A dramatic increase of COVID-19 cases have been seen in Williamson County over the holidays, although the uptick in deaths and hospitalizations are more modest.
Confirmed cases, which include past and current cases reported to the Williamson County and Cities Health District (WCCHD), went up by 6,975 in Williamson County in two weeks, Dec. 21-Jan. 3. With an average of more than 3,000 cases each week, the jump followed the week of Dec. 14-20’s 793 new cases and several previous weeks tallying in the 400-500 range. As of Monday, Jan. 3, WCCHD said there had been a total of 75,907 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Williamson County during the pandemic.
Quality assurance (QA) by the health district indicates past cases that need to be added or subtracted to the complete case total. For Dec. 21-Jan. 3, 11 cases were added to the cumulative total through QA.
In those two weeks, WCCHD’s toll for deaths linked to the disease went up by eight. The number stands at 755 as of Jan. 4.
Over two weeks, vaccinations increased by almost 1% with 68.9% of Williamson County residents eligible for a vaccine being fully vaccinated as of Monday, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Tracker. Approximately 78.8% of eligible residents have received the first dose of either the Moderna or Pfizer vaccines, each of which require two shots for full vaccination. When accounting for county residents not eligible for a vaccine, such as children ages 5 and younger, 64.5% of Williamson County is vaccinated.
Local hospital space for people with COVID-19 was mixed in the past couple of weeks. The health district reported 541 beds or 15% of beds for people with COVID-19 were vacant Monday, down from 634 beds and 17% two weeks earlier. In intensive care units, there were 47 beds or 10% available for COVID-19 patients as of Monday, changed from 50 beds and 8%.
For more local stats on COVID-19, visit http://www. wcchd.org/COVID-19/dashboard.php.
COVID-19 SCHOOL CASES AT A GLANCE
Taylor ISD and Hutto ISD maintain online dashboards for the community to monitor COVID-19 activity at its school campuses. Here are the campuses’ figures from Monday, Jan. 3. For the latest statistics, visit http://www.taylorisd.org for Taylor or http://www.hipponation.org for Hutto.
