confirmed positive result for COVID-19.

The meager number of new cases is the fewest in the county among a string of recent reports from NET Health that have shown a dramatic reduction in infections.

In the first 21 days of March, there have been 225 cases of COVID-19 in Gregg County residents, which is just 13% of the 1,682 cases reported in all of February and less than 5% of the 4,643 reported in January.

While active cases rose slightly in the county from 517 to 520, the seven-day rolling rate of new cases again decreased as the county registered a minimal level of community spread for the second week, according to NET Health.

The seven-day rolling rate of new cases on Monday was 4.49 down from 6.33 on Thursday.

Minimal community spread, or evidence of isolated cases or limited community transmission, is a seven-day rolling rate of 10 or fewer, according to NET Health.

Gregg on Monday had the highest seven-day rolling rate among the seven counties for which NET Health provides disease surveillance. NET Health’s jurisdiction also covers Anderson, Henderson, Rains, Smith, Van Zandt and Wood counties.

According to the Texas Department of State Health Services, Gregg County has had 668 COVID-19 deaths since the start of the pandemic.

NET Health on Monday reported there were 49 patients being treated for COVID-19 in Tyler hospitals. The number reached a pandemic-high of 389 in September.

There were 73 COVID-19 patients on Sunday in the state’s 19-county Trauma Region G, which includes Longview and Tyler, according to data from the state. On the previous Sunday, there were 99 patients in the region. The number had not dipped below 100 since December.

In Smith County, NET Health on Monday reported 13 total new cases of the virus in residents since Thursday.

Harrison County Judge Chad Sims on Monday reported a steep decline in cases in his county that had seen an uptick the previous week.

In the past week, there were 34 new cases, according to Sims, which was down from 157 the prior week.

“Over the past 7 days, we’ve seen a significant decline in the number of new cases,” Sims said in a statement on Facebook. “We’ve declined from an average of 22 cases per day to only 5 per day. One fatality was also reported. Please continue to be cautious and help stop the spread.”