Cases related to COVID are coming to a plateau in Tarrant County. Tuesday, November 16, was the first time that Tarrant County reported no COVID-related deaths since July 26. Before that, the previous low was one death on August 3.
The county also reported its fewest cases in a week, with 272. Since the start of the pandemic, Tarrant County has reported 367,762 cases. This number includes 4,828 deaths and an estimated 356,100 recoveries.
“Today is one of those days that we have zero deaths to report,” said Vinny Taneja, the Tarrant County Public Health Director. “So finally, we are getting there. So that’s great news for us.”
In the last seven-day moving average, hospitalized COVID patients decreased by seven to 222. On January 6, hospitalizations were at their highest point sitting at 1,528.
The number of confirmed COVID patients in the North Central Texas Trauma Region decreased from 4.99% to 4.97%. This region includes 45 counties in which the rate has been below 15% since October 1.
As far as hospital beds go, the number of available beds increased to 675. This is an increase of 101 beds from the last report. The lowest number reported during the pandemic was 360 on September 20. The number of ICU beds also decreased from 87% to 85%.
As the hospital beds and hospitals become less congested, the positivity rate for COVID tests is also steadily declining. According to the same seven-day average data, the rate has decreased from 6.26% to 5.72%.
The highest positivity rate that Tarrant County has seen through the pandemic was 30% on January 7.
Tarrant County and the other 44 counties in the North Central Texas Trauma Region are trying to find the best solutions to fight against the number of hospitalizations and COVID-related deaths that the pandemic has caused. At this point, the focus is vaccinations.
According to the Texas Department of State Health, 62.72% of Tarrant County residents five years of age and older have received at least one dose of the vaccine.