Health leaders in Tarrant County are reporting a downward trend in all key indicators for measuring COVID-19.
According to Tarrant County Public Health Director Vinny Taneja, hospitalization, positivity rate, and overall cases of the virus are declining in the county.
As of February 8, the county’s COVID-19 rate stands at approximately 25%. Taneja noted that the county recorded a 42% positivity rate at its peak.
Taneja maintained that while the numbers look good, the positivity rate in the county is still very high.
“It’s a relative statement. We had a really high peak, so things are looking very good because they were in the downward trend but if you just look in the numbers, we still have very high disease activity in the community,” he said.
Taneja also revealed that there is a large discrepancy between the number of people who have received two doses of the vaccine and the number of fully vaccinated people who have also gotten their booster shots.
Tarrant County data shows 69% of residents are fully vaccinated, while only 16% have further gotten their booster shots.
According to Taneja, the next two months may be critical; there is a possibility that a COVID-19 vaccine will be made available for children between 6 months and 5 years old, the last remaining age group for whom there is not an inoculation. Around 143,000 children in Tarrant county fall within that age range.
Taneja additionally observed that the demand for testing has noticeably dropped since late January.
Dr. Robert Rogers, who specializes in allergy-immunology, said his Fort Worth practice is receiving fewer calls regarding COVID-19 than it was at the end of last month.
“Mid to late January was pretty awful. We were at the peak of the surge and since then, things seem to getting significantly better,” Dr. Rogers told NBC 5.
According to data from the Tarrant County public health report for February 11, the county had recorded a total of 5,421 confirmed deaths from COVID-19 and a confirmed 474,929 people have recovered from the virus.