Texas COVID-19 cases are below record highs, but health experts warn that the pandemic is not over yet

Fortunately, Texas has finally seen COVID-19 hospitalizations, and after the holiday season, the number of cases is declining, characterized by a record surge that has pushed up hospital systems and healthcare professionals. To the limit..

The bad news is that more Texas people are sick and hospitalized with the coronavirus than this summer. When the nation was on the verge of the first wave..

Vaccinations reach more people every day, but health care professionals warn that this doesn’t mean Texas is out of the woods. They say people should stay vigilant and follow safety guidelines such as wearing masks and social distance, especially as new variants of the virus continue to emerge. With Super Bowl Sundae imminent, many are concerned about Superspreading events that could undo the modest advances the state has made in the past few weeks.

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“”Texas COVID-19 cases are below record highs, but health experts warn that the pandemic is not over yet“The first issue was the Texas Tribune, a non-profit, non-partisan media organization involved in Texas that provided information to Texas on public policy, politics, government, and state-wide issues.

“The fact that things are declining makes us [get] Every time we do it to relax, things really, really go back to bad, “said Cesar Arias, a professor of infectious diseases at the University of Texas Health Sciences Center in Houston.

Broadly speaking, Texas health officials say the reason for the recent decline in numbers is the surge in the state in connection with Thanksgiving and rallies from the December holiday season.But the combination Vaccines for healthcare professionals Philip Juan, director of health and welfare in Dallas County, said the decline in large-scale gatherings could also contribute to the decline.

Vaidehi Shah, senior epidemiologist in Waco-McLennan County, added that January and February usually did not see so many trips, even before the pandemic began.

Still, more than 37,000 Texas have died, and Arias said there is still a long way to go to return to normal.

“By comparison, we’re far from where we should be to be able to control this pandemic,” Arias said. “We are approaching the peak of that exposure and there are probably far more infected people than we could detect. So perhaps it is scratching the surface.”

Shah said he hopes Waco’s hospitalization pattern will continue to improve at a similar rate. By early January, COVID-19 patients had been treated in more than 30% of beds in the area, but the number has since dropped by half.

During the pandemic, Shah said the trend was an increase in cases, followed by an increase in hospitalizations and an increase in mortality.

“And when the numbers go down, the pattern is similar,” Shah said. “so [our region] A decrease in cases began to be seen about a couple of weeks ago … I really hope that the same can be seen in the number of deaths. “

Medical professionals are also worried about new things COVID-19 mutation that appeared in Texas And nationwide over the past few months. Subspecies can be more contagious, leading to another increase in future case rates and hospitalizations.

However, Arias said he hopes that the growth of the COVID-19 vaccine will help mitigate its spread. Vaccines may also work for new mutations, but Arias said there are still factors that prevent vulnerable populations, such as people of color, from receiving doses in the first place.

“At this point, I don’t think we have a very good plan to cover them yet,” Arias said. “These are most likely to occur in terms of system viruses or better-transmitting mutant viruses, so aggressive vaccination is actually the only way.”

Stephen Love, chairman of the Dallas / Fort Worth Hospital Council, said he was worried that the Super Bowl party would be another source of spread. Ai said that people are often vigilant in environments like grocery stores, but their level of attention tends to diminish in small gatherings.

“They loosen when they get home,” Love said. “I don’t think many of the spreads we saw happened in public, especially during and shortly after the holidays. It happened at home.”

Mandi Cai contributed to this report.

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This article was originally Texas Tribune so https://www.texastribune.org/2021/02/05/texas-coronavirus-cases/..

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The Texas Tribune is a member-backed, nonpartisan newsroom that informs and engages Texas people about state politics and policy. For more information, please visit texastribune.org.

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