Data: Smith County has highest COVID transmission rate in region; cases climb

Published 5:40 am Tuesday, July 19, 2022

East Texas is seeing increased levels of COVID-19 transmission and an upward trend of positive cases.

Smith County is seeing the highest level of COVID-19 transmission in the region and this month has already seen more positive cases than all of June.

As of Monday, 1,170 cases have been diagnosed in Smith County, according to the Northeast Texas Public Health District’s latest data. In June, there were 1,172 cases all month.

In Gregg County, the rate of community transmission is second-highest in NET Health’s seven-county jurisdiction. Its case counts are also trending upward.

Cases are probably going to continue to go up in August and September, said Gregg County Health Authority Dr. Lewis Browne. After that, it could drop again, based on previous patterns.

Historic local data shows there is usually a peak of cases followed by a low. Browne said this trend happens every few months.

The increase is likely due to the latest variant, BA.5, Browne said. With no mandates and two-plus years since the beginning of the pandemic, most people don’t go out of their way to limit the virus spread.

“No. 1, people are so tired of COVID, so tired of all the stuff, that they start getting lax with some of their (precautions),” Browne said. “Then it starts spreading and you’re around more people. You have more of a chance of getting infected.”

Fortunately, Browne said local health officials are not seeing the severity of illness with this variant compared to previous ones. Those with weakened immune systems or any underlying diseases such as diabetes, or kidney or heart disease, are more likely to be seriously affected by the infection.

“It’s contagious, but most people just need to just be careful,” Browne said. “We’re still having this thing that’s been going on since March of 2020 and there’s no end in sight, though the severity of the infection in the beginning was so much worse than the severity of the infection we’re seeing now.”

Browne said this unfortunately means when people are not too seriously ill, they may be infected and going out and spreading the disease. Browne said when people feel ill and have symptoms such as respiratory problems or a dry cough, they need to be careful around others. If it doesn’t go away in a day or two, Browne said to get tested.

“During the peaks and severe cases, people are more careful with where they’re at and who they’re with and perhaps using more hand cleaners and more masks. But when it’s not so bad, they quit,” Browne said.

He said Gregg County is not seeing an increased level of hospitalizations, and the number of patients has been manageable for local hospitals. The ICU is not full of COVID-19 patients like it once was, Browne said.

On Monday, Tyler area hospitals had a total of 76 COVID patients.

To help limit the spread, Browne recommended avoiding crowds and practicing good hygiene. He also said in buildings people can wear masks but it is not needed in open areas.

Browne said he still thinks people need to be thinking about vaccines.

“I was hoping that they were going to have a newer updated vaccine but that has fallen to the side, they haven’t released a new vaccine that would be effective against this newer strain of COVID,” Browne said.